Spelt pancakes with stewed vanilla strawberries

I love Ridley road market with it's African fabrics, cheap food stalls and fishmongers. Even the sheeps' heads add a little "je ne sais quoi" to the atmosphere. This is where you come to get cheap fruit and veg in east London. Unfortunately, it's not always the best quality. Yersterday, I was walking through Ridley Road when a torrential downpour started. This wasn't your usual London drizzle, it was like  monsoon had hit us. Fortunately, it was still warm and somehow all the people caught in it - like yours truly - were in good spirits. The market stall holders were trying to get rid of all their produce as quickly as possible and pack up, so I got 2 big bowls - one of cherries, one of strawberries -for £1.50. The cherries were delicious, but the strawberries were a bit squashed by the time I got them home. I ate the solid strawberries whilst contemplating what I could do with all the squashed ones. Half of the squashed ones went into a healthy shake with yoghurt, almond milk, maple syrup and maca root. The other half were made into strawberry and vanilla sauce that went on top of spelt pancakes this Sunday morning, for brunch.

I won't lie to you, it was divine. I simply  simmered the strawberries with a teaspoon of good quality vanilla essence, a tablespoon of brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of water. I won't patronise you with a detailed description of how to make pancakes because I'm sure you know. I just whizzed all the ingredients down there together and fried each ladlefull in little knobs of butter. I also added a dollop of mascapone and a drizzle of maple syrup for that American brunch feel. This will make 2 pancakes.

Ingredients

50g spelt flour

1 egg

150ml almond milk (aprox)

15g butter

Large handful strawberries, chopped in half

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Dollop mascapone

Maple syrup to drizzle

Egyptian breakfast with eggs, dates and tahini

The first ever post on this blog was about breakfasts, complete with my 29 year old self's inquisitive attitude and some rather gross-looking pictures of food. Breakfast is still an obbession of mine, but that's one of the few things that has remained constant. Over the past 5 years I have met many great breakfasts: these seedy, turmeric oats have been a firm favourite of late; there has also been "placki" with roast cherry tomatoes; quinoa; congee rice soups with butternut squash and radish and spinach and egg, not to forget fruit-oat pots. But the reason that I am blogging about this today is because there is a new breakfast in town! This Egyptian breakfast was introduced to me by my love and has made me fall in love with Tahini once more (for many years I couldn't bear the sight of it, but that's another story).

That's scrambled eggs up there, with dates! Yes, sweet scrambled eggs, with tahini and mini pitta bread on the side (just because they're cute). You melt some butter on a frying pan and fry the chopped (and pitted) dates first for a couple of minutes, before cracking the eggs in. The eggs don't need any milk. Stir the eggs while they're frying on a low heat, season with salt and white pepper, and serve. Simple. Delicious. Reasonably healthy breakfast.

Chilli and rye sourdough bread

Thailand was magical as ever. Days spent doing my favourite things: swimming outside; reading cookbooks in a hammock; eating fresh, healthy Thai food and bargain hunting in markets... Immersing ourselves in a different world. On my return, one of the first things I did was make bread. Once you have some sourdough, you see, you are held ransom to it, knowing that it has only a certain number of days before it's no good and I was already a day over. Luckily, I'd left the sourdough in a hyperactive fridge, so it was fine.

Since I was anxious not to loose my dough, I overcame my jetlag and made the bread, combining all the ingredients down there and stirring in the sourdough combined with warm water and adding more water as needed to create that desired peanut butter texture. I put it in a greased and floured tin, covered it and left it for 10 hours on top of the radiator, before baking it this morning (1 hour, 170 degrees C). We ate it with spiced scrambled eggs (ground paprika and coriander to be precise). It's a spicy bread, therefore you need to offset the chilli to create that winning balance. If you would like to make this bread and you live in the UK I would be more than happy to send you some of my sourdough. Remember to always save a couple of tablespoons of your dough for the future. 

Ingredients:

350g rye flour
1-2 tablespoons sourdough

1 tablespoon plain flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon linseeds

1 tablespoon oats

3 tablespoons wheat germ

3 dried red chillies, chopped finely

Warm water

A seedy breakfast: sweet and spicy oats

Not so very long ago, the phrase "seedy breakfast" would have meant something altogether different. Now it means that my breakfast is full of seeds. And turmeric, and cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg... it's pretty much the best breakfast ever.

