"A slice of hot, buttered toast is the perfect meal. It's not too much and not too little, and it gives you just the right buzz." Naveen Andrews
I have been absent for a few days - busy, busy, busy, and may not finish this one today either - still busy, busy, busy. Anyway I therefore started a bits and pieces post which I decided to call slices. It's getting more and more difficult to find a new synonym, but it is amazing how new ones keep cropping up.
However, as I started looking for headline pictures, I realised that there's actuall a lot more to say about slices and in fact several different potential posts - sliced bread, slice of life, slice of the cake, fish slice, slice and dice ... So for today I think I will just leave you with the thought about the slice of buttered toast being the perfect meal. Not quite for me - the toast would have to have something else on it as well I think - sardines, tomatoes, cheese ... So what little bits and pieces have I come across recently?
Cloud eggs
I found this in my birthday present TikTok book:
"Bake whipped egg whites in the oven, gently nestle the yolk in the centre, bake again just to set the yolk, and put on top of literally any food to improve it."
Apparently the world is going mad for them - and this picture is from New Zealand's I Love Eggs website, so in this instance 'the world' may indeed mean the world and not just America as it often does. This is what the New Zealanders have to say about them:
"The cloud whites are so light and velvety in the middle and deliciously crispy around the edges. And the yolk is dreamily soft and runny, and filters through the cloud to complete this amazing new taste experience. In a word – Heavenly!"
You can see why a café or restaurant might do it, but would you bother at home? Infinitely versatile they say.
Inside-out cheese omelette
Another TikTok thing and another craze and simpler too. Take a non-stick pan, grate in some cheese, and cook until just crisp - pour in your egg and cook until your omelette is cooked to your liked. Add other things if you want or eat just as it is. Crispy and cheesy on the outside, creamy egg inside.
Oreo Mud Cake
Still on TikTok. My book says 4 crushed cookies and 1/4 cup milk, put in a cup and microwaved will make a delicious cake. A bit rich for me I think. This one is from a website called BellyFull and I have to say it's a whole lot fancier than as described above. There are things like vanilla, choc chips and cocoa in the mix. Sounds much too chocolatey. Cooking time seems to be anywhere between 70 seconds and 1 1/2 minutes. Not good for you, but I guess if you are a chocolate fan you might want to give it a go. There are indeed heaps of TikTok mini videos of various glamorous women making them.
And here is one of life's little coincidences. In my weekly Guardian Feast newsletter in which Georgina Hayden was talking about snacks - home-made of course - she promoted this recipe from Meera Sodha for Microwave chocolate, miso and banana mug cakes. Now I have no idea whether she was inspired by the TikTok thing or whether mug cakes have been a thing forever, but here is an 'approved' microwave mud cake. It's not made with Oreo - or any other biscuits however, and has many more than two ingredients but it's really not complicated.
I just noted however that at the head of the article you read this:
"Salty-sweet, gooey … and ready in just two minutes"
But then when you get to the recipe you see this: "Prep time - 5 mins. Cooking time - 15 mins." Neither of which are as brief as 2 minutes. So I read the recipe and I'm still confused. Yes the prep time is about right at 5 minutes I'm guessing, but technically the cooking time is indeed a mere couple of minutes. Maybe it's the extra time for making the cream but that's only 3 or 4 minutes. So I'm confused. Still more than 2 minutes however, but probably healthier and better? It's vegan too.
Ice-cream bread
Truly weird sounding but The Spruce Eats, endorses the TikTok/Instagram thing of Ice-cream bread. With a couple of caveats:
"make sure the ice cream is melted and smooth before mixing it with the self-rising flour. It is also important to use full-fat regular ice cream; don't attempt to substitute low-fat or low-sugar ice cream in this recipe. You also need to be sure to use self-rising flour, which is a perfectly blended mix of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt."
(self-rising?) Obviously this is going to be a sweet bread, so perhaps the hundreds and thousands are appropriate, and the flavour will depend on what flavour of ice-cream you use. I doubt you'll do this, but just thought you might like to have a glimpse into the whacky world of TikTok food experimentation.
Painting fried eggs for a living
Speaking of whacky. This is Daniel Halksworth from England's Midlands, who in September 2024, had, according to the BBC painted and sold more than 600 fried eggs. So I see that today I seem to be focussing on the weird.
