Category: bacon

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bacon bread egg food mushroom

fry up in a cup

fry up in a cup easy breakfast

I do love a full English, but obviously isn’t something you can indulge in too often, so here’s another way to get your bacon-mushroom-toast-egg fix. You just need some little ramekins, darioles or if you’re not middle-class, teacups. I call it a fry-up-in-a-cup!

The mushrooms and bacon require a tiny bit of pre-cooking to get them started, but after that you stuff everything into a cup and bake it. Bread at the bottom forms a little base, and bacon creates a wall around the outside. Should take less than 20 minutes start to finish, and half of that is just leaving it in the pot to bake.

This would also be a good one to wrap up and take with you. If you bake the egg a little over the whole thing should go solid, leaving you with the most savoury of ‘muffins’.

You could make a few interesting substitutions here I bet – a small layer of baked beans would be interesting (despite being my least favourite food), and a pinch of  oregano or paprika would take it into another direction. Give it a whirl!

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fry up in a cup

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 slice of bread
  • 4 rashers smoked bacon
  • 4 chestnut mushrooms diced
  • 2 eggs

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180C, and put a frying pan over a medium heat.
  • Add the bacon to the pan and cook gently until just starting to colour. Remove and pop the mushrooms in instead.
  • While the mushrooms cook down, using a pastry cutter or an upturned glass cut out discs of bread to put in the bottom of your moulds. Bend the rashers around the inside of the mould to form the wall of your breakfasty pot. Season the mushrooms and add to the bread. Crack an egg on top and bake for 7 - 10 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking. Either eat out of the cup or scoop out if you dare.

Want some more alternative breakfasts? Try one of these…

CakeyBoi’s Elvis Breakfast Muffins are hilarious. I love ’em.

Or for something perhaps a little more healthsome may I suggest vegan breakfast pancakes?

These Scottish Tattie Scones will work alongside any cooked breakfast. And, y’know, potatoes.

Let’s BAM it up a notch, with Kavey’s bacon pancakes.

And finally here’s a stunner: Helen’s Full English Tarte Tatin. Brilliant stuff.

Categories
bacon brussels sprouts chicken cream food potatoes red onion

parmesan chicken with potato and sprout gratin

Yes! It’s sprout season again. Please don’t just boil them and leave them alone, there’s so much more to the little farty ball. Like here, a Brussels Sprout gratin baked with potatoes and cream for a great side dish.

There’s a video version of the gratin on my YouTube channel here:

I was chuffed with how everything turned out save for one flaw. To quote Michel Roux Jr “where’s the sauce?!” It needed a meaty gravy just to lend a little more moisture. But beyond that, it was dead good. A sprout is for Winter, not just Christmas.

Want more Brussels Sprout recipes? My Christmas dinner isn’t complete without sprouts and chestnuts, and you must check out my legendary sproutotto.

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parmesan chicken with potato and sprout gratin

Course Side Dish
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 g potatoes
  • 250 g Brussels Sprouts
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 1 red onion
  • 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
  • 150 ml single cream
  • teaspoon wholegrain mustard heaped
  • 2 skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2 handfuls panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 handful parmesan finely grated

Instructions

  • Get a large pan of water on to boil and preheat the oven to 200C.
  • Use a food processor to thinly slice the potatoes, and add them to the water with the stock cube. After 5 minutes pass the Brussels through the processor too and add to the water.
  • Heat a casserole dish over a medium heat. Thinly slice the onion and bacon and fry in a little oil in the dish until starting to colour. After the sprouts and potatoes have had 3 or 4 more minutes drain and add to the casserole dish. Stir well, season, pour in the cream, stir in the mustard and then transfer to the oven to cook uncovered for 15 minutes, until golden on top.
  • Meanwhile heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Bash the chicken breasts with a rolling pin until thin and season. Dust lightly in flour, roll in beaten egg and then in the parmesan and breadcrumbs. Fry in shallow oil on both sides until golden. To be sure use a probe thermometer checking it reaches at least 65C inside. Serve on top of the gratin.
Categories
bacon broccoli egg parmesan tomato

bbt tortilla

What a great year it’s been for tomatoes. The plants in my garden have been raving with fruit, and they’ve been bursting with sweetness. A really bumper crop. Most of them have ended up in pasta sauce and pizza topping but these ones were deserving of a little more.

And so I happened across a recipe for a “BLT tortilla” in the SORTED cookbook but didn’t fancy rocket in mine, so some frozen broccoli jumped in instead. Coupled with refreshing, sweet tomatoes what you get is a portable and tasty lunch that’d be great in a picnic or easily upgraded to main meal status with a decent salad.

BBT tortilla (serves 4 – 6):

6 rashers smoked bacon, diced

About 12 frozen broccoli florets

8 eggs

A couple of handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A handful of grated parmesan

  1. Get a frying pan over a high heat and preheat the oven to 180°C. Add a dash of oil to the pan and fry the bacon briskly until coloured, and then add the broccoli. Stir fry until the broccoli has started to soften.
  2. Mix the eggs in a bowl with the parmesan, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Pour this and the tomatoes into the pan, and take this opportunity to space the veg around the pan evenly. When that’s done transfer to the oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the wobble has just gone. Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out and serving.
Categories
bacon food mayonnaise onion potatoes

garlic and bacon potato gratin

We get through buckets of mayonnaise in this house. I kinda like it – particularly with store-bought pizza for reasons I don’t understand – but the rest of the family demolish it. If my son was asked the legendary question: “you’re handed a sausage sandwich. Will it be red sauce, brown sauce, or no sauce at all?” he’d reply mayonnaise in a heartbeat.

So to receive some samples from Hellman’s of their flavoured mayonnaises was set upon by the family quite quickly. First the packaging – there’s much made on TV of their no-mess resealing cap. And sure enough it works a treat. As long as you don’t mind sacrificing a third of the bottle. By the time you work your way down there the rest refuses to come out. I took a knife to it to free the captive condiment. But what about the taste?

There was a black pepper one which I found nice and prickly, and worked really well in a ham salad wrap. But the garlic one was disappointing – slightly tangy but not flavoured with garlic at all. So that’s why it ended up in this gratin.

This type of recipe works great as a side dish, or can be had with a simple salad on the side.

Garlic and potato gratin (serves 2):

5 – 6 medium sized floury potatoes, cut into thick coins. Peeling optional

1 onion, sliced (I used frozen ready-sliced onions)

2 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped

5 tablespoons garlic mayonnaise

Milk

A little grated parmesan

  1. Preheat the grill to high. Get a large pan of salted water on to boil and add the potatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes or until just tender.
  2. While the potatoes cook, fry the onions and bacon in a pan with a little oil until the bacon has coloured and onions softening.
  3. Drain the potatoes and add to the onion and bacon pan, seasoning as you go. In a shallow dish mix the mayonnaise with a little milk until you get a creamy dressing, and then stir the onion, bacon and potatoes through it until well coated. Grate a little parmesan over the top and put under the grill until golden.
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