All Day Breakfast

There are few things better than the Great British Breakfast (and I include the Great Ulster Fry in this).

All the ingredients are wonderful- bacon, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, black pudding, fried bread.... some like  tomatoes, others baked beans, some prefer toast, others potato cakes (mmm- must come up with a recipe for these. Love them!)

And whilst the GBB/GUF is a work of art in itself- the ingredients can go into all sorts of other recipes too - so breakfast can be reinvented as lunch, dinner or supper.

Here's a few ideas- for supper, an All Day Breakfast Salad (sort of healthy but retaining the quintessential indulgence of the principle ingredients.) I know, I know....the Vogons would have me thrown into the airlock for that! (see Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy).

I used black pudding, bacon, a poached egg and fried bread croutons added to salad leaves.

Reader, I waddled to bed contentedly after that.

Breakfast ingredients go marvellously as pizza topping too- here I've topped my pizza with sliced leftover sausage, peperoni and cheese. Bacon goes well, as do mushrooms and tomatoes of course!

A classic spaghetti carbonara uses breakfast ingredients in a different way. I like mine with mushrooms added- just bacon, mushrooms (and garlic if you like it) fried together, an egg beaten with some cream and all added to piping hot cooked spaghetti.

Jamie Oliver does a great sausage and tomato pasta too-put Pregnant Jools Pasta into Google and you'll find the recipe.

Bacon, eggs and mushrooms go wonderfully in a galette or savoury pancake: make a batter from 50g of buckwheat flour, 25g of plain flour , 2 eggs, a pinch of salt and 300ml of milk. Fry in a really hot frying pan - wiped round with a knob of butter. Make a stack of pancakes, and fill the centres with bacon, cheese, mushrooms, creme fraiche or tomato puree or any filling of your choice. Fold the edges in like an envelope and break an egg into the centre. Flash under a hot grill to set the egg.

And talking of eggs- what about Scotch eggs?


In their simplest form, boiled eggs are wrapped in seasoned sausagemeat, coated first in flour, then beaten egg, then fine toasted breadcrumbs. (By the way, I hope by now you wouldn't dream of buying these. Any leftover bread is made into breadcrumbs in my kitchen- and stored in the freezer. It's worth having two containers of these: one fresh, the other toasted for 15 mins in a hot oven before cooling and freezing.)
The eggs are deep fried in hot oil, drained on kitchen paper and served hot with vegetables or cold as a picnic.

Once you've got the principle of a Scotch egg- the variations are endless. This is a black pudding egg  -well worth trying. Just add some chopped black pudding to the sausagemeat.

You could make a haggis egg in the same way- or a Vegetarian Scotch egg- wrap the egg in mashed potato (not a wet puree but a dry mash) mixed with some grated cheese and a teaspoon of mustard, before the flour, egg, breadcrumb business.

I'd love more breakfast ingredient ideas- especially with potato cakes- which I love (did I mention that?)

Any suggestions?