Passport & Plate - Big Breakfast and Lemon Lime Bitters Recipe
Australia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Big Breakfast Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, peeled, coarsely grated
50g butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon thyme leaves
½ cup Olive oil.
4 Portobello mushrooms
2 red onions, sliced thinly
4 medium-ripe tomatoes
4 beef sausages
4 rashers shot-cut rindless bacon
2 tablespoons white vinegar
4 eggs, refrigerated
White bread toast
2 medium-ripe red mangoes
Lemon Lime Bitters Ingredients:
1.25 litres lemonade, chilled
½ cup lime juice cordial
1 teaspoon Angostura Bitters
1 cup ice cubes
Angostura Bitters and lemon slices to serve
How to prepare this recipeBig Breakfast Method:
1.To make hash browns, wring potatoes in a clean tea towel to remove excess moisture. Combine in a bowl with butter and thyme. Season.
2.Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 22cm non-stick, heavy-based frying pan over low heat. Add potato mixture then, using the back of a metal spoon, spread evenly over base of pan, and pressing firmly to compact. Cook, pressing occasionallyuntil underside is deep golden and cooked through.
3.To cook vegetables, place mushrooms, stalk side-die up, and onions, cut-side up, on a large oven tray. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil and scatter with extra thyme sprigs. Season, then roast for 10minutes. Add tomatoes to tray and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Roast for a further 10 minutes or until mushrooms and onions are tender and tomato skins have burst.
4.To cook sausages and bacon: preheat a lightly greased char grill pan or barbecue over high. Working in 2 batches, cook sausages and bacon, turning, for 5 minutes or until sausages are cooked through and bacon is golden. Drain on paper towel. Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.
5.To poach eggs: fill a deep frying pan with water, and then stir in vinegar. Bring to the boil over high heat, and then reduce heat to medium and water to a gentle simmer. Break 1 egg into a cup then gently slide into pan. Repeat with remaining eggs. Cook for 5 minutes for soft-poached eggs or until cooked to your liking. Using a slotted spoon, remove eggs from pan and drain on paper towel.
6.For mangoes, wash, clean, then slice across and cut inwardly into cubes, careful not to cut through skin.
7.To serve: divide among plates with vegetables, sausages, bacon and eggs. Serve with toast and place mangoes on the side. Add hot drink of your choice.
Lemon Lime Bitters Method:
1.Combine lemonade, cordial and bitters in a jug.
2.Divide ice between glasses.
3.Shake a few drops of bitters into each glass
4.Top with lemonade mixture.
5.Serve with two lemon slices.
The story behind this recipeThis year, on a random February day, a friend and I decide to head to Shepparton, a little country town in Victoria, Australia.
The purpose of the trip is unclear. My friend is going because she received an invite, from me. I am going because...I’m not sure. I’m unsure of myself, of my life, of what I want to do, of my purpose or my existence. So far all I know are these three things:
1) I graduated last December (2013) with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Relations.
2) I am completely unsatisfied with my life and I’m probably undergoing a quarter life crisis.
3) I love writing for my blog, The Cottage Comfort. I absolutely love it.
So I go to Shepparton, a place I've never been to, in the hopes of discovering something, in the hopes of finding answers but more so, in the hopes of finding myself. And if all else fails, I just hope I could get away from it all, the drudgeries of life and just have a good time.
On the day of travel, my friend and I head to the train station, we arrive and realise we have 25 minutes before departure, we are hungry, starving, we rush off to look for a cafe. We are both craving bacon and eggs.
The two of us walk into this teeny tiny little cafe in a teeny tiny little lane close to Southern Cross station, in Melbourne.
We walk in; we check out the place, we are jazzed. It really is tiny. And it has a genuine archaic feel. We like it. The waitresses approach us, immediately, we can tell they are backpackers, they seem new to Melbourne, and they sound Scottish too. Then we make the order: one Big Breakfast to share, because we are not sure how large the quantity is and because we are not sure we have enough time to eat up two individual meals in less than 20 minutes. So it's agreed, one Big Breakfast to share.
The meal arrives in just over five minutes. There are toasts, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages, onions and tomatoes. The toast is not too hard nor is it too soft, just right. The eggs are poached, they look delicate, beautiful. The bacon and sausages, mmh, mmh, they smell like bacon and sausages, heavenly. The mushrooms are done to perfection. The onions zhuzh up the meal and then we have the tomatoes. The tomatoes are quite something; they do something to me, something I've never experienced, something that messes with my brain...and my speech. I am confused, I am disturbed, I think I just had a tomato orgasm! My tongue is calling for more. For more of the warmth from those tomatoes, and its juice and the mild saltiness, and then the herbs! Whatever herbs these backpacking Scottish tourists put on my tomatoes is divine. Just divine.
We continue with the meal, my friend concurs that the tomatoes have some magic in them. We take on our hot chocolates with marshmallows, we look at the time, we have eight minutes before the train departs, we pay the lovely Scottish girls, ask for the café’s business card and sprint for the train.
We’ve had breakfast. B.r.e.a.k.f.a.s.t.
In the train, I think about my childhood, every Saturday, when my mum would have us make eggs and bacons and toasts and baked beans together with juice and tea and some fruits.
She, my younger sister and myself would work in the kitchen, listening to music, I can't remember what music, maybe some oldies, mum-like oldies, or Christmas Carols, yeah, we loved Christmas Carols. Then she would allow me to set the table, place the plates, the side-plates, the saucers, glasses, forks, knives, serviettes, elegance…I liked elegance, I like elegance.
And then we would sit and devour the sumptuous meal. Not think about yesterday, or tomorrow, or who’ll do the dishes…no, we would sit and enjoy a beautiful bounty breakfast.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about a hearty breakfast, it’s when it’s done well, it speaks to the heart, soul and mind. It overpowers life’s problems, gives us hope for a better day, optimism for a better future and the desire to experience all the beautiful things in life.
And even when things really are thick, like when you’ve just graduated and you are not as excited as you thought you would be, or you have more questions about life than answers, or when you’re a twenty-something year old unsure of yourself, of your strengths, weaknesses or passions, a big breakfast makes you forget all that. For the few minutes you sit there munching that meal, nothing else matters, nothing else should.
And the best thing about a Big Breakfast? It’s that you can make it to your liking. Having the standard classics as part of the meal but changing a few things here and there to give it that personal touch.
So to apply for the Italy 2014 Passport and Plate Scholarship, I used a recipe from MasterChef, a popular cooking competition TV show in Australia. I included the classics: eggs, toasts, sausages, bacons, onions and then I added hash browns, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms.
For an exclusive personal touch, I decided to make some Lemon Lime and Bitters, an Australian mocktail that’s largely popular in bars and serves as a great option for teetotallers. The drink is classy, sophisticated and appealing while still remaining simple and memorable. Lemon Lime Bitters, as it’s popularly called, is a number one favourite of mine as it’s always refreshing, summery and a great way to take down a meal, any meal.
On the side, I also added some red mangoes sliced into cubes, a tip I learnt from my mother, the slicing makes the mangoes look so appetising.
I then invited a friend of mine to share in the meal. You can never have a Big Breakfast alone. No, that’s wrong, that’s taboo, you must share the goodness, you must make the memories. It’s beautiful.
