Leftover Roast Frittata

My biggest dislike in the kitchen is throwing out spoiled food. Thinking up easy ways of using up leftovers has therefore become a bit of a hobby of mine. My only rule with repurposing leftovers is that it must not require many new ingredients or else you end up with MORE leftovers. 

We almost always have flour, noodles and stock in the kitchen so many of our left over dishes end up in fried noodles, mixed soups and pizza 

A lot of these dishes can be a bit heavy and I found myself wanting to repurpose the leftovers from the previous nights' roast into something light for brunch. We had just received a carton of eggs from our uncle's chickens so a frittata seemed like a natural choice.

Following the golden rule, the only extra ingredients this required was 4 eggs, some oil and some thyme. You can also use the time the frittata is baking in the oven to make some cool smoothies or a nice cup of tea.

What do you make with your leftovers?

Happy brunching!

Leftover Roast Frittata (Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 tsp oil 
2 cups roast vegetables, cut into 2cm-5cm chunks
4 eggs, beaten
1 sprig thyme

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
2. Heat oil in an ovenproof pan on medium heat.
3. Spread roast vegetables evenly in the pan and stir around for 2 minutes until they have crisped up a little.
4. Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and let it sit for about 2 minutes.
5. Sprinkle thyme over the top and place the pan in the oven for 10 minutes or until the egg has puffed up and is no longer runny.
6. Serve.

Two Recipes for Pancake Day

Throughout high school, I had a friend who wasn't particularly religious except when it came to Lent. During this period, I would hear nothing but how lucky the rest of us were to have access to any food we want to eat and how utterly deprived she would be for the next 40 days.

While I wasn't envious of her position, the idea of Shrove Tuesday was quite appealing. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent, where those participating indulge in the food they will be sacrificing during the fast. Pancakes are traditionally eaten as a way to use up rich expensive foods such as eggs, milk and sugar that would have to be given up. 

This year, Pancake Day takes place on February 17th so I have two recipes for you to try out - one is a subtle Chai Tea Pancake and the other is a very easy and gluten free Banana Pancake.

Chai Tea Pancakes

The Chai Tea Pancake provides a subtle spice to the usual pancake recipe -it's my favourite tea in pancake form! You can use a store bought chai tea, syrup or even make your own with this recipe. 

Banana and Eggs

If you're short of time, the Two Ingredient Banana Pancake may suit you better. The only ingredients required are eggs and bananas. I like to fry these pancakes in salted butter as it contrasts with the sweetness from the banana. The eggs bind everything together so no flour is required -perfect for those who are gluten intolerant. I also find that the sweetness of the banana is enough so that sweet toppings are not required.

Two Ingredient Banana Pancake

Luckily, we are not limited to one day a year for eating pancakes. They can be had every single day -even for dinner if you are that way inclined! Pancakes are a treat in my house because it's Jason's job to fry them so I feel super spoilt!

Two Pancake Recipes

Chai Tea Pancakes (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 cup strong chai tea, freshly brewed (use a store bought mix or make your own)
1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

Method:

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl
2. Add egg, mixing to combine
3. Add milk and gradually stir in the chai tea, mixing until you get a smooth batter. Chill for 1 hour
4. Add a enough chai tea to bring the batter up to a pour-able consistency.
5. Add a little butter to a heated pan and pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan
6. When bubbles start to form on the surface, flip the pancake and cook on the other side
7. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Stack the pancakes as you cook and enjoy with a topping of honey

Two Ingredient Banana Pancakes (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
2 eggs

salted butter for frying

Method:

1. Break up the banana and add the eggs to a bowl
2. Mash the two ingredients together with a potato masher or a fork to remove all the lumps
3. Add a little butter to a heated pan and pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan
4. When bubbles start to form on the surface, flip the pancake and cook on the other side
5. Repeat with the rest of the batter and serve when done

Cafe People

I don't often wander into Ponsonby for breakfast but when I do, it has to be good. 

Jason and I visited Cafe People on a cold Sunday morning because we had a Zomato voucher and were in the area for a little shopping. I first visited a few months ago for a great lunch and was quietly optimistic for this breakfast experience.

The interior is modern, with simple furniture. We admired the spray painted murals on the wall while we waited for our drinks. 

Hot Chocolate, Chai Latte

We were quite pleased with our drinks which were not sickly sweet as we've experienced at other cafes. Jason's hot chocolate had a good amount of cocoa while my chai was wonderfully spicy.

