Chinese Tomato Scrambled Eggs

As a child I did not like scrambled eggs until one day a friend showed me how delicious they could be with a good squirt of tomato ketchup stirred through. I enjoyed my eggs like this for a few years until i grew out of the need for everything to have a sugar kick for it to be worth eating.

Many years later on a 48 hour train journey to Tibet from Chengdu in China my enjoyment of the incredible views was interrupted by a flash back to munching down those ketchup covered eggs.

While savouring the ever more incredible scenery, we were getting rather tired of scrabble and the snacks we had brought with us so we ventured through a couple of carriages to try out the on board restaurant. It was around brunch time so Rachel ordered the tomato eggs. When they arrived, a bowl of scrambled eggs with chopped tomatoes and lovely Asian juices we tucked in, rather awkwardly with chop sticks, and there was that taste again. This time though there was SO much more, the ginger, chili and soy sauce adding an intense Asian zing but there was still the added sweetness that defined my ketchup eggs.

These are great for an alternative breakfast, light meal or as a side dish as part of a Chinese feast.
 

Ingredients, for 2 servings -

5 large free range eggs
Tsp of dried chili flakes (optional)

Sunflower or other flavourless oil

2-3 spring onions, chopped, reserve the chopped green leaves, from the upper third
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
Approx 8 cherry tomatoes, quartered (or two medium tomatoes, chopped)
Tsp sugar
Tsp soy sauce

Sliced red chili for serving, along with the green part of spring onions, above.

• Beat the eggs with some chili flakes, if using, and add a little salt.
• Heat a tbsp of the oil in a wok until hot, add the eggs and scramble until nearly done, remove to a plate.
• Clean the wok, add 2 tbsp of oil and heat until hot.
• Add the spring onion, tomatoes, ginger and sugar, stir fry for a few minutes until fragrant and tomatoes are softening.
• Add the splash of soy sauce and continue to toss together for another minute.
• Add back in the eggs and toss to combine, cooking for another minute to finish the eggs off.
• Serve immediately (over some stir fried pak choi perhaps) with a sprinkling of chili slices and the reserved, chopped green part of the spring onions.

Campervan Breakfasts and Getting Engaged!

Last month we set off for a hippy holiday up in Scotland - We had booked a 1971 VW Campervan, 'Herbie', for a week and had planned a route heading North from Inverness up the coast to get the ferry across to the Orkney Islands before returning to explore the far North West corner of Scotland.

This is a review of the trip and the amazing breakfasts that we enjoyed, simply cooked on our campervan hob!

Our holiday started with a flight to Edinburgh where we were to spend the most luxurious night of our trip before continuing up to Inverness to pick up Herbie. I'd booked us in for lunch at the Castle Terrace restaurant which has just received its first Michelin Star and we were spoilt with perhaps the best meal of our lives, anyone visiting the city should visit this place especially for the incredible value taster lunch.

At the guest house the following morning we were provided with the traditional (for tourists...) Scottish breakfast of haggis and black pudding along with the usual fried breakfast staples commonly served south of the border. But, most importantly, before this we were also presented a little belly warmer, an awakener for the stomach, before the main greasy fry up course - Porridge with a tot of Scottish whisky poured over the top - delicious!!

After breakfast we boarded the train to Inverness to pick up Herbie, our beautiful, head turning home on wheels for the next 7 nights. We made a stop for food supplies and a short but successful dolphin spotting trip off Chanonry Point before stopping in Dornoch for the night.

We awoke excited to cook up our first breakfast on the hob (which while not in use is stored underneath the passenger's seat...) and made the splendid decision to drive a few minutes to the car park overlooking the beautiful Dornoch beach. For our first breakfast we decided on some smoked salmon served on fresh crusty bread and topped with scrambled eggs and peppered mushrooms. The secret to scrambled eggs is plenty of butter, a small amount of milk and to not over cook them.

