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.

There are few things in life that lift my spirits in a morning like a bacon sarnie does. Hungover, or not, that combination of salty, smoky bacon, bread, butter and whatever condiment takes your fancy is hard to beat. Fruit salad, muesli, granola, porridge, whilst all lovely in their own way, are always going to take second place.

The fine example above is the Old Spot bacon sandwich at St John Bread & Wine, which really is a thing of beauty. Thick cut bacon, yielding, lightly griddled white bread with a toothsome crust, butter and a generous helping of home made tomato ketchup on the side. As they say on their site, it truly is the Bacon Sandwich of your nocturnal fantasies.

But I’m not a butty elitist. In many ways I’m just as happy scarfing down some greasy spoon bacon slapped between a couple of slices of Sunblest. However you get your fix, it’s a breakfast that always feels like a bit of a treat, as opposed to just a way to start the day.

Truly one of life’s simple pleasures.

One of the other dishes I was thinking about for the previous post was this omelette for two. I thought it could work quite well in that it combines seaside ingredients with the romantic nature of Lou and Liam’s retreat. However, fish for brekkie isn’t to everyone’s tastes, so this is the kind of dish you can enjoy at any time of the day.

There’s only one mackerel fillet in the mix so the flavour isn’t too strong, and  I use a bit of zero fat Greek yoghurt in the eggs to help keep the omelette moist in the middle. The little bit of  sharpness the yoghurt gives also works well with the oily fish.

Ingredients

4 large free range eggs

2 tablespoons 0% fat Greek yoghurt

1 mackerel fillet (around 70g)

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Handful of grated Parmesan

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil and butter for frying.

Method

First up, get your grill on full and then put a frying pan on the heat. When it’s really good and hot, pop in your mackerel. Fry it for about a minute or so on each side. This gets some of the oil out of the fish, but also brings out it’s flavour and makes it easy to flake. I also like the tasty brown caremelised crust it makes on the outside.

When done, set aside the mackerel, wipe down the pan with some kitchen paper to get rid of the excess fish oil. Then turn down the heat, add a little olive oil and then gently fry off the onion. You want it translucent as opposed to brown, and when it is, set aside with the mackerel.

Next crack your eggs into a bowl, season with a small pinch of salt, and a good few grindings of black pepper. Mix in the yoghurt to the eggs, and whisk thoroughly getting rid of the lumps. Now add the Parmesan, onion, chopped chives and parsley to the eggs. Flake the mackerel fillet in too, and then mix together.

Get 20 cm diameter  frying pan on the heat (a different one to the one you fried your fish in preferably). When it’s nice and hot, add a nob of butter, coat the inside of the pan and then add the egg mixture. Leave for a minute or so, and then go around the outside of the pan with a spatula to make sure it’s not sticking.

You want the base of the omelette to be golden brown before transferring to the oven to brown the top, keep checking by turning up the edge with the spatula. When ready, slide into the oven.

As the top of the omelette is cooking, it will puff up as it browns. This will happen at the edges first, and then work it’s way into the centre of the pan. You want the omelette to be moist, so pretty much as soon at the centre is brown, whip it out of the oven and turn it out onto a plate.

Serve with a peppery salad of rocket, chard and thinly sliced radishes with a lemon, dijon mustard and olive oil dressing.

Give it a try.