I'm definitely a breakfast person. I really can't function unless I've eaten in the morning, but it goes further than that. I really love morning food - and I'm always interested in what's put out in the morning on those (very rare, these days) times I'm staying in a B&B or hotel. I think it says a huge amount about a place, how they treat their breakfasts: congealed scrambled eggs and a tin of greasy sausages in utiltarian stainless steel trays, or beautifully fresh fruit, home made granola, local bacon. I love the 'European' breakfast - the cheese, the meat, the fruit, the cake (as I discovered in Venice last year). As a result, I'm all for encouraging those breakfasty flavours and ingredients to spread their wings and take part in other meals - after all, it wasn't that long ago that I was pondering on how everything tastes better with bacon...
So the book. Well, it's well laid out with loads of great photos. There's a brief introduction to ingredients - and as it's a US book, there are some differences in description (and of course, the all pervading cups and spoons that I've touched on before) but somehow, these don't seem to bother me as much as they have in the US baking books I've reviewed. May be I feel more comfortable with the idea of going with the flow when it comes to cooking as opposed to baking. The book is split into sections of Main Dishes, Sides & Starters and Drinks & Desserts and takes ideas from the breakfast menu and turns them into other meals. Eggs turn up in a Shaskshuka (eggs poached in a tomato sauce, one of my faves), Egg & Chorizo Burritos and on an 'over easy' pizza; sausage turns up in a ravioli with ricotta, granola makes its way into cookies, bananas into a glorious looking bundt cake (I really must get a bundt tin); pancakes are stuffed with lentils and carrot and rolled, or stacked in an enormous dessert layered with a kind of creamy banana custard.
And what of my favourite - bacon? Well, as you might imagine, bacon features in the mini BLTs but more intriguingly (and somewhat bizzarely) in Bacon Jam, candied, to top maple syrup cupcakes, and - wait for it - in a cocktail: the Bacon Old Fashioned. Yes really.
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| Bacon Jam. Yes, really. |
Bacon cocktails aside, there's a lot in here that I would like to have a go at. There's plenty of veg involved, and some good ideas like using cornflakes as a crunchy coating for homemade chicken nuggets.
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| Cornflake coated chicken 'tenders' |
I like that it also includes recipes for the basics that are used - pitta bread, pasta, pizza dough.
On Saturday, we had the scrambled egg and smoked salmon quesadillas for lunch. Well, actually, we had the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs cooked according to the recipe, but served on toast because I forgot the wraps, but as the filling's the most important part, I'm here to tell you that it's delicious, combining leeks and creme fraiche in the scrambled eggs as well as smoked salmon (which you could serve on the side if you preferred). And I bet it would be delicious served up as quesadillas too.
It's definitely an interesting book with lots of good ideas in it. Inevitably, a lot of it comes across as very 'brunchy' but is no less inviting for that, but there's plenty that I would serve up for lunch or supper. I think the idea of the book works and is well thought out, and I'll be happy to give it shelf space!
So here it is, the disclaimer! I was provided with a copy of Breakfast for Dinner by PGUK for the purposes of providing a review, but I was not required to write a favourable view. All views expressed are my own.
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