Weekday Recipes

Former Member

Midweek and you come home tired from a busy day and don't feel much like cooking; I know the feeling well. So you look in the fridge and lo and behold, see a pack of bacon. And you have a large loaf of brown wholewheat bread, like Hovis.

Bacon Sarnies for 2 people. What could be simpler and more delicious, especially when you're not up to cooking?

You'll need:
16 rashers of streaky bacon (smoked or unsmoked), the best quality you can buy. Like thick cut butcher's bacon.
a large wholewheat loaf or a Hovis - 4 long slices*
Tomato ketchup or HP Sauce

Gently fry your bacon, not too fast or the rashers will harden; about medium heat. Get them nicely browned both sides, but soft when you bit into them
While the bacon is doing, cut your loaf lengthways. Yep - lengthways*
Pop each end into the toaster and when browned to your liking, flip the other ends in
By which time your bacon is nearly done.
Butter your toast, OR, use the bacon dripping instead
Divide the bacon between two of the pieces of the hot buttered toast - 8 pigging rashers each! Wow what a sight! :d
Add ketchup (or HP sauce), then top with the remaining slices of bread, butter-side down
Press them down with your hands
Cut in half, transfer to a plate and tuck in. Yum!

Former Member

Ham and Potato Cakes

A great, easy, midweek or lazy weekend breakfast – serve with fried or poached eggs. You could also add a small handful of grated cheddar cheese, if you like. Serves four.

750g floury potatoes, peeled
1 egg, lightly beaten
About 200g leftover cooked ham, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
3 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
½ tsp English mustard powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Groundnut oil or sunflower oil, for cooking

Put the potatoes into a large saucepan, cover with cold, salted water, bring to a boil and cook until tender. Drain into a cloander and leave to steam for a couple of minutes. Return the spuds to the pan, mash them – you want to keep them slightly chunky – and set aside to cool.

Tip the potatoes into a bowl and stir in the egg, ham, spring onions, parsley, chives and mustard, and season generously. Divide the mixture into 10-12 pieces and form each one into a cake about 2cm thick.

Warm the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and cook the cakes in batches – don't crowd the pan – for about four to five minutes a side, until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with poached or fried eggs.

Former Member

Rösti
by Felicity Cloake

There is just something so appealing when seeing a fried egg or a poached perched majestically on a lovely piece of home made rösti! Of course, they're glorious plain, but a rösti can be made into a complete meal with the addition of onion, bacon and nutty Alpine cheese, or a good Cheddar if you prefer. All you really need for a good rösti, however, is some firm potatoes, parboiled to give a soft melting interior, and fried in plenty of hot butter and goose fat until crisp, and a few mountains to climb to work up an appetite.

Serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main course

2 medium-sized waxy potatoes
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp goose fat

1. Parboil the potatoes in salted water until just tender, but not soft. Allow to cool, and chill for at least a couple of hours.

2. Coarsely grate the potatoes and season. Heat half the fat in a small, heavy-based frying pan until sizzling, and then add the grated potato, allow to cook for a couple of minutes and then shape it into a flat cake, pressing down as lightly as possible. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes, then gently shake the pan to loosen the potato.

3. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes until golden and crisp, then place a plate on top of the pan and invert it so the cake sits, cooked-side up, on the plate.

4. Add the rest of the butter and goose fat to the pan and, when hot, slide the potato cake back into the pan the other way up. Cook for another 10 minutes, then serve.