Breakfast with bills II

What is the first thing that comes to your mind, when you think about breakfast?

I said the first thing, so don’t ponder to long over it. For me, always the sentence ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’ comes to my mind. Now I don’t want to argue over it, saying anything for or against it.

The second thing that comes to my mind is … eh … wait, I just asked about the first thing, so there is no point in talking about the second.

Whatsoever, there are many ways to have a great breakfast. Some, though, require going the extra mile. This for sure applies for the three things I want to show you today in my … eh … series ‘… with Bills’ which I started due to ...

Anyway, let’s have a closer look at number one: Coconut Bread:

As is mentioned in ‘Bills Sydney Food’ it is good to ‘Keep slices in the freezer for workdays when you’d rather be in the Caribbean.’ Well, to this I can only say: My freezer isn’t that big. However, I tried it as far as possible in my case.

Having breakfast alone, you’ll never need one loaf in one go. No, you even don’t need it when having breakfast with two persons. I was fine settling with two slices, leaving some to be put into the freezer for one of those days or for any day. Did I say both could be the same in my case? Nah, anyway …

You could enjoy this bread with salt-fish relish. Fine, I don’t have any and I don’t get any, but you can also enjoy it in other ways. Just some icing sugar on it is lovely. On the other hand, putting something else on it might give it that extra kick, but that I yet have to find out.

The bread contains eggs, milk, vanilla essence, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, shredded coconut and butter, just to give you an idea what to expect.

Well, I enjoyed it very much and by this I remind myself now to make one again soon for my freezer isn’t really that big. Oh, I don’t even have a real freezer, just a small freezer compartment in the fridge and since I just can’t … eh, but could … fill it all the way with coconut bread, I have to take another approach here.

So, have two slices of coconut bread and a cuppa with it. At least once I also had a Mango and Banana Sunrise Drink together with it. That’s lovely, too. It’s a mixture of orange juice, mango, banana and a bit of yoghurt. You can’t go wrong with that.

On to the next splendid breakfast. I can tell you, it’s not a light one. For that one you need peaches and … eh … although I know, I might earn myself a comment for this … eh … I will mention it nevertheless: you have to get those peaches naked …

Whatever the case, we want to do something with those peaches apart from slicing them up and putting them in a bowl with lemon juice and sugar for 30 minutes. Eh … you see, again you need some time, so you have to carefully think about it when you want to have it for breakfast.

Right, what do we want to do with those lucky peaches?

Basically, it’s French Toast Stuffed with Peaches. Well, there is additionally to some eggs, milk, cream vanilla, more sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg involved.

Bread?

Right, I especially went to the bakery next door to get some lovely white bread, although Bill said to use brioche bread. I didn’t see any at that time, but found some later … and bought it … and just ate it plain as it was. Putting things in mind together … that would have been really gorgeous using that brioche for the French Toast, although it was already great the way it was, topped with some vanilla yoghurt and maple syrup.

Definitely a wonderful start into the day, you just need to have sufficient time in the morning. After all you can’t just pull that pre-arranged French Toast thingy from your freezer – that is if you have one – as you could do with the coconut bread just mentioned above.

Along that line, just shift to something you could pull from your freezer – that is if … eh … forget it. The whole process starts somehow like this …

No, that is actually wrong, this isn’t really the start of it, it’s just the first photo I took in the course of preparing Iced Cinnamon Snail Rolls … and I already crave some. I have to come to the conclusion, this post is a tad dangerous for me. However, I also can’t stop right now. We have to go on.

At the point of the photo, we already have prepared a dough with yeast having aloud it an hour to double in size. You see, you definitely don’t want to make it fresh in the morning you want to enjoy some for breakfast.

We have brushed the dough with melted butter and sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon.

After that it’s rolling up to make a log. Guess what, then it’s time to slice the log up into thick slices to place on a baking tray and leave once more to double in size. Yes, it really takes some time with all this rising business.

You can already see where this is getting to. At one point then you have to get the heat on in your oven and … yes, bake and wait even more while the baked goods are cooling down on a rack. All this is really a job of patience, but since you will be able to fr…. eh … it will be absolutely worth it. Trust me, just this once. I know what I’m doing … do I?

For the most part they already look great, maybe apart from the second from the left in the middle row. Fine, at least we have one, we can just much away on as soon as we feel the temperature of the rolls is suitable for not hurting any parts of your mouth.

Right, don’t forget the icing consisting of icing sugar, warm water and vanilla. I really tried my best to drizzle it on.

