CREAM SPINACH AND MUSHROOM BAKED EGGS

Gorgeous Go Slow Sunday Breakfast

This is a wonderful decadent breakfast dish, beautiful Wiltshire ham, butter braised onions, garlic, mushrooms and spinach set with a rich egg, double cream and parmesan sauce, every spoonful is a sumptuous joy, keep these portioned to a standard small ramekin as they are so rich you can’t eat any more than one!  This is a great easy crowd pleaser keeping holiday pressure to a minimum, you can easily cook 12-24 in one easy batch.

Prep time 5 minutes / Cooking time 16-18 minutes

Ingredients 

(makes 6)

2 spring onions chopped

10 mushrooms roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

200g fresh spinach

25g butter

1 glug olive oil

200g torn fresh ham of the bone

750ml double cream

100g Parmesan grated

6 organic eggs

Himalayan sea salt 

Fresh ground black pepper 

1 pinch fresh gratednutmeg

1 pinch dried chilli optional 

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 356 F, place a large deep roasting tin 3/4 filled with boiling water in the oven.  Heat a skillet medium hot, add the butter and olive oil sauté the onions and garlic for around five minutes then add the mushrooms for a further couple of minutes, add the cream and Parmesan, take off the heat, stir in the spinach, ham, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Divide half the mix between the six ramekins, crack one egg into each ramekin then top with remaining cream mix.

Place each ramekin in to a roasting tray and half fill the tray with boiling water, do this with the tray in the oven, bake for 14 minutes for soft gooey runny eggs or 18 minutes for set whites with a mollet just set yolk.  That’s it, remove and serve immediately, these are almost as good as leftovers cold from the fridge.

These are really versatile swap out cream add seared peppers and tomatoes for a huevos rancheros or 

TOM YUM GOONG SOUP

Sunshine for the Soul a so good for you bowl of abundance.  This gorgeous broth is so easy to make, so flavourful and versatile you can use any vegetables or herbs to hand and below is one of my favourite variation, just have fun with your favourite greens.  Step this up to become a Laksa by adding coconut milk, noodles and maybe more lime juice or by adding peanut butter for a rich and creamy satay twist.

What's more once you have some bone broth stored in your fridge you can whip up this meal in five minutes or treat yourself to a mug of soul pleasing soup in the same time it takes to make a fresh cup of coffee.

Ingredients 

(serves 2)

1 ltr chicken stock, bone broth

(poached chicken bone broth recipe below)

1 tbsp tom yum or more to taste

(homemade recipe below)

1/2 lime juiced

1 tsp turmeric

200g left over poached chicken

2 spring onions

1 red chilli finely diced

3 tbsp chopped coriander

2 big handfuls spinach

1 bunch watercress

6 spears asparagus

1 bunch broccoli florets

Bring the stock to a gentle simmer and add all the ingredients, simmer for a couple of minutes so that the broccoli and asparagus are cooked, taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt if needed.  Enjoy.

My geeky science bit...

Bone Broth Nutrients 

Chicken bone stock is so good for you, the broth water has calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, trace minerals, chodroitin sulphates and glucosamine, these latter two ingredients are expensive to buy as supplements, but they are found naturally in bone broths.  You need magnesium so your body and convert vitamin D into it's active form so that it can be used to absorb calcium.  We only need around 400mg of calcium a day, but the RDA says 1200mg, the reason for this is that we do not absorb all the calcium we eat, but if you have a balanced diet the extra calcium you absorb can lead to kidney stones and calcium in the blood stream and heart disease, chicken stock is anti viral, anti bacterial and scientifically proven to be 25% as effective as penicillin.

Asparagus vitamin B6, C, E, K, calcium, magnesium, zinc, beta carotene, iron, fibre, stimulates your kidneys, phosphorous, potassium, copper, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid, selenium, chromium, enhances ability of insulin to transport to glucose from your blood cells to amino acids.

Garlic allicin and selenium, cleans the liver, King of healing foods, fights food poisoning, stomach bugs bacteria, anti bacterial, anti viral and anti fungal, reduces risks of clots and cholesterol blood pressure and improves circulation.

Chilli eaten in large quantities is high in vitamin C, carotene, vitamin B, B6, potassium, magnesium and iron.

Onion vitamin C, B6, folic acid, phenolic so flavonoids, anti inflammatory, lowers cholesterol and is an anti oxidant.

Watercress purifies blood, gives you iodine when eaten raw, vitamin A, anti bacterial mustard oils, betacarotenes, iron, phenethy, isothiocganate, vitamin C, E.

Celery has coumarins, potassium and vitamin C.

Carrots juiced are a detox cleaner for healthy liver and kidney functions, anti bacterial and anti viral, protect capillaries, chest, skin and eyes, vitamin C, E, A and B2.

