Recipes: What a cracker

CHEESE AND GARLIC ROAST MUSHROOM SCRAMBLED EGGS

The garlic roast mushrooms can be prepared and cooked a day ahead. The cheese can be grated a day in advance too, which speeds up this simple dish to make it true convenience food. Serve the scrambled eggs piled on buttered toast, and with a simple leaf salad.

SERVES 2

For the roast mushrooms:

8oz/225g mushrooms, wiped, chopped and mixed with
1-2 cloves of garlic, skinned and diced finely, and
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the scrambled eggs:

2oz/55g butter (or Buttery Benecol)
4-6 large eggs – how many depends on the appetites of those eating
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of black pepper
a dash of Tabasco (optional)
2oz/55g grated good Cheddar cheese (I use Isle of Mull Cheddar at Kinloch)

Spread the chopped mushrooms mixed with garlic and olive oil on a baking tray and roast in a hot oven, 200C/ 400F/Gas Mark 6, for 20 minutes.

To cook the scrambled eggs, melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan. Beat together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and Tabasco (if you are using it). Pour the egg mixture in the foaming and melted butter and stir, over a moderate heat, until the mixture starts to thicken. Stirring is essential. Beware overcooking the eggs – draw the pan off the heat, or reduce the heat under the pan, should the eggs begin to solidify. While the eggs are still fairly runny, stir in the roast mushrooms and grated cheese, and stir until the scrambled eggs are the consistency you like. Some people prefer them better cooked than others. Spoon them immediately onto the hot buttered toast on 2 warmed serving plates.

HARD-BOILED EGGS WITH CURRY MAYONNAISE ON BOILED RICE WITH TOASTED ALMONDS AND SULTANAS

This is a do-ahead main course for warm weather.

SERVES 2

4-6 eggs

For the mayonnaise:

1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of black pepper
1 teaspoon medium strength curry powder
1 teaspoon honey – dip the spoon in very hot water for several seconds before spooning the honey, then it will slip easily from the spoon into the food processor bowl
1/4 pint/140ml olive oil
1-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

For the rice salad:

4oz/110g long grain rice (I use Basmati)
2 strips of lemon peel, pared from a lemon using a potato peeler to avoid any bitter white pith
1 level teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2oz/55g sultanas
2oz/55g flaked almonds, dry fried to lightly toast them
1 tablespoon chopped parsley and snipped chives, mixed

Start by making the mayonnaise. Put the egg, salt, pepper, curry powder and honey into a food processor and whiz. Still whizzing, add the olive oil, drip by drip until an emulsion forms, then in a thin, steady trickle until the olive oil is all amalgamated. Whiz in 1 tablespoon of the white wine vinegar, taste, and add more if you like a slightly sharper flavour to your mayonnaise. If it is a bit thick, whiz in a tablespoon of nearly boiling water to thin it down slightly.

To make the salad, boil the rice in plenty of salted water with the strips of lemon rind for about 5 minutes. Test a grain of rice and, if you like it softer, continue to boil for a further couple of minutes. Drain in a large sieve, under running cold water. When thoroughly drained, tip the rice into a mixing bowl. Mix in the olive oil, sultanas, flaked almonds and chopped parsley and chives. Taste, and mix in salt if you think it is needed. Cover the bowl and store in the fridge, overnight if this is more convenient – but be sure to let the rice salad sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving. This takes off the chill from the fridge, which numbs flavour.

Hard-boil the eggs by putting them into a saucepan and immersing them in cold water. Over a fairly high heat, bring the water to simmering point and simmer for 5 minutes. Then run cold water through the eggs in the saucepan. When the eggs are cold, shell them and cut each in half lengthways. Arrange the halves on a small serving plate, flat side down, and pour the curry mayonnaise over them.

NB If you don't like curry, add four anchovy fillets, drained of their oil, or three teaspoons of anchovy paste, to the mayonnaise; leave out the salt, because the anchovies will be sufficiently salty. The rice salad goes equally well with this version.

EGGS FLORENTINE

This dish can be made entirely in advance, and grilled before serving. Some recipes make a rich purée of the wilted spinach, mixing it with cream or butter, but I think there is sufficient richness in the cheese sauce and melted cheese on top.

Serves 2

4-6 eggs
1lb/450g young spinach leaves

For the cheese sauce:

2oz/55g butter
1 rounded tablespoon flour
3/4 pint/430ml milk
a good grating of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of black pepper
4oz/110g grated Cheddar cheese, plus 1oz/28g grated Parmesan

Divide the grated Cheddar into two equal amounts, one to go in the sauce, the other, mixed with the grated Parmesan, to scatter over the surface of the finished Florentine. Cook the eggs by putting them into a saucepan and immersing them in cold water. Bring the water to simmering point and simmer for 4 minutes. Run cold water through the eggs in their pan, and, when the eggs are cooled, shell them but leave them whole. The yolks should be just soft when eaten.

Meanwhile, cram the spinach into a saucepan containing 1cm of water, cover the pan with its lid and cook on a fairly high heat for just a minute or until the spinach wilts. Drain the spinach into a colander or sieve, and, when cool, squeeze out any excess liquid. Put the spinach into a bowl and chop it – easiest done using scissors.

Rub out an ovenproof dish with olive oil and place the wilted and chopped spinach over the base. Arrange the eggs on top of the spinach.

Make the cheese sauce by melting the butter and stirring in the flour. Let this cook for a minute before gradually adding the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce boils. Let it simmer gently for a minute, then draw the pan off the heat, stir in half the grated Cheddar cheese, the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Pour this sauce over the eggs and spinach in the dish. Cover the surface with the remaining grated cheese.

Before serving, heat a grill and place the dish under it until the cheese has melted to a molten golden crust. Remove the dish from under the grill, and serve immediately. This is good with a tomato salad.