Breakfast or Brunch

It's been ages since the Handymand and I have made time for a proper cooked breakfast, but by gaining an extra hour yesterday we decided the time was ripe.

It coincided with the last of the Holly Grove tomatoes and a recent trip to our local butcher resulting in bacon, sausage and free range eggs.  Though the kitchen is in upheaval (more of that to follow in a future post) we made a space to sit down and enjoy our brunch.

Not the healthiest of breakfasts but once in a while a real treat!

Blackberries and Tomatoes?

This time of the year I'm running to try and keep up with all the produce from the garden and hedgerows around our plot, and trying to find recipes to use up the various gluts that we benefit from, tomatoes being the current crop of the moment.

Yesterday I spent just a few minutes in the garden and came back to the kitchen with a strange concoction in my trug...huge blackberries from our thornless plant (a real boon as I can gather the fruits without getting by arms scratched to bits), lots of lovely tomatoes and a solitary courgette...now how to use these offerings...


The blackberries were easy, I'd make an apple and blackberry crumble, just needed to get a few apples from the tree in the garden, a little underripe but sharp flavoured and delicious in a crumble. Now for the tomatoes; I had already taken some chicken thighs from the freezer earlier in the day and I had a paprika sausage in the fridge crying out to be used, so Spanish Chicken it had to be...


Spanish Chicken with Tomato
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
1/4 tsp pimenton or smoked paprika
100g Mangalika Hungarian paprika sausage, thickly sliced
(you could use any chorizo type sausage)
4 large chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
200g cherry tomatoes or larger tomatoes halved or quartered

Method
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Gently cook for 3 minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add the paprika sausage and the pimenton to the onion and cook together for another 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and sausage mixture from the pan and set aside. Add the chicken pieces to the oil in the pan and fry until browned; this should only take a few minutes.

Place the chicken in a shallow ovenproof dish, cover with the onion and sausage mix and then place the tomatoes on top. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and bake at 180C for about 25-30 minutes ensuring that the chicken pieces are cooked. The tomatoes should be soft but not mushy. Serve with plain boiled rice and a green salad.

Note: I don't have a photo of the finished dish as it smelt so lovely we couldn't wait to taste it.

Bangers and Mash

Comfort food comes in no better form than a well cooked sausage, or so it seems to me as I gaze out on a snow covered garden and watch the sheep snuggled in their woolly coats in the adjoining field. But what to add to the deep and succulent flavour of our butcher's best sausages - how about celeriac that the Handyman has pulled from the kitchen garden?

Sausages with Celeriac and Peppercorn Mash
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 large onions peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
8-12 butcher's best sausages
1 HG celeriac, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 lb HG potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 tbsp green peppercorns in brine
100 ml creme fraiche

Method
Preheat the oven to 190C, gas mark 5. Cut the onions into wedges and place in a roasting tin. Drizzle with the oil and cook until beginning to colour (about 15 mins). Add the sausages to the tin and cook for a further 30 mins until golden and cooked through and the onions are beginning to caramelise.

Meanwhile place the celeriac and potatoes in a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15-20 mins, or until tender. Drain well, return to the pan and mash until smooth.

Lightly crush the peppercorns using a pestle and mortar and add to the mash along with the creme fraiche. Stir lightly to combine and season to taste. Spoon the mash onto warmed plates and top with sausages and onion.

Variation

I added a couple of handfuls of frozen peas to the sausages and onions for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking in the oven;
other vegetables could be added to be roasted alongside the onions.

I didn't have any green peppercorns so I substituted with a few chopped capers.