Inspired by Leo Babauta and this blog post, I have given up making New Years Resolutions and focused on changing habits this year. As the Kundalini guru,Yogi Bhajan, taught: your habits define you. I've always believed in setting intentions for the year ahead, yet this may just be a more permanent way of doing it. My January has been all about health. I had an experience during the Christmas period (which I don't feel ready to go into here just yet) that made me realise the importance of it. Good health is a blessing that we often take for granted. So this month I have avoided processed sugar, alcohol and... meat. In fact, I've gone Vegetarian. Or Pescaterian to be precise. I'm not sure how long it will last, because I do love the taste of meat, but at the moment my body feels purer and happier without it.

This seedy, oaty breakfast was invented by my mum and pimped up by moi. The oats are cold - the idea is that you don't cook them, to preserve their nutritious value - instead, you pour hot (almond) milk over them the night before you want to eat them: 8-9 heaped tablespoons for 500ml milk. Then you mix in all the other ingredients down there and allow to cool overnight. The next morning, transfer it into bowls and put it in the fridge - you have breakfast for 3 days.

Ingredients:

500ml almond milk

8-9 tablespoons oats

2 tablespoons linseeds

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon crushed walnuts (or flaked almonds)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Spicy chorizo and tomato scrambled eggs

There are so many things that don't quite work out in life, and this is okay. There are lessons to be learnt, compromises to be made, battles to be lost as well won, things given up on completely and things deemed worthy of being worked on gradually. Yet yet... when there is a success, no matter how minor, I am of the opinion that it should be celebrated. I am my father's daughter in this way - any excuse to open a bottle of champagne. While for my dad this is literally the case, for me, the champagne is more of a metaphor. It's a part of the reason why I write this blog, in celebration of the little things. Today I am celebrating this spicy chorizo and tomato scrambled eggs that was made in celebration of my brother's birthday

You need to pour boiling water over the tomatoes first, then peel and chop them. Melt some butter on a frying pan and add small cubes of chorizo sausage and some red chilli slices. Once the butter has turned red in colour, add the tomatoes and continue to fry until the tomatoes have almost disintegrated. Meanwhile beat the eggs and season with salt, pepper and a dash of paprika. Add them to the pan and continue to stir gently as they cook. We ate these with toasted crusty bread and sauteed spinach, slices of avocado and Bloody Marys (with the obligatory celery stick) on the side

Amaranth porridge with berries

There's something that happens when I'm about to get on a plane. I always manage to either miss my flight or create some kind of unnecessary drama. Even when in other areas of my life I feel calm and content, the time comes to catch a flight and something inevitably goes wrong. I should be in Athens right now, but I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm London either. I'm occupying a space in between two worlds, neither solidly in one nor the other. Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, I'm just not all there. Or here. Some would argue that this is a natural state of affairs for me and they'd have a point, yet at this moment in time this quality is so pronounced that I feel like parts of me could easily just disappear like they do to that cat. Yet like him, I'm quite enjoying it. I'm using this strange space to look at my life  objectively and make some small yet important changes, to experiment with how I normally do things. In my everyday life I'm often too busy in the action of doing to take a step back and reflect on how I could improve the process. There are infinite ways of doing things, why do we get stuck in one mode like machines I wonder... Some things just work so there is no need to change them, yes, but other things don't work, yet we get stuck in a habit - those are things I'm targeting right now. One habit that I have no intention of changing for the time being however, is porridge for breakfast. That's working out very well. There are so many variations that I can't see myself getting bored. I made this one with amaranth grains and berries the other day. It's a grain I've never used before and was a bit puzzled by, yet it turns out that it makes a brilliant porridge, less stodgy and sticky than oats

I cooked it first in lots of cold water. I'll be honest with you, I wanted to use it for a salad, yet I quickly noticed that it was turning into a porridge-like consistency and went out and bought some quinoa for the salad instead. I think the grains are actually too small for a salad and also I cooked them in too much water to allow them to separate. But for a porridge they were perfect. So the next morning I took a spoonful of the cooked amaranth and diluted it with plenty of almond milk. I allowed it to simmer, along with a handful of raspberries and blueberries, a pinch of salt and some honey for around 10min, until the raspberries disintegrated completely. Then I  added a bit more almond milk to reach a consistency I was happy with. Amaranth is completely new to me in this form (I've tried the leaves before), it has an unusual taste, neither sweet nor savoury, it's lost somewhere between the worlds just like me, so it needs strong, decided flavours that push it in either one direction or the other... I think I've just managed to empathize with a grain