To draw a conclusion from this … those three recipes are something lovely I would not just take for breakfast. In fact, I would be happy with any of it right now. It’s only too bad I can’t right now.

Lavender and Honey Pancakes

Around this time it should be the season for the lavender to turn Provence purple. So far I didn't have the chance to witness it myself. I was around at the wrong time of the year. Nevertheless it's very pretty around Provence. Mainly we did hiking and exploring villages and ruins.

Nature is always working at winning territory back. Somewhere around the neighbourhood here I saw even a house with a car next to it, where plants started to crawl up on the car (obviously not used recently).
However before looking around at the above shown ruin, there was a warning sign: "Dangereux ..." something. Rocks could fall on your head and snakes could bite you. None of these happened, though. Luckily! Although, my friend, I sometimes call him "Nougat" (you might know him already from one of my older posts: Chocolate Marzipan Cake), somehow attracts danger and things happen to him. But not this time.

I also very much like those villages resting gently at the slopes of the hill. Whatsoever, I have no photo with lavender for you - at least not from France.
The one in my garden, doesn't look to good either.

The lavender of the neighbours looks much much better at the moment. However, I am glad that it survived winter (-15°C), although it didn't look like that. I would never dare to give up on my plants. It's over when it's over!
Back to lavender! To a large extent, lavender in Provence is used to make perfume and soap. Apart from that, lavender is also part of the well known herbs of the Provence, together with hyssop, oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, fennel, thyme, and savory. There are many more ways to use lavender. According to my herbs encyclopaedia, it can calm you down or help against cramps when you use it in your bath. Furthermore it helps against nervousness, stomach problems, sleeping problems, headache, stress symptoms, moths (doesn't quite fit at this point, but ... whatever), and when you have problems concentrating.
For that (concentrating) briefly cook one tablespoon of lavender buds with half a litre wine and let cool down. Have a small glass of it before and after your meal. I said a small one. It's medicine, not for getting you drunk.
Well, then, you can use lavender buds also directly for cooking. That is what I wanted to do today for breakfast. The Internet planted the idea in my brain some days ago. So when I fell out of bed this morning, my first thought was: LAVENDER!
Fine!
Let's do some Lavender and Honey Pancakes.

I don't want to give you a list of ingredients, but we do it again as we go, because it is quite simple.
Have a small bowl ready (this will do for 1-2 persons). Crack one egg to it and add a pinch of salt. Fill a mug (or large cup) with flour and try to remember how much you took after you added it to your bowl.
Use the same cup and fill it to the same level with milk. Give the milk a splash of lemon juice (a good thing to do when you have no buttermilk in the house).
Add a half to a whole teaspoon of dried lavender buds (depending on taste) to your bowl, but beware, the taste can get quite strong. So if you are not sure, take less. You can add more later or next time.
After you had the milk working a bit, pour it into the bowl (including those bits that started to form). Now to complete the batter use 2-4 teaspoons of runny honey. Whisk things through well.
Then you can bake your pancakes with a drop of oil at high heat in your pan. When things dry nearly completely up at the top, you can turn your pancake. For the other side you have to guess when it's ready, but it will not be too long.

Serve it with some yogurt and extra honey and lavender buds. If you are greedy, you will eat them all alone. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. At least this is what some say.
However, that would be a different subject.
Enjoy your Lavender and Honey pancakes and maybe one day you will have the chance to see the lavender flowering in Provence.

Turkish Breakfast Bruschetta

Günaydın! Nasılsın?

We have the year 2004 and we are in Turkey. It is time for summer holiday, hanging around lazily at the beach, a tiny bit of sight seeing there, and enjoying life.

A small hotel (not a *****-star palace) at the south coast of Turkey, just between Kemer and Antalya. In the background the Taurus mountains (Toros Dağları) rise up.

Lazy? No! One man refuses. Along this line I talked my friends into a "small" walking-tour towards the canyon at Göynük. While travelling on the dolmuş (public transportation) to Kemer the other day, a sign at the side on the road had caught my eye: "Explore the canyon of Göynük" (or something like that).

Stupid enough, the others agreed to go on this tour. It should not be a too long walk. However walking around for one hour at about 40°C without any hope for shade can be quite challenging. So, at large portions of the tour, the girls complain -they can't walk anymore. But we have to make it to the canyon.

We came as far as the picture shows. OK, this pictures says nothing about it. No worries!

