Breakfast in bed

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It would be rather cheeky to call this a recipe.A croissant with a few salad leaves,a handful of chestnut mushrooms sautéed with a small knob of butter,some garlic,a pinch of thyme and a fried egg.No extraordinary ingredients,no innovative methods of preparation…Naaaah!It’s not a real recipe,is it?But trust me it tastes freaking amazing!

So let’s say it’s something different…Let’s say…it’s not a recipe but….an inspiration.An INSPIRATION to learn to relax,cook something simple,because simplicity can be amazing too and to have breakfast in bed from time to time!We live in such a mad world,why not slow down and spoil ourselves sometimes?

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I’m an inspiration hunter.My whole life is based on the inspirations I take from what surrounds me,what I see,what I hear and what I taste.I look around,have my eyes wide open and pay attention,because you never know when it’s going to hit you.But when it does,you’ll know straight away!Your heart will beat like crazy.And the best thing is that the same thing or situation can inspire everyone differently.

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Ever since I remember, I’ve had a problem to stick to the recipes.Not being disrespectful to chefs and recipe authors,I’ll be forever grateful to them for inspiring me so immensely,but we are all different,and we all like different things, and we all have different experience….and we not always have all the needed ingredients to hand,do we? 🙂

So,I let these recipes to inspire me.I twist them.Let them run trough me.I experiment and improvise a lot.Sometime it works, sometimes it doesn’t.But I always learn something,and that’s to me more important than ‘playing safe’.

Cooking is one of the most awesome things on the planet(just after taking pictures!).It can be so much fun(if we let it be) and it shouldn’t be taken too seriously.And most importantly,it should suit ‘YOUR’ taste buds.So please,take my ideas,my recipes and my photography too, go and do some great things with them,something ‘yours’ and don’t forget to SHARE it with the world.

Because that’s the thing about inspiration…you take it,shape it into something yours and give it back so others(and me!) can draw inspiration from it.It’s like a circle.Isn’t it great?! 😉

 

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Inspiration for a breakfast in bed.

You’ll need:

Comfy bed
Cup of tea
Great book

Also:

croissant
salad leaves,rocket salad and baby beetroot leaves
handful of chestnut mushrooms
small knob of butter
few pinches of fresh thyme
little oil
two eggs with the brightest yolk in town 🙂

To do: Preheat the oven to 180C.Melt butter in a pan,add mushrooms and thyme,sautee for few minutes. Cut croissant into two halves and place in the oven for couple of minutes to warm up.
Fry the eggs sunny side up on a little oil.Assemble by placing salad leaves on a warmed croissant halves,top with mushroom and eggs.SLOW DOWN,RELAX AND ENJOY x

Baked eggs

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When I lived with my mum and dad I never used to have any interest in cooking.An ability to prepare some scramble eggs was enough to survive in case of a hunger attack and so I had no urge to learn more.
Eating,however,was a totally different story!
My mum can really work magic in the kitchen and she would always spoil us rotten with the delicious meals.Sharing food with other (ravenous!) dwellers (including two brothers and one always hungry dad!) was never easy…It involved a lot of ferocious fights over who is licking the bowl or why someone had eaten more apple and carrot salad!Hiding food was sometimes the best(if not the only)option,so I would tuck oranges and apples under the pillow in my bedroom 🙂
Mum would always try her best to make everyone happy and made sure that everyone had their fair share,she would divide a tin of cake into 5 long slices and cut first letters of our names with a knife on the top of each piece so we didn’t argue who’d eaten more cake…
(Just to let you know,nobody starved to death,we all survived and love each other to bits :))

Despite my lack of interest in cooking,I am amazed of how much I learnt about preparing food from my parents.They always emphasized that making a meal starts long before turning the oven on.It starts from choosing the ingredients.They would always pick fresh and seasonal produce from shops and farms they knew and they trusted.
It stayed with me and this approach is a fundamental principle of how I cook.Ingredient is what really matters.

You know that tomato on the shelves in the supermarkets in the middle of winter,picked before it ripened and shipped thousand of miles is not a tomato really.It only pretends to be.A real tomato turns into its colour on the vine,somewhere at a local farm,warmed by the summer’s sunshine and is super delicate,sweet and juicy.And this real tomato is the one you want to cook with!

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Simple food.This is exactly what I love the most.Garden picked,seasonal vegetables,juicy tomatoes,fresh eggs and fragrant herbs thrown together onto an iron pan and baked in the oven is all I need these days.
We always have a batch of fresh eggs at home and we like to turn them into some amazing meals.
This recipe is our ultimate WINNER!

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RECIPE:

for 2

INGREDIENTS:

1kg ripe tomatoes
splash of rapeseed oil
2-3 shallots
2-3 baby courgettes
1 small yellow pepper
4 duck eggs
favourite herbs(dry or chopped fresh ones)
salt,pepper

METHOD:

1.Boil a full kettle of water.Cut a shallow cross on the ”bottom” of each tomatoes,place them in a pot and cover with boiling water.The skin(where the cross is cut) should start to peel after about 20-30 seconds.Remove from the pot and leave to cool.You may place them in a bowl full of ice to cool quicker.Remove the skin and stems and chop them tomatoes.Place in a pan and cook for around 30 minutes until all the water will evaporate and you’ll be left with a thick tomato sauce.Season with salt and pepper and add some of your favourite herbs.