Hash Cake - $17.50

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when my Hash Cake arrived. The plating looked a bit sloppy and the bright yellow hollandaise sauce scared me a little. 

Luckily, the flavours were spot on. The hash cake was made up both diced and mashed potato which gave it a great texture. The mushrooms were well seasoned and the egg was perfectly poached. The only let down was the slightly sour hollandaise.

Classic Breakfast - $22.00

Jason's Classic Breakfast was quite similar to my breakfast with the addition of a pork and fennel sausage, roasted tomatoes and toasted ciabatta bread. The plating was more appetising than the hash cakes and the taste was great! The sausage was delicious while the tomatoes added a nice burst of flavour to the rest of the meal. 

We left Cafe People very full and pretty satisfied. The hot drinks were great and the food, despite the plating, was great!

Cafe People is located at 38 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland



Lucy and Jason dined with a voucher from Zomato.

Breakfast at Jason's

I am not one for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I love sitting down to a nice omelette or a yummy stack of pancakes with a massive helping of bacon. It's just that I need my sleep and often sacrifice nourishment for an extra half an hour of sleep. No, I don't want cereal. I don't like it. It's gross. Call me picky.

Buttermilk pancakes with a banana smoothie

Jason, however, is the opposite. The boy needs breakfast to function. And he likes Weetbix! For those of you who don't know, Weetbix is the name of New Zealand's number 1 breakfast cereal ("Kiwi Kids are Weetbix Kids" anyone?). 

These high-fibre breakfast biscuits were once the bane of my life. 

I have yet to find a cereal that I like.

In a time when my mother was in charge of my meals and I, the helpless primary school child, was unable to make my own food I was forced to eat one Weetbix biscuit drowned in a glass of hot milk every morning before school. Whenever "how many can you do" commercials came on, I would stare at the screen in pure hatred and answer "Just one. You can do 9? Do you hate yourself?" I am NOT a Weetbix kid. I wish I could do this to them.

Ingredients: Cultured buttermilk, salt, baking powder, eggs and flour

Cooked breakfasts is what I live for and, with our lazy Sundays, we sure have the time to make them -and clean up afterward. Pancakes are one of the easiest things to make and with my newest discovery, buttermilk, they are now the fluffiest breakfast foods to have. I cannot stress how easy they are -get your kid involved or make a younger sibling your kitchen slave!

Make sure the batter is free of flour lumps.

Another good thing about pancakes is that you can literally find all the necessary ingredients in any normal kitchen so there is no excuse not to have a great breakfast (unless you like your sleep).You can also make this batter in advance and keep it in the fridge for a quick meal -I have been meaning to do this for a while now but I keep forgetting and throwing my empty milk bottles away. Sigh.

Step 4: Wait until the top starts bubbling before you flip your pancake over

This is what it looks like on the other side

What's the perfect accompaniment to a pancake stack? Besides maple syrup or lemon and sugar I mean. Milkshakes, of course!

Milk, vanilla ice cream, bananas, glasses and a food processor

Jason's the expert when it comes to smoothies and milkshakes so I got to stand back and watched the master at work. Apparently I ruin smoothies by adding too much yoghurt. Excuse me for trying to be healthy.

Milkshake step 2: Add a few spoonfuls of your favourite vanilla ice cream and blend

I cannot fathom how easy it was to make this! They tasted exactly like cafe style milkshakes, except without the artificial syrups -I will never understand why they need fake banana flavour. No more will I order milkshakes from my local cafe -I will simply ask, very nicely, for Jason to make them =) In exchange for pancakes, of course. 

It's so fluffy I could die!

 And here is where I go on about how Buttermilk has, and will continue to, change my life for the better. Look how fluffy my pancakes are! I know that it's the baking powder but, deep down, I know that the buttermilk helped to make it extra light. Its flavor is also more complex, revealing a depth beyond just the syrup poured over the top.-I can practically taste the rainbows!

Lotti wanted a piece of the rainbow.. But it's all gone Muahahahaha!

 

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes (2 to 3 servings)

Note: Milkshake will only be part of your meal if you actually make it

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs 
Buttermilk, enough to make a pourable batter (depends on your tastes)

Method:

1. Combine dry ingredients

2. Crack in eggs and add enough milk to make batter pourable (ours is a little thick -if you like thin pancakes, aim for a runny mixture aka more milk)

3. Mix to blend. Adjust milk and flour ratio if needed

4. Melt butter in pan (be careful not to burn it) and cook until bubbly, a little dry around the edges, and lightly browned on the bottom

5. Flip over until cooked

6. Drizzle with your favourite toppings

Note: You can make normal pancakes by swapping out buttermilk for normal milk, but why would you?