Chicken Bone Broth

(makes 3 ltrs)

1 organic chicken

1 onion halved

3 carrots peeled

1 stick celery halved

2 leeks quartered

1 bulb garlic halved

1 tbsp sea salt

10 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs fresh thyme

3" piece of ginger bashed

1 stalk lemon grass bashed

1 lemon halved and squeezed

Place all the ingredients in a large stock pot and pour in around 4 litres of water to cover the chicken, bring to a gentle just simmer and leave to poach away for around 1.5 - 2 hours, take off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in the broth for an hour or so this allows the chicken meat to absorb some of the gorgeous cooking juices and makes the chicken the moistest you will have ever eaten.

Remove the chicken and stock vegetables from the poaching stock liquid, taste the stock and either season with more sea salt or reduce the volume down to intensify the flavour of the broth.  

Remove all the meat from the chicken and add back to the broth, pour the broth in to a large jug or one litre mason jars and store in the fridge ready to go when you need it.  This freezes really well at this stage too.

Tom Yum Sambal 

Fabulous vibrant zingy authentic fresh Thai tom yum paste, this is so good you will never buy a shop brought jar again I promise!  Fairly quick to make and considering most original families in South East Asia do make their pastes and sambal fresh every day may inspire you to do so too, having said that the quantity of this jar will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks if it lasts that long!  This is a staple in my family fridge.  Recipes: for Tom Yum Soup and Bone Broth below.

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 5 minutes 

Ingredients

(makes 1 small jar / 10 portions)

50g dried chillies soaked in 200ml hot water

2 tbsp tamarind pulp

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 lime zested or 1 lime leaf finely chopped

1 lime juiced

3/4 tbsp coriander seeds ground

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

1 tsp finely grated galangal

1 stick lemon grass finely chopped

1 small red onion finely chopped

3/4 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

3/4 tbsp coconut oil

Place all the ingredients except the coconut oil in your food processor and blitz to a paste, or finely chop by hand and leave at that or pound to a paste in a pestle and mortar.  Add the coconut oil to a pan and melt on a medium heat add the tom yum paste to your pan and cook for around five minutes until medium thick.  That's it! Now to store...

THAI RED CURRY CHICKPEA AND SWEET POTATO

Gorgeous creamy coconut curry with fresh zesty aromatic flavours this Thai curry is one of my favourites, I adore chickpeas and sweet potato and this is a great comforting bowl of happiness.

Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients 
(serves 4)

The Curry

1 onion finely diced

1 garlic clove finely diced 

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 can drained chickpeas 

1 large sweet potato peeled diced

1 tbsp red Thai curry paste

1 tbsp harissa

1 can coconut cream

The Fixings

1 lime juiced

4 tbsp fresh chopped coriander 

1 tbsp peanut butter

Himalayan sea salt optional

Fresh ground black pepper optional

Crushed chilli flakes optional

heat the coconut oil medium hot soften the onions and garlic for five minutes add the chickpeas and sweet potato and cook for five more minutes add the coconut milk, red Thai curry paste and harissa, leave to gently simmer for around ten minutes until the sweet potato is fork tender.  Add your choice of fixings I add them all!  Enjoy.

ULTIMATE DECEDENT CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Ultimate indulgence with ZERO consequences and bonus health benefits, a decedent rich spoon loving chocolate pudding that is super good for you and will satisfy any craving’s.

The healthy science bit...

High quality cacao is such a super food, the flavanoids in the cacao prevent fat like substances from oxidising in the blood stream and from clogging up the arteries.  Cacao is powerful on the central nervous system, so over indulging could interfere with calcium retention.  60g a day is a good healthy guide.  In it's raw form it contains anandamide this induces euphoria, along with phenylethylamine which both are mood enhancers.  There is a question that adding dairy to your cacao inhibits the absorption of nutrients, coconut milk is a great substitute.

The avocado has vitamin B6, K, C, E, avocado's are a perfect food that produces compounds necessary for your liver to cleanse toxins.  67% mono-unsaturated good fats as oleic acid, 19% fat as palmittic acid & linoleic acid, 14% saturated fat, potassium, folic acid, iron, maganese, zinc, copper, selenium, calcium, high in fibre and helpful in lowering blood cholesterol and relaxing arteries.

The coconut milk is rich in fibre, vitamin C, E, B1, B3, B5, iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magesium, phosphorous and is lactose free.

Cooking time 5 minutes / Level: Super easy

INGREDIENTS

(serves 3)

1 very ripe avocado

2 tsps honey (optional)

1 tsp vanilla pod caviar (optional)

100ml coconut cream

1/4 cup of good quality cacao powder

Or

100g melted 70%-85% organic Green and Blacks chocolate 

Optional chopped nuts, seeds, fresh mint

So quick and simple, just place all the ingredients in a blender and whizz until smooth, this will keep for a week in the fridge, you don't need a large portion of this as it is very rich, a little goes a long way, which means you can have this more often.

My husband will not eat honey or vanilla so I melt a bar of green and blacks chocolate instead of using cacao powder to lessen the bitterness from not adding the honey and vanilla and serve his puddings with double cream.