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.

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

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

Maca meringues

When left to my own devices for the day, I seldom do more than cook and write, interjected with spurts of yoga to wildy inappropriate music (dubstep yoga anyone?) and perhaps a spot of meditation once I'm feeling a bit frazzled. It was on a day like this that I, faced with a couple of egg whites left over from this mayonnaise recipe, decided to make meringues. Not just any old meringues though, I wanted to make them a little bit special, as you do: to put my own Zuza stamp on the whole meringue genre. I settled on adding a tablespoon of ground maca powder, for a malty, creamy kind of vibe

 Ingredients

2 egg whites

Pinch of salt

75g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon good vanilla essence

1 tablespoon maca powder

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they form soft, snowy peaks. Add the sugar, maca and vanilla essence and carry on beating until the peaks turn caramel. Pour little blobs of the mixture onto a greased baking-papered tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for just 5min. Now, the secret to crunchy-on-the-outside-and-soft-and-chewy on the inside meringues: turn the oven off and leave the meringues in there to cool for 2-3 hours. And that's how you get sinfully tasty maca meringues. I polished them all off in under 48 hours. I did attempt to give some away, yet somehow, I completely forgot

Homemade mayonnaise

I believe that challenges help us evolve. This standpoint informs most of my life decisions, so I never choose people or situations that will make my life easy. I'm not saying that this is always the best approach, it's just how it is for me, sometimes to my detriment even. And let me tell you, dudes and dudettes, things do not get much more challenging than making your own mayonnaise in 40 degree heat (officially, it is 31 but my living room is a suntrap). Well, I guess 50 degrees would make it more challenging, but I would call that madness. It's been boiling hot for over two weeks now (not complaining!) and I had freshly baked bread and all the raw mayo-making ingredients winking at me, so off I went. You do not use an electric whisk for mayo by the way. I don't know why, you just don't, so it's always going to be a workout

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

100ml vegetable or groundnut (flavourless) oil

100ml light but good quality olive oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Large pinch pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

Beat the egg yolks with the seasoning and mustard until they reach a creamy consistency (about 10min). Now, slowly, start adding the oils, beating all the time. After another 10 minutes or so your mixture should have the consistency of mayonnaise. Now add the lemon juice and keep beating. You may want to season more, to your own taste, at the end of the process. I would only use shop-bought mayonnaise in recipes that require mayo, or in my BLT, but this stuff is more like Aioli, so I spread it on bread instead of butter and use it as a dip

Middle-Eastern Chicken Soup

Eating certain foods, even their smell, has the power to take you back in time. There's the obvious dishes associated with certain countries and there's the more subtle - corn-on-the-cob, for example, will always make me think of childhood summers spent in Hungary, Spanish rosé - of one particular, pebbly beach on Ibiza Island and a chilled, cut up Mars bar (this is the only way I ever eat a Mars bar now) takes me straight back to a tent in the Himalayas. This is precisely why I haven't eaten this soup in about 3 years, even though there was a time when it was one of my favourites. We used to eat it nearly every Sunday in my last long-term relationship,  the stock made from the bones left over from our lunchtime roast - sometimes this was chicken, more often it was game birds. Perhaps it was less often than that, and this is just how I've remembered that period. Either way, it has always reminded me of the sweet moments in that relationship, which I didn't want to be reminded of for a very long time. Now, I don't mind anymore

You cook the chicken carcass with an onion in a large pan of water for as long as you can - I usually manage 2-3 hours. Remove the meat and the onion from the pan and add the (rinsed) rice. Once the rice is cooked, season the soup well with salt and pepper and put any nice bits of chicken meat back in. Take it off the heat. Beat the eggs, add a spoonful of soup and carry on beating, then add some more. Keep doing this for a little white before adding the mixture back into the soup and beating all together - the idea is that the soup becomes creamy without the egg curdling in it. Finally, stir in the lemon juice and serve. I love sour things, so I may squeeze more lemon in, but I would suggest you start off with just the one and see how it goes. There isn't much that I don't love about this soup - it's comforting and creamy, wholesome and healing, it fills you up without making you feel stuffed

Ingredients

Chicken carcass

1 onion

100g rice

2 eggs

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Bento lunch: Pea curry, omelette and red rice

Having partied away the last few days away in Madrid, I'm really very proud to have been motivated enough to make a bento for work on my return. It must be testament of the effectiveness of this little course I've been taking online. And I believe that this book I've been reading on my travels has also helped - it's incredibly inspiring! So here is my second attempt at bento making: pea curry, omelette and red rice

The omelette served as a divider between the two, as last time I spent ages messing around with cardboard to make everything neat -this is by far a better solution. From now on,  I will always try and find something dry and solid to use as a divider in my bentos - perhaps some tofu or fish. The red rice was created by adding Polish borsht soup (in powder form) to the rice as it was cooking. This is super easy to find in supermarkets and gives the rice a sweet-savoury flavour

Pea Curry Ingredients

Frozen peas
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Mustard seeds
Turmeric
Fresh coriander
Grapeseed oil
Salt and pepper