Scrambled eggs for 2 people-

4 large fresh free range eggs
A small splash of milk / cream
Dried chili flakes, to taste
A little freshly ground black pepper
A generous amount of freshly ground sea salt.
A large knob of butter

• Crack the eggs into a large mug and whisk, add the milk, chili flakes, salt and pepper and continue to whisk until well combined.
• Warm a pan over a medium to high heat, add the butter and allow to melt and start to sizzle.  
• Whisk the egg mixture again briefly then add to the pan
• Allow to sit until you can see the eggs firming around the edges, then gently stir around and break up any bits that are becoming solid. 
• Repeat
• The whole process should take around 4 minutes, so if you're going too quick turn the heat down.
• Serve immediately to stop the eggs continuing to cook in the pan. 

After breakfast we continued North and finally arrived in Scrabster for our evening ferry over to Orkney. Driving off the ferry late in the evening we luckily caught the end of the annual folk festival and had a great time partying with the locals. Stumbling back to the campsite at 2am we were surprised that we didn't need our torch, the sun apparently doesn't set properly that far north in the summer!

  
The next day was a big day - Rach was turning 30 (shhhh....) and also little known to her she was just a few hours away from being proposed to!

So with this in mind it was important to start the day with something filling and tasty!

We went for a Mexican breakfast of refried beans (from a can, but you can make them taste better if you fry an onion and some fresh chili until soft first and then scoop the contents of the can in on top and warm through), fried eggs (two for boys and one for girls / 3 for Robin and two for Rachel), freshly made Guacamole and Rachel's 'pico da gallo'.

Recipe for Pico De Gallo -

Ingredients -

Half a red onion, sliced
2 green chillis, deseeded and chopped
3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
lots of fresh coriander, chopped
squeeze of lime juice

• Mix all together in a bowl and squeeze lime over top, serve the salsa as a side dish with any Mexican dish.

After breakfast we hit the road and as the nerves built in my stomach i started to regret having such a spicy breakfast. The plan was to get to a small island off the coast of mainland Orkney, only accessible by foot and for just 3 hours a day when the tidal causeway reveals itself.

We arrived at the crossing point for The Brough Of Birsay and popped open a bottle of champagne, had a glass (jeez i needed that my legs had started to feel wobbly...) and headed off towards the causeway. Just as we were about to cross it started spitting with rain, Rach wanted to go back to the van for a bit but i was having none of it, 'there is no going back now...'

The actual moment was perfect, but perhaps a little unconventional. I was still struggling with a recent injury to my 'good knee' so was a little worried about getting down on one of my rickety knees and toppling over and off the cliff edge. So instead I decided to go for a more stable seat on the floor behind Rachel and whispered the question into her ear. Rach doesn't like people looking at her when she receives presents, she must have had some particularly horrific birthday / Christmas presents in the past and she is completely incapable of lying with her facial expressions, so this position probably worked quite well for her. I needn't have worried too much though as when she turned around to look at me and say yes i knew instantly she loved her present and me!!

The morning after the emotional day before we were up very early, still in a bit of a daze, and off to get another ferry, this time farther north to the Orkney island of Westray. No time to cook breakfast, we settled for bacon sandwiches and instant coffee on the ferry crossing while starting our first bit of 'wedmin' (wedding-administration for the guys) - the potential guest list. Westray was beautiful, as all of Orkney is, we saw puffins and then enjoyed a long leisurely barbecue complete with melted marshmallow pudding while being watched by some seals in the sea nearby.

We were on Westray for just 24 hours so were up early the next day for the ferry back to the mainland and again enjoyed the bacon sandwiches from the ferry canteen for breakfast. Our last few hours on Orkney were spent exploring the south islands and visiting the Highland Park whisky distillery. Another ferry later we were back in Scrabster and had a few hours to get across the top of the North coast to our next destination, Durness.

After 3 days on the tiny Orkney Islands i didn't appreciate how difficult it might be to get petrol in the remote north of Scotland and instead of heading the 5 miles back to town to give Herbie his dinner we pushed on confident that there would be plenty of petrol stations en route. To be fair, there were a couple, but they were shut, petrol stations shut at 5pm up there, or when they run out of petrol, and there was no chance of us getting all the way to Durness on the amount of fuel we had in the tank. After a few worryingly steep hills seemed to have evaporated the last of the petrol from Herbie's tank we managed to roll into the small town of Tongue where we knew we had to stop for the night, they had a petrol station so all we had to do was find a place to pull up, enjoy the scenery and wait for the morning when we could fill Herbie up for the rest of the trip. The pressure of the last couple of hours must have got to us and we had an almighty falling out over directions we received from a local gentleman about how to get to a spot by the Loch to stop for the night, i pushed on trusting my instincts, ignoring the evil stares from the passenger seat - 'i knew best'...

