Food Wine Sleep

Frittata is one of those items you can make when all you have in the fridge are eggs and a few bits and pieces; it's entirely welcoming to your creativity. This particular recipe is one that I created one morning when I had a relatively bare fridge. I had had a few friends over for dinner the night before, or should I say "I had had a few friends over for wine the night before". We ended up drinking a disproportionate number of bottles to food. That's what I love about my friends, they are so enthusiastic about my food, they always bring what ends up being one bottle per person, far too much but who am I to complain. Anyhow this one morning I woke up and not...

The great thing about corn fritters is that they are perfect anytime of the day. Have them at breakfast with a little wilted spinach, some bacon and roast tomatoes. Serve them at lunch with a salad of arugula, fetta and salmon. Use them for dinner as the base to any seafood or chicken dish. When entertaining serve mini-fritters as a canape topped with a little smoked chicken and mango salsa. The options are endless and I trust that once you give this recipe a try, you will soon be adding to the list of endless possibilities. This recipe makes about 12 fritters so depending on what you are using them for adjust it accordingly.

When I worked at a restaurant that specialised in breakfast I remember poaching over 400 eggs every Saturday and Sunday morning. I've never done the numbers that we used to do in that place. The other Chefs and I would arrive at 5:30 am to start service at 8:00 am. Right through until 11:30-12:00 o'clock it was go go go, and if one of the team was not feeling well, it was a nightmare as we had to carry one another through this insane service. Why would one of the team not feel so well? Well these are Chefs you're talking about here and they are not used to having nights off, so most weekends at least one of the team was hung over from a big night before. Unfortunate...

The crispy fritters not only make this dish a little more substantial but they also make a brilliant compliment to the smoky salmon. The peppery watercress and the tartness of the vinaigrette are perfectly rounded out with the soft creaminess of the fetta. This dish is also a great dish to be a little creative with, think of any other meat or fish that would go well with corn and substitute it for the salmon. Roquette (arugula) also makes a great substitute for the watercress. I know you'll enjoy this recipe and I hope you enjoy making your variations of it even more.

This is stuff I grew up on and it is still one of my favourites. Although mainly used as a breakfast cereal, back in my childhood it was also occasionaly served as snack on hot days or even as a light meal or fruity dessert at times. Muesli was invented/created around the turn of the century by Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher for the patients in his hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. He was a pioneer in nutritinal research and "healed" his patients with a balanced diet of raw fruits and vegetables, a revolution, considering the eating habits of the people at that time. The term "muesli" comes from the Swiss dialect word of "mus" lite...