Blend the top three ingredients together with some turmeric and a splash of water in an electric blender or crush using a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds for a couple of minutes, before adding the onion/ginger/garlic mixture. Turn the heat down and fry for a few minutes before adding the frozen peas and cover in hot water. Finally add the coriander, some salt then cover and cook for about an hour. If there is too much water left at the end, crank the heat up and steam it off - we are trying to get a dryish consistency

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

Brussels sprout and curry omelette

Since you are still reading this you must be a pretty open-minded individual. You may pat yourself on the back if so inclined

As I scoffed this just a moment ago, I realized that it pays to be open-minded. It's another strange and unusual way to eat the seasonal brussels sprouts. You just need a handful, chopped finely. Brown them in butter for about 10min, then add the eggs which have been previously beaten with salt, pepper, a pinch of chilli powder, some turmeric and a splash of single cream (or milk). Allow this to cook on a low heat for a while, then fold in half, and cook for a little longer. I ate this with a good quality mango chutney (Greeta's is the one I like). And you can find some more ideas with what to do with brussels sprouts here. And here

Breakfast in bed - bagels with spicy, chive scrambled eggs

Because I'm worth it. And so are you...

There's no better way to recover from a successful Saturday night, than by lounging in bed with tea, warm food and plenty of reading material (cookbooks in my case). The bagels are from the bagel shop on Brick Lane, as usual. Incidentally, fresh, warm bagels are one of the best things I have ever tasted (this thought occurred to me as I was shoveling one into my mouth just 24 hours prior to this breakfast taking place). The eggs are scrambled with the addition of chives, salt and pepper, then finished off with more ground pepper and tabasco. An ex boyfriend of mine, Layo, taught me the secret of beautifully scrambled eggs, that I will now share with you - it's the slow pace. You keep stirring, on the lowest possible heat, and don't be tempted to rush the process. Patience in a virtue.

Kale Tortilla and Sweetcorn Soup

I made plans to go to Eastbourne and hang out with my dad this weekend. Then I changed my mind. About five times actually, back and forth (luckily, my dad is extremely chilled out). I've been doing that a lot recently and I'll tell you what, it feels good. Just over a year ago, when I was in the middle of a life crisis, completely lost, without any idea what I wanted, and really rather stressed out about it, a friend of mine, Anton, said to me "remember, you can always change your mind". This has stayed with me as one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever been given. It seems so obvious, yet I don't think a lot of people feel like they can change their minds. I certainly didn't in my old life, I was always busy doing stuff that I'd said "yes" to weeks before, whether I felt like it or not, carrying on down old paths, chosen for no apparent reason, always an undercurrent of discomfort and anxiety, that comes from suppressing your natural instincts. And does anyone really care if you go for a drink with them now, or a week later? (or never in some cases) Or if you cancel that party? I don't think so. Not really. And if they do, then it's still a small price to pay for your freedom to do what you want, when you want. So I stayed in Hackney and cleaned my flat as much as I could with my injured back (stupid yoga position, too early in the day), found a new favourite passtime (swimming in the lido), had a few beers, and cooked quite a lot

This is basically an ordinary Spanish tortilla, with the addition of kale. You finely slice an onion and a potato,  then fry them, covered and seasoned, in some olive oil, for about 20min. Pour boiling water over a handful of kate, and allow to cool a bit, before chopping finely and adding to the potatoes and onions for the final 5min of cooking time. Break about 5 or 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly, season. Add the cooked potato, onions and kale into the beaten egg mixture, heat some more oil in the frying pan, and pour it all in. Turn the heat down really low and cook for about 25min, uncovered. I don't bother turning the tortilla over, instead I stick it under a hot grill for 2min to gently brown the top side. And I prefer eating it cold. It was perfect today, eaten with chilli jam, while sunbathing in the garden after a swim. Then, there was this beautiful sweetcorn soup from 101 cookbooks

I used more water than in the recipe, cooked it all together for quite a bit longer than recommended and added pearl barley. My friend Ayesha loved it, because, apparenty, she loves anything yellow. Yeah, you read right, anything yellow

Manhattan Tophat

I love unusual cookbooks and this one that my friend gave me tops the weirdness charts

It's put together by SPACE studios and each recipe is from a different artist. It goes from hugely surreal recipes like Worm Sandwich, Cornish Pebbles on a bed of Concrete Fool, and Humble Pie, to little gems such as Elvis Presley's Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, Mrs. Obuabang's Fried Plantain and Manhattan Tophat, which I decided to make myself today, for brunch

All that I would add to the instructions, up there, is that you want to use a knob of butter for frying, salt over everything, and a bit of tabasco on the egg while it's frying

Crack the egg into a cup first, to avoid any trouble. I used quite a small piece of bread so the egg leaked out underneath - I cut the messy bits off, as aesthetics are of primary importance here

And here he is

Doesn't he look smart?

Conclusion: An extremely satisfying way to eat a fried egg with bread

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