We did in the end find a nice spot to stop, whether or not it was the one we were directed to i think it's best we never find out. This was our first argument as an engaged couple, at this point i hadn't realised that all i needed to say now that she has a ring on her finger is 'have you got something on your hand love' and the evil Rachel disappears as she looks down to see her sparkling present and is transported back to The Brough of Birsay and that magical moment. 

The next morning we woke up with belly's as empty as Herbie's petrol tank so pulled out all the food we had left to make a big meal to enjoy on the old ramshackle pier we had stopped next to the night before.

The ingredients we found were - 

Half a chorizo ring
A can of chopped tomatoes
An onion
A handful of mushrooms
2 chili's
4 large free range eggs
Fresh crusty bread

• So we decided to make a tomato sauce by frying the chopped chorizo and chilis with the sliced onion and mushrooms for approx 5 mins and then pouring in the canned chopped tomatoes.

• Bring this to the boil and taste, season with salt and pepper and add a couple of pinches of sugar.

• Allow to simmer, make a small indent in the sauce with a spoon and crack an egg directly in, repeat with the other eggs, evenly distributing around the pan.

• Keep simmering and put the lid on allowing the eggs to cook until starting to firm but with a runny yolk.

• Serve straight from the pan with buttered crusty bread

On our penultimate morning we were using up the last ingredients before the end of the trip and made great use of the remaining smoked cheddar to make some delicious breakfast sandwiches with one final taste of Orkney -


Smoked Bacon, 8 rashers / 1 pack
Smoked Orkney Cheddar
2 fried fresh free range eggs
2 soft barm cakes / baps / rolls
Tabasco style chili sauce

• Fry the bacon on one side until just crispy, turn over and top with a thin slice of cheddar and cook until crispy on the other side and the cheese is slightly melted.

• Cut rolls in half and add the bacon.

• Fry the eggs, making sure to leave a lovely runny yolk

• Splash on a little chili sauce / tabasco and enjoy.

• Wipe chin....

Back to Inverness and preparing for the LONG train journey all the way back down to London, without changing trains, we decided to save breakfast for when we were settled into our carriage seats and stopped by a local supermarket to pick up some croissants etc. Being back in a city, even one as small as Inverness, was enough of a shock to the system after a week in the most deserted corner of the UK but we nearly jumped back in Herbie and headed back for the highlands after using the toilets in the Inverness Morrisons, i was confused to be in a room lit only by ultra violet light until someone explained that it was probably to stop heroin use in the toilets as this light makes it impossible to find your veins...

Not the perfect ending to the trip but a most amazing and memorable trip all the same, we'll definitely do it again.


Also - we cannot recommend the campervan hire company enough, an incredible holiday and many thanks to Neil and Happy Highland Campers for renting, no sharing Herbie with us for the week and being so helpful!



NB. - Serve all campervan breakfasts with messy 'bed head' hair and some strong fresh coffee!

Blueberry Breakfast Pancakes

Us Brits haven't really embraced the simple yet delectable pancake as much as other nations.

We make a song and dance one day a year on shrove tuesday and, as our ancestors have done before us, we wolf down as many as we can stomach. This was typically as a celebration or preparation before the traditional fasting of lent but now mostly just another excuse for glutiny!

Elsewhere the annual pancake ration is not exhausted in one night of over indulgence and they are even enjoyed at different times of the day. In America for example they will often use the base ingredients to make smaller, fatter pancakes which have the density to carry other ingredients, in this case blueberries, and they are then smothered in a generous drizzling of syrup for a sweet and filling breakfast.

