Cape Town by Mouth

Tasty breakfast treat. Along with our freshly pressed juice this is how we start our day. Requires a bit of planning though as you need to prepare it the evening before.

For two

1 cup rolled oats – resident oat snob tells me they should be steel cut (normal ones are just fine!)

handful dried apricots/peaches

raisins

1 cup apple juice (freshly pressed) (if not a cloudy one)

3/4 cup of yogurt

1 grated apple

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix everything together in a  bowl and cover with cling film. Let it soak overnight in the fridge. Enjoy in the morning with a handful of toasted nuts (pistachios, almonds, walnuts for us today)

Comfort food delight… I think the secret to a great banana bread is buttermilk and canola oil. Come to think of it that combo works for a lot of baked goodies.

Moist bananabread

2 eggs
1 dl buttermilk
1 dl canola oil
2 medium bananas
2.5 dl brown sugar
3.5 dl flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
50 g chopped pecans/walnuts

Heat oven to 200C. Oil a loaf pan and line the bottom with baking paper (works well for other recipes as well if you hate having something stuck to the bottom).

Beat the eggs enough to break them upp and combine with buttermilk, oil and mashed bananas. Sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Add to banana mixture and stir in pecans. Mix well. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake 45 for minutes.

Eggs benedict has got to be one of my favorite breakfast dishes. However poaching eggs has often resulted in some boiling water with floaty bits and an empty tummy.

There is a cheating way of doing it that I think was made famous by Aussie masterchef. You line a little bowl with cling film and pour some vegetable oil onto it. You break the egg into this and make a little parcel that you dip into boiling water for three minutes. The cling film is a bit icky for me so here is how I do it and all of these four things are essential:

- fresh fresh eggs, don’t try it with old ones
- 1tbsp of vinegar
- simmering not boiling water
- dying whirlpool

So first break your fresh egg into a little bowl. Heat the water to a simmer in a medium sized pot and pour in a bit of vinegar (I usually have apple cider vinegar lying around). With a wooden spatula stir the simmering water until it makes a whirlpool. Let this whirlpool almost flatten out. When there is still a little dip in the water pour the egg in quickly from just above the water. Three minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon and you are done.

This is known as my famous french toast amongst my friends, but I have to admit that I learned it from a dear venezuelan friend, Rolando, on a weekend trip to Champagne.

1 loaf of brioche sliced into 1.5-2cm loaves (this is important, don’t use white bread. In Finland try using a pullapitko and in SA or elsewhere the Jewish Kitka bread, you may need to add more sugar though)
butter (no margarine)
6dl milk
2 eggs
3 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of salt
2tbsp of ground cinnamon

caramelized bananas
2 ripe bananas sliced
butter (yes more butter)

Do the bananas first so the french toast doesn’t get cold. Fry bananas in butter until mushy and slightly brown. Whisk all the ingredients and soak the brioche in the mixture. Fry in butter on a nice hot pan until brown and tasty. Serve with sourcream, maple syrup and the bananas.