light olive oil for shallow-frying
For the hollandaise sauce:
180g unsalted butter
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon ground lemon myrtle (or 1½ tablespoons lemon juice)
a pinch of salt
ground white pepper (optional)
First make the potato rösti. Parboil the potatoes in lightly salted water for 5 minutes, then drain and leave to cool slightly. Grate them into a bowl and mix in the butter and some salt and pepper (you can, at this stage, add other things if you like, such as fried onion, toasted flaked almonds, goat’s cheese, snipped chives and other herbs). Heat a film of olive oil in a blini pan, then fill it two-thirds full with the potato mixture. Fry until golden and crisp on both sides and tender on the inside. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make 4 rösti altogether. Keep them warm in a low oven while you prepare the eggs, sauce and spinach.
First poach the eggs. Have a small pan of lightly salted simmering water at the ready, or a deep frying pan, with at least 10cm of water in it. Crack an egg into a saucer. Add the white wine vinegar to the simmering water and stir it furiously to create a little whirlpool in the centre of the pan. Drop the egg into the middle of the cyclone and watch as the egg white spins and arranges itself around the yolk. After 3–4 minutes, remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon and place on sheets of absorbent kitchen paper. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Just before you are ready to serve, you can lower the eggs back into the water a couple at a time, sitting on a spider (a flat, wire-meshed sieve), just to warm them through – a minute will do. Trim off any straggly tendrils of egg white, drain again and serve.
To make the hollandaise sauce, gently melt the butter in a pan. Whiz the egg yolks in a blender for 30 seconds or simply whisk well by hand. Transfer them to a bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Add the lemon myrtle – I sift it in through a tea strainer to stop it going lumpy – or lemon juice and mix well, then slowly drizzle the butter into the eggs a little at a time, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk. When the butter is all incorporated, you should have a bowl of thick, creamy hollandaise. Add a little salt to taste and a touch of white pepper if you wish.
Put the spinach in a pan with the knob of butter, cover and leave over a gentle heat until wilted. Season with the nutmeg and some sea salt and black pepper. Serve the rösti topped with an egg or two, plus a mound of spinach and a coating of Hollandaise.
Buttermilk Pancakes with Caramelised Apples and Brandy Caramel Sauce
I like to serve these for breakfast, brunch or afternoon tea (in which case, think cream or ice cream) to replace my usual crêpes, but not for dessert, where they strike me as just too rich.
If you make the pancakes in a blini pan they don’t look huge, but if you consider that when I tried them a different way, each serving made at least 8 little pancakes – or poffertjes (the Dutch word for them) – you’ll see that one per person is plenty. A couple who do the rounds of the North Coast markets, in New South Wales, in their catering van sell poffertjes in mounds on paper plates, piled high with whipped cream and oodles of maple syrup. There are always queues.
It’s worth noting that you can freeze the cooled pancakes layered with baking parchment or foil, then place them in a steamer over boiling water to bring them back to life.
MAKES 8 PANCAKES OR ABOUT 80 POFFERTJES
250g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
500ml buttermilk
sunflower oil for frying
Greek yoghurt and finely chopped toasted pecan nuts, to serve
For the caramelised apples:
300g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter
4–5 large apples (I use Pink Ladies), peeled, cored and sliced
For the caramel sauce:
250g caster sugar
60ml water
80ml brandy (or about two-thirds brandy and one-third red wine)
60ml pouring cream
It’s easiest to start by cooking the apples and making the caramel sauce. You can gently reheat both just before serving.
For the apples, put the sugar and butter in a large saucepan or frying pan and cook over a careful heat until golden. Add the apple slices – splutter and sizzle is part of the fun – and cook until they are tender, almost translucent, and oozing with caramel (you may decide that this is enough decadence and forego the caramel sauce!). Remove from the heat and set aside.
For the caramel sauce, combine the sugar and water in a small, heavy-based saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat and boil, without stirring, until the syrup turns a dark caramel colour. Immediately remove from the heat and, very carefully and with a step back, as it will spit rather dramatically, stir in the brandy. Return the pan to a low heat and stir until smooth, then add the cream and bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside while you make the pancakes. (Stored in the fridge in a sealed jar, this sauce lasts for ages.)
To make the pancakes, sift the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and stir in the caster sugar. Lightly whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl, then slowly pour in the buttermilk and continue to whisk gently – I do all this with a hand whisk – until well amalgamated. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk mixture. Mix well, by bringing the dry ingredients into the wet a little at a time, until smooth and lump free. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks, then slide them out of the bowl with a rubber spatula and gently fold them into the pancake mixture.
If you are using a blini pan – two if you can, to make easier work of this (they’re cheap and worth investing in) – lightly dip a piece of crumpled kitchen paper into a saucer of sunflower oil, which you must have by your side. Wipe the pan with it and heat over a moderate heat. Do this before cooking each pancake. Fill the blini pan three-quarters full with the pancake mixture and leave until bubbles appear on the surface – about 1½–2 minutes should do it. Then turn the pancake over carefully, using a palette knife or fish slice, and cook the other side. The pancakes should be golden brown, cooked right through but still light and fluffy. Transfer to a plate, cover lightly with foil and keep in a warm oven while you cook the remaining pancakes.
If you are making the smaller proffitjes, heat a little oil in a large frying pan and drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into it. They will immediately spread into little round pancakes, which you can help along with the back of a spoon, making them