Russian buckwheat blinis with sour cream, salmon and dill

There is a Russian saying that "life begins and ends with a blini", which shows the true value of these mini pancakes in that part of the world. I'm not trying to suggest that blinis are given to babies in Russia, I expect that the saying indicates that when you eat your first blini, this is when "real life" begins. A life of social gatherings, full of family and friends, a life where you can make your own choices, have a voice that's heard and taken seriously. I don't know about you, but when I was a child, I couldn't wait for this life to begin, I always wanted to be a part of that infinitely interesting adult world. Today, I gave blinis a new context when I made them for brunch here in London, which I think it suits them perfectly

You need buckwheat flour to make proper blinis. Sift this, along with the plain flour and a large pinch of salt, into a large bowl. Meanwhile, heat the milk gently (I need to use goat's milk because of my lactose allergy - it works well in this recipe), add the sugar and make the yeast with it. Allow to stand in a warm place for 10min before using. Whisk the eggs as much as you can into the flour, then add a tablespoon of melted butter and keep whisking. Finally, add the yeasty milk and whisk that it. Cover with a wet towel and allow to stand in a warm place for an hour. I usually turn the oven on for 5min, then turn it off and put the bowl in there. Fry the blinis in more butter, and place in a warm oven to keep warm before you serve them, but don't wait too long as they have a tendency to go hard. Serve with smoked salmon, sour cream and dill, sprinkled with a touch of black pepper. Or caviar if that's how you roll

Ingredients (makes 14-16 blinis)

100g buckwheat flour

100g plain flour

2 eggs

Large pinch of salt

100 g butter

300ml milk

25g dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

100g good quality smoked salmon

250g sour cream

Handful chopped dill

Black pepper

Coconut and oat breakfast scones

Everyone loves scones. I always forget how much I do until I inadvertently try one, then I'm just all over them. Can't stop. The shop-bought ones are fluffy admittedly, but often unhealthy, laden with sugar and fats, so when I realized I was going to be having a scone love affair (replacing the now tired cinnamon bagels I've been eating all Winter) I quickly made some reasonably healthy ones. They may not be as fluffy as their shop-bought brothers, but home-made scones have their own wholesome charm, especially when warm, and you can add your favourite ingredient to the mix, which for me, at this moment in time, is coconut

Soak the coconut in the coconut milk for a couple of hours, use just enough to moisten the coconut, as we don't want too much moisture. Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl (we want to add as much fluffiness as we can), add the sugar and the butter, cubed and softened. Work the mixture between the fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs - this usually takes about 10min. Add the coconut and egg, which will make the mixture very sticky. Blend it in as much as you can, then add the oats to soak up the excess moisture. If it is still too sticky then add a bit more flour while rolling it out on to a worktop. Roll it out until it's around 2-3cm thick and use a cutter, or a glass, to cut round shapes out of it, 5-7cm in diameter. Place on a greased baking tray and into a preheated oven (180 degrees C) for around 30min. I used coconut oil to grease the tray, and also to slather the still warm scones, then devoured them with an obligatory cuppa

Ingredients

150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
150g light brown or coconut sugar
150g salted, soft butter
100g dessicated coconut, soaked in coconut milk
1 egg
100g oats

The perfect brunch aka Cooking for Simone part 1

By coming to Los Angeles I have unintentionally extended my Summer. It's about 31 degrees C here during the day! I have also made my friend Simone, who moved here a couple of years back, very happy. She's been a little stressed writing her book, so I've enjoyed helping her out by cooking healthy, tasty meals and imagining out-there sexual fantasies (she's writing a book about sex). It's a hard life. Today, I made this brunch

I lie about it being perfect, as there was one thing missing - a Bloody Mary. But with that addition, I couldn't think of a much better one. If I had the kind of lifestyle when I could eat brunch every day of the week (I can dream), then I would alternate this with Eggs Benedict. So it's pretty good. The eggs are my mum's Polish recipe: fry a finely chopped onion in butter, covered, for about 10min, then add the eggs which have been beaten and seasoned with sea salt and paprika. Cover the baby spinach in boiling, salt water and after a couple of minutes, drain it. Toast the pine nuts until slightly browned. Squeeze the water out of the spinach and add to the pine nuts along with some olive oil. Fry for about 5 minutes while stirring. Squeeze some fresh lemon into it and continue frying for another minute or two. Serve with fresh, warm bagels if possible