Jason's Banana Milkshake (2 servings)

Delicious

Ingredients:

 2 Bananas

Milk

Vanilla Ice Cream

Method:

1. Puree bananas in a food processor or blender (you might want to chop them up first)

2. Add a few spoonfuls of your favourite vanilla ice cream and blend

3. While mixing, pour in milk until you get the desired consistency

4. Give one glass to your girlfriend

Lotti gets her cafe hit at home

Yup, it's that good

I can no longer walk (26/12/10)

After the wonderfully seafoody meal from the night before, I had completely forgotten about my tooth extraction and, like an endless black hole of hunger, I was ready to be presented with more food. Yummy, yummy food.

You can actually find people like this guy creating deep fried miracles almost everywhere

We started the day by going downstairs for breakfast. This place is literally about 200m away from my nana's house. Breakfast in China is the cheapest I've ever seen and it really seems to hit the spot -mmm.. lots of oil and MSG.

Deep fried rice cakes and Guo Bian Hu

This whole meal cost us 5RMB (there's another bowl of Guo Bian Hu that my dad's hurriedly downing next to me).The Guo Bian Hu has been in Fuzhou for over 400 years and is a favourite of mine. The name "Guo Bian Hu" literally means the sticky stuff from the side of the pot -you know, when you're making porridge or congee? It's basically a really mushy rice soup with the bits from the sides of the pot -yum! The taste is soft and delicate reflecting whatever you want to put in it -this one had some oysters and parsley. 

The rice cakes are made from fine rice powder, formed into a paste and then deep fried. The result is a delicious soft center with a very thin crispy outer layer.

Savoury Donuts  -So cheap, so yummy, so very deep fried

Mum is hungry for more -and when you get 3 for 1RMB, who could resist? Unfortunately, Dad and I are way too full at this point and have to watch her eat the savoury donuts. These had baby oysters and cabbage in them -I wish my stomach was larger.

Look at the cutie baby!

After a quick breakfast (where we run into a lot of nana's neighbours) we go visiting! Today we are visiting more aunties and uncles. They have recently bought a new house so we were invited over for a tour. It looks like a freaking hotel! Also, see the cutie in the middle? That's my cousin's baby. Awesome.

食德福 -Shidefu

 So what happens two hours after breakfast? Lunch, of course! We decide to walk to Shidefu so we feel like we're at least making an effort to counter all the food we have been eating. It's not as flash as the place we went to the night before, but man can they cook!

Go ahead, pick whatever looks nice

Fresh seafood sold by the pound and cooked however you want

 The ordering system is much the same here except all the display dishes are not molds. Mother and I have a ball pointing at random dishes that catch our eye.

Bamboo shoots with Shitake mushrooms

 
The first dish to arrive is a stir fry of bamboo shoots and shitake mushrooms. The dish was full of flavour, the bamboo was wonderfully crunchy and the sauce was light and did not mask its woody flavour.

紅燒五花肉 -BBQ Five flower pork

Translated literally, 五花肉 is "five flower meat" -also a pretty way of saying really fatty pork belly (the different layers of fat apparently make a pretty pattern). This dish was about 80% fat (I counted the layers and then did some math).. Don't be grossed out though, it wasn't sickening at all -in fact, quite the opposite. This was my favourite dish. I'm not sure how a dish full of fat can taste light, but they managed it. The pork was lightly flavoured with a red wine infused BBQ sauce and every bite melted in my mouth and it was too easy to forget that I was eating layers and layers of pig fat.

Stirfried tofu skin with woodear

 The mix of different textures in this dish was incredible. The softness of the tofu skin went well with the crunchiness of the woodear and they were brought together with a delish sweet and sour sauce.

Deep Fried Prawns

The best thing about deep fried prawns is that you don't have to peel them. You can eat the whole thing! Yeah I'm lazy, but so what? It also means that you get all the flavour of the sauces and spices that are stuck to the shell instead of removing them along with the shell.

Deep fried frost fish

Here is Fuzhou's version of fish and chips. Each piece is cut into bite sized pieces, seasoned, lightly battered and then deep fried. I have to say that, if it weren't for the bones, I might prefer these to the deep fried fish at NZ takeaways..