2.Preheat the oven to 190C.

3.In the meantime,add a splash of oil onto a frying pan,add chopped shallots,pepper and sliced courgettes.Fry for few minutes until they are all soft.Leave on the side.

4.Grease two iron pans with a little oil,arrange the tomato sauce and vegetables,leaving space for eggs,then crack the eggs in.

5.Bake for 15 minutes for soft eggs or 20 minutes for hard.

NOTE:You can prepare the tomato sauce the day before if you would like to eat baked eggs for breakfast but haven’t got enough time to cook it.(This is what I often do!)

Breakfast bread bowls

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I do love Spring,you know?All its beautifuly vivid colours and fresh flavours.Everything around is waking up,ready to bloom,and so am I.Finally.The days lenghten only by a couple of hours and I no longer drag myself out of bed.Instead,I spring out with the first signs of sun rays bashfully peeking through the curtains.It feels soooo great!Slow and longer mornings,exactly how I like them.Although it’s still too cold to sit outside early in the morning,I wrap myself in a blanket I enjoy my first cup of tea on the patio with bare feet,listening to the silence and waiting for my breakfast to cook in the oven.
I’ve realized everything has changed around me.Everyday seems the same but when I look back everything is different.I wish some things stayed the same but I think I’ve learn to accept that life is constantly in motion, and changes are its inevitable part.What it would be like if my world always looked the same?I can’t even imagine it.Can you?Or if I wasn’t able to change my mind or my opinion.That would be terribly traumatic…After all,every change brings a new learning lesson and make us who we are.

Somwhere deep down I only hope that one thing will never be different-the way I celebrate my mornings.Those little things like a warm cup of tea,a kind smile of someone we care about and breakfast shared together are the big things really.

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I’d come across bread bowl’s recipe few times when I was flicking through Pinterest,and I’d always wanted to make them,but It wasn’t until I saw them on Marianna’s blog when I thought it’s time for my own ‘customized’ breakfast bread roll.
I chose mushroom,garlic and rosemary filling with a slice of mozzarella for this recipe but you could use any of your favourite ingredients.Parma ham and sun dried tomatoes?Spinach,lemon and ricotta maybe?
Whatever your choice it’s a recipe you will go back to.

Enjoy and have a lovely day xxx

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RECIPE:

for 6

INGREDIENTS:

6 wholegrain bread rolls(*scroll down for the recipe)
4 tablespoons butter,melted
150g chestnut mushrooms,sliced
1-2 garlic cloves,rushed or chopped
1-2 springs of fresh rosemary,chopped
1 medium buffalo mozzarella,thinly sliced
6 eggs
3 cherry tomatoes,sliced
sea salt
black pepper

Additionally:
few rosemary springs for garnish

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 190C. Slice the top off from each bread roll and gently hollow it,leaving the edges quite thin but  unbroken. Arrange on a baking tray.

Place 1 tablespoon of melted butter onto a frying pan with mushrooms,garlic and rosemary.Season with salt and pepper.Fry until mushrooms are cooked.Remove any remaining water.

Brush the inside of the bread rolls with melted butter,place the mushrooms at the bottom of each roll,following with a thin slice of mozzarella.Crack an egg into each roll,top with couple of tomato slices.Season with salt and pepper,and add a small spring of rosemary if you wish.

Bake for around 30 minutes.

Serve warm with some salad.
Notes:You can dry remaining bread(flesh and tops) for breadcrumbs or feed the birds 🙂

BREAD ROLLS:

for 6

INGREDIENTS:
18g fresh yeast
1 tablespoon honey
200g white bread flour
140g wholemeal spelt flour
200ml tepid water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Provençal herbs
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

Additionally:
1 egg – beaten
2 handfuls of different seeds

Preparation:

Crumble fresh yeast in a small dish,add honey,around 60 ml tepid water and couple tablespoons of white flour.Mix well,cover with cotton tea towel and let it work for around 10-15 minutes.When the mixtures raises and get foamy it’s ready.Sift the flours and salt in a bowl, add olive oil,yeast mixture and the rest of lukewarm water.Mix with a wooden spoon, when the mixture comes together start kneading it using your hands.Add some more flour if the dough is too sticky.Knead for around 5-10 minutes until the dough is very soft.(trust me you will feel the difference). Cover the bowl with a cotton tea towel and place it to rise somewhere warm, but NOT hot, until dough has doubled in size – it takes around 1-2 hour.(remember that the dough doesn’t like draughts!)When the dough doubled in size, put it on a lightly floured surface and knead for another 2-3 minutes,tear it into 6 pieces of around 120g each.Roll them into small balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.Remember to leave spaces between them as they will raise.Cover with tea towel again for 30 minutes.Preheat the oven to 190 C.Brush each roll with beaten egg and sprinkle generously with seeds
Bake for around 25-30 minutes.