This, however, would have been the point where things would have started to get interesting. From here on the canyon narrowed and there were some amazing sights. The downside: You had to continue in the water. Nice! Opportunity to cool down! But, and this is now a BIG BUT, who likes to go from 40°C to -5°C? No, the water wasn't that cold, maybe +5°C. Really? OK, let's say +10°C. We might have been a bit wimpy. Let's say it was cold, too cold to bear it for too long.

That would be the end then ... of this trip. Still, we had to get back. Again one hour of walking through the heat, when already the girls can't walk anymore. The result then was that after a little bit later on the way back they refused to go on - not possible anymore.

The solution: we had to hitch-hike. On the back of a truck together with a load of carob pods we got back to the village.

Here then, what miracle, the girls were ready to go shopping (yes, walking around) for four hours (about that time) at the local bazaar.

Whatsoever! Why do I tell you all this? During this holiday we most of the time used to have Turkish white bread or flatbread with tomatoes (they had enough real sun) and sheep's milk cheese.

Back in the year 2012!

I just raided my local Turkish shop and got some nice Turkish white bread, sheep's milk cheese and ...

Let's make Turkish Breakfast Bruschetta then. Right! What? Yes, that is true bruscetta is an Italian antipasti. Nevertheless, I like to call it that way, because I adjusted things so it is a little bit like bruscetta. And, of course, you don't have to eat it for breakfast, only. Things need to have names, though. How do you like "White bread with tomato and sheep's milk cheese"? Yes, that's the point.

We rather should go on with assembling it then.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add some finely sliced garlic to flavour the oil a bit (if you don't want to smell garlicky afterwards, think twice). You can remove it after a while or not. Just make sure, you don't have black garlic on your bread later on. Speaking of it, you brown the bread a bit in the oil (hm, strange, why use WHITE bread if you BROWN it? no worries).

The remaining part is just putting things together. Get the bread on a plate (or on whatever) and load it with some sliced tomatoes, season with pepper (and salt if you have to, remembering, though, that the cheese got some salt from the brine already), put enough slices of the sheep's milk cheese on (don't be shy). It would be good to have 60% fat cheese (don't be afraid). You know, more fat usually tastes better. Anyway, it's more creamy. 

Finish your bruschetta with some chopped mint leaves on top.

You might enjoy it together with some çay (Turkish tea). That is if you happen to have a çaydanlık handy and some loose tea.

Iyi günler!

Breakfast at Brixton

"This is a Victoria line train to Brixton." Quite a few times I have heard this on the tube, but not made it that far. Recently, though, I stayed a few days in Brixton.

Somehow it seemed there is market every day. Why shouldn't it be. Brixton market and Brixton Village is especially build for that. Therefore if you want to go for food shopping - that is the right place. I didn't though, because I was not cooking on my visit - what a shame!
One day I went shopping to a supermarket. It was earlyish in the morning, even before most other places open. Well, I had kind of breakfast with bread and cheddar cheese, which I assembled then loosely on the way. Then there was this Cadbury Cream Egg ice cream. I simply couldn't resist, don't know why. Ice cream for breakfast - great - is was very very sweet.
You can go for English breakfast early in the morning as well. I forget, though the place I tried on one morning.
Another place you could go for breakfast is "seven at brixton". It is a tapas and cocktail bar at Brixton market, but you can get a coffee in the morning, and, well, of course breakfast.

The coffee was first. I thought I could have a cappuccino. The menu card itself wasn't in such a good shape anymore, but who cares.
I decided to go for a chorizo omelet, which I enjoyed very much with some Tabasco.

The picture might not be the best, but you get an impression. Some rocket on the side, well, I like that as well.

All in all I can say, after this hearty breakfast I was ready for the day and some more exploration.
What other nice place is there in Brixton to go for breakfast. I don't know so much. I always left the house so early and didn't have too many days to try.

Rosie's deli cafe is also very nice. Maybe Rosie herself is in. She is a nice and friendly person as well. You may even like to get her cookbook right there. The opening times, however, in my case were too late for breakfast. So I just went for a good coffee and some delicious cake. Just thinking about it makes me wanting another piece of it. It was so creamy and tasty (it also convinced me of getting Rosie's second cookbook - it's a good one). If I wasn't just passing through, I for sure would have tried some more things from the deli.
This nice little cafe has a good atmosphere and if you take the table near the bookshelf, you have plenty to leaf through and read.
For sure there are many more interesting and delicious places around Brixton. If you have any recommendations, let me or us know.
You never know if you don't go ...