Sauteed Frog -tastes like chicken

Hands up if you think frog tastes like chicken *Lucy puts both her hands up*. It even has little bones like the ones you get in chicken pieces! Oh well.. What I'm trying to say is that you simply must give frog a try -it tastes like chicken in every single way except it's frog!! This dish had a lovely sweet and sour sauce and the floury potato complimented chicken (uhh.. I mean frog) meat very well.

Left: Chicken and seaweed broth. Right: Savoury chives with steamed cornmeal buns

 I really love how all the soups come with their own gas cookers. The broth was very clear and the sea weed was flavoursome.

Stuffed cornmeal bun

 These were simply delicious! The cornmeal buns were very soft and sweet and complimented the savoury chives which were nice and crunchy. I had three.

Beef tendon broth

The Chinese have always been a health conscious bunch. I recall, as a child, being made to eat fish infused with Goji berries for my brain function or lots of chicken broth because it's good for some other reason. Benefits of eating tendons include promoting muscle growth, boosting metabolism, making your nails stronger and making it seem like you're chewing glue. I'm not a fan of the texture but the soup is nice and I'm sure I'd have to eat tendons more frequently to get any sort of benefit from it. I wonder if eating lots of jelly counts as a good source of gelatin..

Fried rice with pork floss

 Fried rice is yummy. Pork floss is yummy. Fried rice + pork floss = double yummy. It was beautiful. That is all.

Hong Shao (Red cooked) Pig Hocks

By this time we were all fantastically full (there was also a whole fish and giant plate of sauteed cabbage) but, being Asian, my aunt and uncle had to order more dishes so there were leftovers. According to the Chinese, being the perfect host means ordering/cooking so much food until your guests have stuffed themselves and can no longer move. Then, and only then, is your job done. Hong Shao, or "red-cooking"is a popular way to prepare meats in eastern parts of China. Simmering in dark soy sauce gives the meat a reddish color and the dish its name. These pig hocks went mostly uneaten. They were pretty awesome hosts.

ORTHODOX Coconut Milk??

食德福 is remarkably good value -all these dishes cost us 445RMB (a third of what we spent last night) and the food was nothing less than absolutely delicious. If you're ever traveling in Fuzhou and on a budget I really recommend this place!

Also, I can no longer walk. 

We are going out for dinner later tonight..


Again, if you're ever in Fuzhou and interested 食德福 can be found at 294 Hualin Rd, Fuzhou, Fujian, China. If you can read Chinese, click on the link and check our their reviews (overall 8.5/10!).

All grown up

Today is a Wednesday. Grace and I are proud mothers today. Seriously.

Not because it's a Wednesday. Not because we're pregnant. But because it's Kate's graduation day! To celebrate, we went to a special brekky at "Capers" and later on to "Saigon Van" for dinner with her family.

As we went inside, we were greeted by trendy salsa music, a warm atmosphere and really pretty photos of New Zealand for sale. 

Photos up for sale

Overly excited about the "Make your own breakfast"

We had originally decided to go to another cafe up the road for breakfast but their menu was very much lacking in variety so Kate suggested Capers which had a large selection. Am very satisfied. 

Kate's "Miner's Special" ($16.50)

Blueberry Smoothie ($6)

Kate's "Miner's Special" arrived first. It came with bacon, breakfast sausages and a hash brown all sitting on top of 2 MASSIVE pancakes. We did not anticipate the meal to be so large and she had to take half of it home. She is actually eating the leftovers right now.. The breakfast sausages tasted quite floury but, other than that, it was delish!

Grace's French Toast ($14)

The french toast was, originally, meant to come with fruit salad and yoghurt but, wanting a proper breakfast, Grace asked for bacon instead. Look at all the bacon she got! I forgot to ask her how her meal was. I was just excited by the shipload of bacon on her plate (with no extra charge!).

My Eggs Benedict ($15.50)

This was the best eggs benedict I've ever had. Hands down. The hollandaise sauce was creamy with only a hint of lemon. It was served on top of lightly toasted ciabatta bread (MUCH better accompaniment than boring old toast) with a side of bacon and a hash brown. I found the hash brown to be quite oily but Kate didn't mind the super deep-fried-ness though.

I love lamp.

Their lunch menu also looked quite amazing and, again, we were surprised at how reasonable the prices were. I found myself wishing we could spend more time in Dunedin so we could come back for lunch..

Also very impressed by the giant bottle of maple syrup on our table. Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade anyone to drink it..

We were very satisfied with our meals and had to sit down for about half an hour afterwards because we ate too much. It was OK though, there was plenty of art to look at and a map where you could mark where you were from.

Where are you from?

Will post about our dinner at Saigon Van when I get home.