Why? Well, as the BBC reports:
"One day he decided to paint a range of everyday objects, including shoes, a bathroom tap, an iced bun and a fried egg. ... During lockdown, he started selling his art after his girlfriend Caz Haigh lost her retail job. "Chances for me to exhibit or sell in shops vanished," Mr Halksworth said. "She sold a lot of her clothes to help pay rent and I got my art online."
That first egg painting sold to a local but others also wanted one so Caz suggested he painted more and she would cook the egg. And so it began. A fried egg in the morning, cooked by Caz and painted by Daniel, and sold to the world - famous and ordinary people, each one different. And you know the best thing? He says:
"I still enjoy it as I always have. Every time I paint an egg it feels like I’m doing the first one all over again."
Somehow this seems to me to be a peculiarly British thing - a bit like Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. They'd look good in my kitchen. Maybe I should buy one. No - I just checked the price. I saw one - a triple yoker which was going for £3,000! Wow. But I sort of like the fact, that a fairly ordinary bloke, paints such an ordinary but lovely everyday thing and people buy it.
A TikTok rice trick
A last tip from my TikTok book:
"If you've got any leftover rice you don't plan on frying, here's how to perk it up in the microwave: Put your rice on a plate with an ice cube on top. Microwave as usual and the ice cube will steam the rice but won't melt!"
Elsewhere I saw that it works with pasta too. I'm not sure about the ice not melting. Others seemed to think it did. I just microwave mine with some gladwrap over the top. That also seems to create steam.
A recipe from Georgina Hayden, which she says is based on the popular Chilli cheese toastie - a street food from Mumbai and and actual sandwich. To me it's reminiscent of Ixt Belfrage's Giant cheese toastie - although only, I suppose because of the notion of slicing a ciabatta in half, topping it with spicy cheese and then toasting it in the oven.
I love the Ixta Belfrage version but this is probably worth trying as well. Great as a nibble for a winter gathering. Cut it into finger food sized squares, provide napkins and you have a hit. The only danger being that they will snack on so much that they won't have any appetite for the main attraction.
This post's Ottolenghi recipe - Shatta sauce
I'm not quite sure where I came across this now, but this is yet another chilli sauce called Shatta sauce. Ottolenghi's recipe is on the Master Class website. I'm also not quite sure why I'm featuring it. Maybe it's because of my ongoing amazement at how many different chilli sauces exist, and also why one should be used rather than another. This one is a pretty simple one - just mild red chillies, plum tomatoes, olive oil, salt and cider vinegar. No extra spices in his recipe but he does say you can add spices such as coriander, cumin and black pepper "to boost flavour". Does he think the flavour needs boosting?
So I looked a little further and found that, as Kate of Cookie and Kate says: "it seems that shatta recipes aren’t very consistent." And none more so than herself really, although she does describe it as a kind of Italian pesto but then she is basing her recipe on a jar that she bought in here local store made by a local man. And indeed her version of Shatta is much more like a pesto. And it's green, although as it turns out that that is actually pretty OK. There are green and red versions depending on which chillies you use. It also seems that the heat is also a personal thing - just use the ones you like, or add some capsicum to temper hot ones.
As I browsed a bit more it seemed to me that although found throughout the Middle-East, it was mostly thought of as a Palestinian thing, and so eventually I was led to Sami Tamimi's version from his book Falastin, written in conjunction with Tara Wigley.
It does indeed seem to be a very simple thing. Traditionally you ferment some chillies with some salt in the sun for a couple of days. Tamimi does it indoors in sterilised jars for three days. Then you drain them, blend them to your desired consistency (note the 'your'), and mix with vinegar and lemon juice. Pour into jars, top with olive oil and store in the fridge - for months.
So maybe Ottolenghi also erred from the traditional by adding tomatoes.
You don't generally cook with it either, although I'm sure you could. You just put it on top of stuff. Maybe I should give it a go if I ever get a glut of chillies somehow.
As to 'slices' maybe I should start yet another series based around all the different concepts of a slice.
My 'busy' week is over, so maybe I'm back to normal now. We shall see.
YEARS GONE BY
January 24
2024 - After dinner temptations
2023 - Nothing
2019 - The problem(s) with summer
2018 - Nothing
2017 - Turmeric - miracle spice?
Nothing beats a slice of home made bread toasted just right with a topping of buuter and Rosemary's home made marmalade. I start everyday with that. Perfection!