Weekend mornings are for family – and whoever happens to be over. Forget fussing and focus on just one big lovely thing for the middle of the table. Here’s how
Family life has had a bigger impact on how I cook at home than almost anything else. There’s a lot of pasta on the menu these days, and potato wedges with different sauces. A lot of meatballs. And a great many pancakes – more than I would have ever predicted before I had kids.
My weekend pancakes – which made their way into my book Simple Too – are supposed to be a batch-cooking exercise: lots made on Sunday, then reheated through the week, in the toaster or a dry pan on the stove, so breakfast is more or less solved until Friday. That’s the theory. In practice, all 22 pancakes the recipe makes are gone by Sunday lunch – eaten by the boys, their friends, or whoever happens to be over for breakfast.
But my kitchen on a weekend morning doesn’t only answer to my kids, even though that’s their indisputable assumption. I love having friends over for brunch, and what I actually want, most weeks, is one big thing in the middle of the table – generously for everyone. So they can help themselves and I’m not the only one standing after everyone else has sat down.
Like the butter beans with Urfa chilli butter, with toast, bacon and semi-hard-boiled eggs. Or a big tray of baked za’atar tomatoes and mascarpone, with some sausages and sourdough. Or a big pan of menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs) with a leaf salad and a few slices of avocado.
I feed a lot of people – with the things I really want to eat and without too much fuss: that’s the idea. Here are some of the breakfasts and brunches in Simple Too – for you, your hungry family and all your breakfast guests.
Menemen is a Turkish breakfast dish: scrambled eggs, spices, tomatoes. Simple! It’s the most comforting of all ways to start – or end – the day. The key is to add the eggs off the heat, so that they cook gently in the residual warmth of the pan. Serve with buttered toast or a leafy salad with slices of avocado.
4 eggs3 tbsp olive oil1 onion, finely chopped (160g)3 garlic cloves, crushed1 tsp cumin seeds½ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes½ tsp ground cinnamon½ tbsp tomato paste300g cherry tomatoes, halved1 tbsp double cream5g coriander leaves, roughly choppedFine sea salt
Put the eggs into a bowl with half a teaspoon of salt. Lightly beat, just to break up the yolks, and set aside.
Put the oil into a medium frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for five minutes, stirring a few times, until softened and starting to colour. Add the spices, tomato paste and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt and cook for two minutes, until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and 60ml of water, then cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down. Squish them with the back of a spoon if they need a bit of help.
Remove from the heat and swirl in the eggs, using a wooden spoon or spatula and moving the pan gently until just set. Spoon over the cream, sprinkle over the coriander and serve straight from the pan.
This recipe is inspired by the Trinidadian bhaji, which Milli Taylor, my test kitchen colleague, first discovered through her friend, the chef and food writer Shivi Ramoutar. Traditionally, these braised greens are served alongside rice and dal as a main meal, but we think they are equally delicious with the addition of eggs for breakfast. Play around with whatever greens are in season. Chard is great – just make sure you chop the stems and add them before the leaves, at the same time as the onions.
3 tbsp olive oil1 small onion, thinly sliced (150g)2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed1 Scotch bonnet pepper (or regular red chilli), pierced a few times with a knife4 garlic cloves, crushed400g baby spinach leaves400ml tin of coconut milk6 eggsFine sea salt and black pepper
Heat the oil in a large saute pan on a medium-high heat. Add the onion and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and cook for about eight minutes, stirring often, until softened and golden. Add the cumin, Scotch bonnet, garlic and lots of pepper and cook for another minute. Add the spinach, in two or three batches, and cook for about three minutes until wilted. Add the coconut milk, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and reduced slightly.
Use a spoon to make six wells in the mixture and crack one egg into each. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper, cover, and cook for a further four to five minutes, until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Serve straight from the pan.