Ingredients for 10 pancakes / 2 generous servings - 

200g Self Raising Flour

Tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

1 Egg

300ml Semi Skimmed Milk

Butter, large knob, melted, and more for cooking

100g Blueberries

To Serve

50g Blueberries

Honey or Golden / Maple Syrup

Creme Fraiche / Yogurt

• Combine flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. 
• Beat the egg into the milk and then slowly whisk this into the bowl to create a smooth batter. 
• Beat in the melted butter, and gently mix through the 100g of blueberries.
• Heat another knob of butter in your largest non-stick frying pan, until sizzling.
• Add a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 3 inches in diameter. Make a few pancakes at the same time depending on the size of your pan. 
• Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake,indicating it is done on the other side, flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes until golden on both sides. 
• Keep cooked pancakes covered until you've made them all and then serve 5 stacked on top of each other drizzled with honey / syrup, a good dollop of yogurt and the rest of the blueberries sprinkled over.

Avocado On Toast

This is a great light breakfast, we were first served it sat on a beach in Sir Lanka it's so tasty and simple. It's also filling enough to keep the stomach from rumbling until lunch.

Add a little of your favourite chilli sauce, we've got a super hot bottle of scotch bonnet 'scorchio' sauce by the fat man chilli company, to get the blood pumping and serve with a big cup of coffee.

Now you're ready to start your day!

Ingredients for 2 servings-

Ciabatta or panini, halved and toasted

2 ripe avocados

Juice of half a lime

Freshly ground black pepper

Grated mature cheddar cheese

Your favourite hot chilli sauce

• Cut avocados in half, remove stone and then chop the halves in half again length ways. Use a knife to scoop out the flesh and then roughly chop in a bowl.
• Squeeze in the lime and add a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, mix everything together and mash very lightly with the back of a fork. you still want it quite chunky
• Spoon the avocado onto the panini halves and top with cheddar
• Dot with your favourite chilli sauce

The Breakfast Burrito

This is a simple one and our tasty alternative to the English cooked breakfast

I made it on New Years Eve morning to help us recover from the New Years Eve Eve drinking and to line our stomachs for the drinking ahead. It must have done the trick as we were out partying until 4am, quite impressive from a couple with a usual bed time of 10.15pm... 

The Mrs is half Mexican and although the breakfast burrito probably isn't very authentic, more tex mex, the guacemole is something she has an instinctive ability to be able to do, like birds flying or fish swimming... Therefore the ingredients are quite approximate and more of a guide as she makes it up as she goes along...
 

 

To make 2 burritos -

2 Large Flour Tortillas
215g can of Refried Beans
Mature Cheddar, grated

Handful of sliced Jalapenos

3 Large Eggs
Small Splash of Milk
Dried Chilli Flakes, to taste
Generous amount of Salt and Pepper

Large Nob of Butter 

 

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Spread half of the refried beans across the middle of each tortilla, then split the cheese and sprinkle on top along with the jalapenos
• Place each tortilla on a large piece of tin foil, gather the foil and fold at the top to seal.
• Cook in the oven for approx 12 minutes until the cheese has melted and the beans are warmed through, the top edges of the tortilla should be nice and crispy
• While the tortillas are in the oven prepare your eggs. Add the eggs, milk, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to a mixing jug and use a fork to combine. Add the butter to a pan and heat on high, when the butter is bubbling add your eggs and leave for a few seconds until starting to set then stir. Repeat the process until the eggs have just started to firm up and no liquid consistency is left. Don't overcook!
• Take the tortillas out of the oven and add the eggs to the top. If you can roll into a burrito shape or serve them as they are, this isn't the prettiest dish but it is one of the tastiest

Serve topped with soured cream, extra chilli sauce if you like it even hotter, and a good amount of authentic guacemole (see below) 

Rachel's Guacamole

Ingredients - 

3 Ripe Avocados, 

1/2 Red Onion or two Spring Onions, finely chopped

8 Cherry Tomatoes, quartered

1/2 Lime, juice only

Tbsp Fresh Coriander, chopped

Approx 1 Red Chilli, finely chopped

Salt and Pepper

• Cut avocados in half, remove seed and scoop out avocado from the peel into a mixing bowl.
• Use a fork to mash the avocado, then add the onion, lime, coriander and chilli. Give everything a good mix. Add the tomatoes, mix again and then season to taste with salt and pepper