Sunday breakfast: Sausage and egg muffin

Leftovers are either a delight or a bane on your life. I only like to eat the same thing about three times in a row. Any more and I end up balefully staring at the remainders in the fridge, wishing they’d disappear of their own accord. Which is why I plan to upgrade my fridge in the next few months so I can have a larger freezer to portion out food. My fridge is tiny and the freezer compartment is even smaller.

On Sunday morning I woke up ravenous and had two options. Cook or walk down to the nearby farmers markets. I really need to save a bit more money since I’ve been wishing to renovate my kitchen for over a year now with no progress in sight. So I opened the fridge and decided to make my own take on a sausage and egg muffin. I love English muffins. Toasted, then topped with a dollop of hummous, a slice of ripe tomato, fresh herbs and cracked pepper? Hmm, delicious. Okay okay, I have to focus!

A few days beforehand I’d baked a borek and I had a small amount of leftover filling. I’d based the flavours loosely on an Italian sausage so it contained fresh fennel, pork, onion, fennel fronds and spices. I toasted my muffins, fried up an egg and gently heated some of the filling in the same pan. A squeeze of sriracha over egg and voila! A breakfast that tastes good in its own right.

A glass of juice completed the meal and I think we can safely say that these particular leftovers fall firmly into the delight category.

Rosewater raspberry coulis

If you like floral flavours, then this is for you. Inspired by a rosewater-maple cheesecake, I made this coulis to go along with it. I’ve since found many great uses for the raspberry sauce which are just too good not to share.

Generally I’m a sucker for flowers used in cooking. Rose, elderflower, violets, orange blossom, lavender, nasturtium – I like ’em all! Very simple, this sauce takes minutes to put together. Be careful with the rosewater; add it slowly as it doesn’t take much to overpower everything.

Chunky…I sometimes sieve it, sometimes not. Depends on how I want to use it.

Feeds: Makes enough sauce to serve with a large cheesecake
Start cooking: 2 hours before serving (to allow time to cool)

Rosewater raspberry coulis

Ingredients:

• 2 heaped cups x raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• Rosewater, to taste
• 1/3 cup x sugar
• 1/3 cup x water

Method:

1. Heat up the raspberries, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes. It might seem as if there’s not enough liquid but the fruit will start to break down quite quickly and exude juice.
2. Using a fork, mash the mixture. If it still seems a little thick for your purposes, add another tablespoon of water.
3. Now taste the sauce and if it’s too tart, add a little more sugar. Remember that it will taste less sweet once cool.
4. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of rosewater. Taste it and add a little more if you want a stronger rosewater flavour. I think it’s best when lightly fragrant but not overpowering. The rosewater should just enhance the raspberry sauce.
5. Chill in the fridge until cool before serving.

Serve with baked cheesecake, as the fruity component in a trifle or spread inside a Victorian sponge with some cream. I quite like it chunky with raspberry seeds but when serving with cheesecake, it can be nice to sieve the mixture so it’s smooth.

Try it layered in a small glass with thick plain yoghurt and pistachios. Add some crunchy muesli and it’s a fantastic brunch/breakfast.

Or just swirl the coulis into some softened vanilla bean ice cream, press it into a lined loaf tin to refreeze and pretend that you made the entire thing from scratch (I recommend in that instance, doubling the sugar so it freezes nicely and isn’t too icy). It’ll be a secret just between us.