ICEBERG DEAD AHEAD!!

The poor old Iceberg lettuce is a pretty unfashionable leaf these days, but the Americans still have a lot of love for it, particularly when it’s served in big old wedges and drenched in blue cheese dressing. This twist on the American Classic uses a local Californian goat cheese called Humbolt Fog, which is lovely and creamy, and has a blue-ish tang to it. Paired with some applewood smoked bacon candied in maple syrup, and a few thinly sliced red onions, it’s pretty much the perfect starter. It’s pretty easy to throw together too. Lets begin.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 large iceberg lettuce

200g Humbolt Fog, or your favourite mild blue cheese

300g Buttermilk, or sour cream

Juice of 1/4 – 1/2 of lemon, to taste

1 teaspoon Tabasco

Salt and pepper, to taste

4 rashers of thick cut streaky bacon

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced

Method

First up, make the dressing. It seems to taste better when it has a bit of time for all the ingredients to get friendly.  Pour the buttermilk (or sour cream) into a bowl, and crumble the cheese into it in small chunks. Then with a fork, give it a quick whisk to mix and break down the cheese a bit more, but don’t over do it, you want your dressing to have a bit of texture. Next add the Tabasco, lemon juice and seasoning and give it a taste. It should be creamy with some bite from the cheese, and a bit of heat from the pepper sauce.

Next, prep the bacon. Dry fry the rashers in a hot pan on both sides until it’s got some good colour and caramelisation, then pour off the excess fat. Turn the heat down, pour in the maple syrup, and toss the bacon in it until it’s all nicely coated and shiny. Remove the rashers from the pan to cool.

You’re now ready to prep your veg. Slice your red onion as thinly as you can, use a mandolin if you’ve got one, and then sprinkle with a little salt. This helps mellow them out and soften them up a bit. Then take your iceberg. Peel off any ugly outer leaves, chop into 4 equal quarters, and remove the heaviest part of the stalk from each wedge.

Place a wedge on each plate, scatter a few onions on top of it and then generously spoon over the dressing. Finish with a chopped rasher of the maple bacon per serving. Then eat.

But necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I’ve been having to find new ways to entertain my taste buds. This refreshing smoothie is a result of this experimentation, and proof that every cloud has a silver lining.

The grapefruit juice gives a slightly bitter but pleasant aftertaste, and the mint keeps it fresh. I like it cold too, so I’ll put the fruit in the fridge for a few hours / overnight before I make it.

Ingredients

2 ripe nectarines, stoned and quartered

100g blackberries, washed

10 mint leaves

150ml fresh grapefruit juice

1/2 tablespoon maple syrup

Method

Take your fruit out of the fridge. Stone, quarter and chop the nectarine into chunks. Drop them into a bowl, large high sided beaker or blender along with the washed the blackberries.

Rip 10 or so leaves off a bunch of mint, and add these to the fruit then pour in the grapefruit juice and maple syrup. You don’t have to add the syrup, but without it, the juice can be a bit tart.

Now mix the hell out of it with a hand blender until smooth.

Pour into glasses and get it down your neck.

Photo by Cafe Darclee

It’s Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake day. Traditionally a time to get rid of sugar, fat and eggs before fasting for Lent, it’s now a bit of a treat in the culinary calendar.

Pancakes are ridiculously easy and quick to prepare, and once you’ve got them made, you can stick pretty much anything you fancy in them.

This recipe employs the five 1s formula.

Ingredients

1 egg, preferably free-range or organic

1 cup of self-raising flour

1 cup of milk

1 pinch of salt

1 nob of butter (melted, around 20g)

Method

Whisk together the egg, flour and milk in a bowl, melt the butter in a pan and then beat into the mix removing any lumps.

Some people say its good to set aside the batter for half an hour or so before you attempt making any pancakes, I’m not sure if makes that much difference, but it doesn’t do any harm, so why not give it a go.

Heat up your frying pan and using a piece of kitchen towel with a nob of butter on it lightly coat the pan. When it’s good and hot, ladle in enough batter to thinly coat the pan’s base. Pick up the pan and tip from side to side to ensure it’s coated evenly. Once one side is just turning golden brown, either toss it or flip it over with a fish slice to cook the other side.

At this point you can add some fillings. We had our savoury pancakes this year with Emmental cheese and smoked ham. Place thin slices of Emmental on half of the pancake’s base, top with the sliced ham and then fold in half. Serve with a mixed salad with a Dijon mustard dressing.

For the sweet ones we had the classic lemon and sugar, still a favourite, and also tried a more American style filling of banana, crunchy peanut butter and maple syrup, which I’ve got to say was super tasty.

Roll on next year.

Anyway, breakfast fast became our favourite meal of the day, and right here are out top four breakfasts from the trip.

Huevos Rancheros – literally ‘eggs ranch style’. Mexican style eggs (in this case scrambled with ham) served up on flour tortillas smothered in spicy tomato sauce, topped with black beans and avocado, with a side of home fries. Ay carrumba

Huevos Rancheros at The Crepevine, San Francisco

Hash & Eggs – despite the name, probably the poshest breakfast of the trip, but totally amazing. Spring onion, bacon and potato hash topped with a couple of poached eggs. The breakfast of champions.

Hash & Eggs at Rose's Cafe, San Francisco

Granola Waffles – I’m not a massive fan of majorly sweet stuff for breakfast, but these were insane. They were part of the make your own breakfast buffet at the place we stayed at in The Big Sur. When making the waffles you toss in a handful of the home made granola. Proper ying and yang business.

Granola Waffles with Banana, Nectarine and Maple at Treebones, Big Sur

Cornbread Egg Muffin – I know this looks like some kind of Scotch Egg disaster (not that there’s anything wrong with a Scotch Egg), but these took us by surprise. A slightly sweetened corn bread muffin, a touch of chili and a boiled egg in the middle. Awesometown.

Cornbread & Egg Muffin at Sweetcakes, Chicago