Try this delicious Indian brunch dish by Cyrus Todiwala – chilli cheese on toast with a fried egg on top and ketchup on the side. We poached our eggs this time.
Wine Suggestion: What do they serve in those brunch places? Bottomless prosecco – something like that.
Eggs kejriwal – serves 2
1 tsp butter, plus more for spreading on the toast
1 small onion, finely chopped
2-4 thick slices bread
100g mature cheddar, grated
2 tsp English mustard
a small handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
3 large eggs
1 tbsp oil
tomato ketchup, to serve (optional)
Melt the tsp of butter in a small frying pan and fry the onion for about 5 minutes or until soft. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Lightly toast the bread, then spread with butter and put onto a baking tray.
Heat the grill to medium.
Mix the onion, cheese, mustard, coriander, chilli and 1 egg together in a bowl and season.
Spread the cheese mix over the toast and grill for about 5 minutes or until set and bubbling.
Meanwhile, fry or poach your eggs.
Serve the cheese on toast on warmed plates with an egg on top and ketchup on the side.
(Original recipe by Cyrus Todiwala in BBC Good Food magazine, March 2020.)
This couscous salad with fennel and tuna is perfect for lunch at the weekend. It’s very simple but the flavours all come together brilliantly. Do buy top quality tuna in oil – we used our local Shines Wild Irish Tuna in Olive Oil.
Wine Suggestion: not having a Sicilian wine to hand we still kept it Italian and opened Patrizia Felluga’s Zuani Vigne Collio Bianco. A multivarietal blend typical of the region this is precise, broad and complex while retaining good vibrancy.
Sicilian couscous salad – serves 3
150g couscous
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder made up with 200ml of boiling water
30ml best extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
10g flaked almonds
9 caper berries
half a fennel bulb, finely sliced, a mandoline works best for this if you have one
185g jar of tuna in olive oil
a handful of rocket
juice of ½ a lemon
Put the couscous into a large bowl, pour over the hot stock, cover tightly with cling film and leave aside for 10 minutes.
Remove the cling film and fluff the couscous with a fork to separate the grains. Drizzle with 10ml of olive oil, then stir in the flaked almonds, caper berries and fennel and toss well.
Add the tuna, breaking it into chunks with a fork and mixing through.
Finally add the rocket, squeeze in the lemon juice, the rest of the olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Toss again and transfer to a platter to serve.
(Original recipe from A Table for Friends by Skye McAlpine, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.)
Who knew this was a thing? The ragu is made from whole lamb neck fillets which are cooked in a low oven for many hours and then shredded into the sauce. The result is absolutely delicious and much less laborious than our traditional version. You can make the lamb layer well in advance and keep it in the fridge or freezer until needed.
Wine Suggestion: to match the rich lamb and cheese we opened a Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas from the Douro. We’d kept this a few years from release and the layers of gentle spices had grown, the tannins softened to a back note, and the fruit had somehow got richer without adding any weight. A beautiful wine and an equitable accompaniment to a dish like this.
Braised lamb lasagne – serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
lamb neck fillets, about 400g in total
1 clove of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
500g carton passata
500ml full-fat milk
50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
70g Parmesan, grated
6 lasagne sheets
2 mozzarella balls, torn into thin strips
2 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
dressed salad and garlic bread to serve
Heat the oven to 130C/110C fan/gas 1.
Heat the oil in a heavy-based casserole, season the lamb generously, then fry until well browned all over, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for another minute, then pour over the passata. Rinse out the carton with a splash of water and add this too. Season again, then cover tightly with foil, followed by the lid. Cook in the oven for at least 3½ or up to 4 hours by which time is should be very easy to shred. Leave it to cool a bit, then use a couple of forks to shred the lamb into the sauce.
Heat the milk in a saucepan until just simmering. Melt the butter in another saucepan, then stir in the flour to form a paste. Gradually whisk in the hot milk until you have a smooth glossy sauce. Stir in half the Parmesan and season.
Meanwhile, soak the lasagne sheets in just-boiled water to soften, then drain.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
Spread a thin layer of lamb sauce on the bottom of a small lasagne dish (it should fit two lasagne sheets without overlapping). Top with two lasagne sheets, then cover with a third of the béchamel and a third of the mozzarella. Add half of the remaining lamb sauce, then top this with 2 lasagne sheets and another third of the béchamel and mozzarella. Repeat once more, then sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan and the panko breadcrumbs.
Bake for 35 minutes, then turn the oven up to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Bake for another 10 minutes to brown the top, then leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
PSB is our veg saviour early in the year when winter is lingering and spring still seems too far away. We loved this roasted version with a tangy lemon dressing.
Roasted PSB with feta & preserved lemons – serves 4 to 6 as a side
500g purple sprouting broccoli
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red chilli, chopped
1 preserved lemon, flesh and rind chopped, plus 1 tbsp juice from the jar
80g yoghurt
1 garlic cloves, grated
30g feta
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
Put the PSB into large roasting tin, add the olive oil and red chilli, season with salt and pepper, then toss with your hands.
Roast for 15 minutes, turning halfway, until tender and starting to char.
Meanwhile stir the preserved lemon, juice and garlic into the yoghurt.
Crumble the feta over the roasted broccoli and drizzle with yoghurt dressing and your best olive oil.
Jono & Jules do food & wine 