Lazy brunch east-european style: placki with tomato salad

So, it's my first day off in London in a looong time. It's boiling hot. I slept in deliciously until about 11am, then rolled out of bed and warmed up the placki I made for my friend, Ayesha, yesterday. Ayesha loves potatoes. This morning I ate them with salted yoghurt and a slightly spicy cherry tomato salad - just some cherry tomatoes, basil, good olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and some fresh chilli thrown together. Life's feeling pretty good...

Placki are one of the most simple and brilliant things to make. You grate some potatoes (1 per person and 1 extra on top) and an onion, making them as mushy as possible, add an egg, some flour and season with salt and pepper. For 3 potatoes I added about 2 tablespoons of flour. Heat some oil up on a large frying pan and spoon on the mixture on to the hot oil. Fry until brown on both sides, which takes approximately 10min. I make them all first, keeping them in the a warm oven until they're all ready to be eaten, but some like to eat as they go, the choice is yours

Spicy ginger, chocolate and coconut granola

To fully commit to "city-life" and live happily within in, you need to find your balance. For me, that sometimes means cancelling all my plans and mooching around my flat, having a bath, cooking something I really feel like and painting my nails. The important thing is not feeling pressurized to do stuff. This recipe is for one of those nights, it's super easy and fun to make (it's all about freestyling), and it'll give you tasty breakfasts for about a week if you eat it with fruit and yoghurt

Melt about 5 tablespoon of coconut oil on the stove, grate in an entire nutmeg seed and allow to heat gently for a couple of minutes. Mix in 400g of oats, 50g of toasted coconut flakes. Take off the heat and add the remaining ingreditents: 100g raw cacao nibs and 150g of cubed stem ginger (about a jar of the stuff you get in syrup), then bake in the oven for about 20min at 180 degrees C. Make sure you remember to grease your bakng paper - I didn't and it all got a bit sticky

Menemen at the Z Cafe, Kingsland Road

...Is the best brunch I've ever eaten. No that's a lie, Eggs Benedicte and a Bloody Mary somewhere in New York is probably my favourite ever, but this comes a close second

It's a combination of eggs, tomatoes, sausage, feta and peppers. The description said there was spinach in there, but the taste was definitely that of sorrel, which I adore. Sitting outside and people watching with LT was really fun too. I may have said that it was the best thing he's ever shown me. Don't think he took that as a compliment

The Giant Robot, Clerkenwell

I almost didn't come here, as I couldn't get through to anyone to book a table. In the end, I called another Rushmore group restaurant and booked a table through them - so that's a good tip if they forget to turn their answering machine off again. Once we got there, the staff were incredibly friendly and relaxed, so all was forgiven

It was a hot day, so we drank Mimosa cocktails, which were lovely and refreshing, and actually felt quite healthy. But perhaps that's just by my standards! We ate asparagus with salsa, a breakfast salad, with delicious black pudding bits in it, and eggs benedict. I can't fault any of it. The vibe was very New York, laid-back and cool. It made me feel cool too, so I will be back for sure!

Polish scrambled eggs

Despite having dilemas about what to eat for breakfast during the week, I never have any problem choosing what to have for a weekend breakfast, when I have time to go to the shops for supplies and mess around in the kitchen. This is one of my weekend favourites. My ex boyfriend used to make fantastic scrambled eggs, so when we broke up, I had to find my own version that was just as good. My Polish scrambled eggs are very different to the ones he used to make, and are a return to my childhood in Poland

Of course really there are many types of scrambled eggs in Poland. Another type would include dry Polish sausage, which is also delicious, but I this is the best in my eyes. If you are not a fan of huge quantities of onion in a dish, then you may disagree with me on this ;o)

Ingredients (for 2 people)

6 eggs

Butter

Onion

Splash of milk

Salt and pepper

Fry the chopped onion in the butter until caramelised. This takes about half an hour. Then season it really well. In a bowl, beat together the eggs and splash of milk. Finally add the egg mixture to the onion, and stir constantly on a low heat. I like the scrambled eggs quite runny, so I cook it for approximately five minutes. We eat this with warm buttered baguette