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Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts

Eggs Benedict

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Posted on Friday, 8 July 2011 13:43 | By: Tony

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Serves 8;

Ingredients;



4 English muffins, split, and toasted
8 nice slices of Irish dry cured ham, warmed and cut to fit
8 poached eggs
Hollandaise Sauce (see below)

Poached Egg;

Water
2 tablespoons vinegar
8 eggs

Method;

Bring a deep pan of water the boil. Add the vinegar. One at a time, crack the eggs into a cup and then slip the egg into the barely simmering water. Reduce the heat, if need be, to maintain that low simmer.
Cook just until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft, about 3 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer each poached egg onto a clean dish towel to drain. Trim the edges of any streamers so they're nice and tidy.

Hollandaise Sauce;

4 egg yolks
Juice from ½ a fresh lemon
1tblsp water
Sea salt to taste
Ground white pepper to taste
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup melted butter

Method;

Place a pan of water over a high heat and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, and water in a small metal bowl that will fit snuggly on top of the pot. Whisk the mixture constantly over very low heat until the eggs double in volume and thicken. Immediately remove the pan from the heat but continue whisking for 1 minute. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cool slightly.
Drizzle in the melted (but not hot) butter in a slow, steady stream, whisking all the time, until it is well-incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary. Be careful at this stage that you do not add the butter to quickly as it may split.
To keep warm; place the Hollandaise Sauce in a bowl over hot water, stirring occasionally.

To complete;

Start by preparing the Hollandaise Sauce. Keep it warm but do not let it boil.
Start the water for the eggs. Warm the ham slices, and toast and butter the muffins or crumpets. Keep them warm in a warm oven.
Finish preparing the Poached Eggs.
To assemble, place a slice of ham on top of each toasted English muffin half, place a poached egg on the ham, and spoon a little Hollandaise Sauce over the top. Serve immediately.

Irish Smoked salmon with poached eggs, hollandaise and potato bread

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Posted on Monday, 27 June 2011 11:16 | By: Tony

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My childrens favourite breakfast, we make this every Sunday morning.
Ireland is blessed with some of the best salmon in the world, even though wild salmon are getting harder and harder to find, Northern Ireland has a fantastic farm just of the coast at Glenarm. These fish are farmed out at sea in the strong tidal currants, which help the fish to develop strong musscular bodys similar to that of their wild cousins.
At the Merchant hotel all of our smoked salmon comes from Walter Ewing, he produces a fantastic quality of smoked salmon an has been for many years.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much my family and I do!!!


Ingredients;

2tbsp white wine vinegar
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
2tbsp water
1  lemon, zest and juice
200ml clarified butter, slightly warmed
to taste sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
4 slices smoked salmon
Potato farls (recipe follows)

Method;

Bring 2ltrs of water to a boil in large shallow pan. Add white wine vinegar to the water. Lower heat to simmer. Break eggs into six small bowls, one per bowl. Gently slide the eggs into simmering water. Poach until whites are firm, about 2 minutes. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon. Drain on a paper towel. Keep warm.
Combine egg yolks, water, lemon zest and juice in stainless steel bowl. Whisk over double boiler until light and fluffy. Remove from heat. Slowly whisk in clarified butter. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper.
Arrange the smoked salmon onto 4 serving plates; place a poached egg on top of the salmon and spoon over a little hollandaise.

Serve with some freshly made potato bread pan fried in butter.

For the Potato bread

Ingredients;

4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved      
1 pinch salt   
¼ cup plain flour, plus extra for dusting          
1tblsp melted butter


Method;

In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.
Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.
On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 20cm circle about 1cm thick. Cut into quarters using a floured knife; alternatively shape the potato bread into small cakes as we do in the merchant.
Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet or a dry frying pan and cook the farls
The potato cakes are now ready to use as you wish.

Pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup

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Posted on Saturday, 18 June 2011 13:41 | By: Tony

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Get the day off to a great start with these light, fluffy and fruity pancakes, perfect special breakfast or weekend brunch. Simple to make and very versatile, these pancakes can be served with any seasonal fruit or just simply stacked onto a plate and serve with whipped butter and maple syrup. Delicious!!!!



Serves 4

Ingredients;

150g self raising flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml milk                                                                                                                                                                                      
50g butter
250g blueberries                   
Maple syrup to serve

Method;

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the 2 eggs into the centre of the well, begin whisking the eggs, mix well.

Next gradually add small quantities of the milk, whisking continuously (don't worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk) until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thick cream. Now melt the 50g of butter in a pan. Spoon 2tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.

Place a large pan over high heat, turn the heat down to medium and spoon the batter into the hot pan, you should be able to get 3-4 pancakes in the pan depending on its size. It should take only a minute or so to cook; flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute on the other side.
Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper to stop them from sticking together.

To serve, stack the pancakes onto a serving plate and arrange the blueberries on top, pour over the maple syrup and serve at once.


Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter

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13:37 | By: Tony

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I love this recipe; it is a fantastic treat that can be served for a special breakfast, a sweet brunch or to end an evening meal as a dessert.  Get the children involved in making this dish, I have found that they can’t get enough of it and it is a great introduction for getting your kids into the kitchen and more involved in cooking. I have found that once the children have a go at cooking they love it and the more you cook with them the more familiar they become with different ingredients and in turn the more they start to enjoy food.

Ingredients;

Hot Cakes;

300ml Ricotta cheese
200ml Milk
4 Eggs separated
120g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking powder
1 Pinch of Salt
50g Butter
Fresh strawberry halved
Icing sugar for dusting

Honeycomb Butter;

250g unsalted Butter softened
100g sugar honeycomb crushed with a rolling pin
2tblsp Honey

Method;

Hot Cakes;

Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix well to combine.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.
Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2tblsp of batter per hotcake into the pan (don't cook more than 3 per batch).
Cook the hotcakes over a low to medium heat until golden brown.
Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.
Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.
Stack 3 hotcakes on a plate and top with strawberries and a slice of honeycomb butter.
Dust with icing sugar.

Honeycomb Butter;

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours.
Store leftover honeycomb butter in the fridge for up to 24 hours, or in the freezer - it's great on toast.

Basic Omelette

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Posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 15:57 | By: Tony

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This recipe is for the base 3 egg omelette, once you master how to make the perfect omelette you will be able to experiment adding any ingredients you wish. A favourite of mine would have to be the simple Glebe Breton cheese and dry cured Irish Moyallen ham.

Ingredients;       

3 eggs
2tblsp clarified butter
Seasoning
50g Glebe Breton cheese

Method;

Break the eggs into a bowl, add 1 spoonful of clarified butter and beat lightly with a fork, when the eggs have been mixed season with salt and pepper.
Heat a frying pan about 20cm until very hot, add the remaining butter and spread it over the surface of the pan, quickly pour the eggs into the pan. Keep stirring the eggs with the fork and shaking the pan at the same time. When the omelette is set underneath (but still runny on the top), sprinkle the cheese over the middle, cook for a further 30 seconds. Fold both side of the omelette into the centre, roll onto a serving plate and serve at once.

The perfect start to the day;

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15:17 | By: Tony

Category:

The Merchant Fry



What better way to start the day (only not too often), than a traditional fry up. All of the U.K and Ireland have their own version of a fry, some contain hash browns or baked beans, I’ve even had one with tinned tomatoes ‘Horrendous!!’, but what makes our Ulster fry unique is the addition of potato farls and soda bread as well as all of our fantastic local produce.
All of the ingredients that we use at the Merchant hotel for our fry are sourced from the best of Irish produce; I have added the names of the producers in the ingredients list below. They are well worth trying to source as this will make you fully appreciate why the fry has become one of our national dishes.

Ingredients;

4 slices Stautons black pudding    
4 slices Stautons white pudding                  
8 McCartney’s of Moira breakfast sausages        
8 slices  Moyallen dry cured bacon                     
4 Large field mushrooms                           
4 oven roasted tomatoes                                                                                     
4 Home made soda farls (recipe follows)  
4 Home made potato bread (recipe follows)                    
4 Organic eggs, lightly fired in Irish butter

Method;

For the perfect fry, cook the sausages first in a little vegetable oil and butter, remove from the pan and keep warm, cook all of the other ingredients until they are all cooked through.
To serve, place 1 slice of white pudding, one slice of black pudding, 2 sausages, 2 slices of bacon, 1 cooked field mushroom, 1 tomato, 1 potato bread, 1 soda bread and 1 egg per plate serve at once and enjoy.

Potato Farl

The word farl originates from the Gaelic word ‘fardel’, meaning four parts. These potato cakes are best cooked on a griddle and served hot with Irish salted butter, but are best served alongside soda bread as part of our famous Ulster fry.


Ingredients;

4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved      
1 pinch salt   
¼ cup plain flour, plus extra for dusting          
1tblsp melted butter





Method;

In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.
Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.
On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 20cm circle about 1cm thick. Cut into quarters using a floured knife; alternatively shape the potato bread into small cakes as we do in the merchant.
Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet or a dry frying pan and cook the farls for 3 minutes on each side or until evenly browned.
The potato cakes are now ready to use as you wish.



Soda bread

Ingredients;

600g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of sugar
1tsp vegetable oil
600ml buttermilk

Method;

Sift together all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk and mix together. Turn onto a work surface and knead lightly for a couple of minutes.
Work the mixture into large flat cakes 1cm thick, any thicker and they will not cook properly, alternatively you can work the mixture into small cakes as we do in the Merchant.
Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium heat, sprinkle a little flour into the dry pan and place the soda farls in the pan, cook for 6-10mins on each side, make sure the heat does not get to hot or the farls will burn.
The soda farls are now ready to use as you wish, but I personally recommend split in half with a good helping of Irish butter

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