I've never really thought much of breakfast. In the weekday, I would much rather get an extra 15 minutes of sleep than get up early to make something nice to eat. I want a breakfast thats quick, easy to eat and will fill me up for at least a few hours before I treat myself with a mid-morning snack. As you can imagine, this severely limits my choices and is probably why I find breakfast so boring.
On the weekend however, not only do I have the time to actually cook breakfast, but I also have the time to sit down and enjoy it. I made enough to feed five and the potato rosti came out surprisingly well - it was crisp yet soft in the middle and pretty easy to make too.
Smoked salmon rosti with a poached egg, watercress and sour cream & chive
Vanilla french toast with condensed milk
I have a major sweet tooth, so of course, you can't have something savoury without something sweet too.
Lychee & Raspberry Smoothie
And to wash it all down, I made an incredibly simple and tasty lychee and raspberry smoothie. The lychees gave the smooothie just the right amount of sweetness and a great refreshing taste to wake you up in the morning.
I'll definitely be making the rosti again in the future, it was filling yet not too stodgy and you can always switch it up with different toppings to keep it interesting.
INGREDIENTS:
For the rosti (makes 4):
500g white baking potatoes
55g butter, melted
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tbs olive oil
4 handfuls of watercress
A pack of smoked salmon
sour cream
fresh chives, finely chopped
This recipe makes 1 large 10" rosti that can be sliced into 4 portions. For separate portions, you can divide the rosti mixture into 4 portions and cook with smaller pans. If you don't have 4 frying pans to do this with, you can always keep the cooked rostis warm in a low-heated oven while you continue cooking.
Wash the potatoes and dry them with paper towels. Placing a clean paper towel on to the work surface, grate the potatoes on to the towel. The original recipe calls for a julienned blade mandoline but a standard cheese grater will also work. Try and get most of the moisture away from the grated potatoes by squeezing the liquid away or press another paper towel on top of the shredded potatoes.
Put the grated potatoes into a large bowl and mix in the melted butter. Add the salt and pepper seasoning and combine. Heat the pan on medium heat and add the oil. When hot enough, put the entire mixture into the pan and cook for around 8 minutes and then increase the heat to medium high for 6 minutes to get a nice crisp.
When ready, flip the rosti quickly (but securely) onto a relatively flat plate or pizza pan. Slide the rosti back into the pan to cook the other side until crispy. Place the rosti in a low-heated oven to keep warm.
Poach an egg to your desired runniness. Slice the rosti into 4 and plate, placing the watercress, poached egg, smoked salmon, sour cream and chives attractively on top.
For the vanilla french toast (makes 4 slices):
2 medium eggs
150ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
4 slices of white bread, each sliced into fours
condensed milk for topping or other preferred sauces
Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla essence together in a deep-rimmed plate (for easy bread dipping). Heat a pan on medium high heat. When ready add a small amount of butter. Soak the bread on both sides into the mixture and place in the heated pan. Flip the bread when it is browned and crispy and do the same to the other side. Repeat with remaining slices.
Finish with your desired sauce or syrup on top.
For the lychee and raspberry smoothie (makes 4 small or 2 large glasses):
1 tin of lychees in syrup
1 small punnet of raspberries
200g Greek yoghurt
a small amount of milk
Place all the ingredients apart from the milk into a blender and mix until smooth. Taste and add a small amount of milk at a time until it reaches the right thickness for you.
