Father's Day Archives | Tea For Tammi

Mini Scotch Eggs

Recipe June 6, 2014 4 Comments

I think I have food ADD. I love food, but I crave the variety. Maybe it’s from growing up in an Asian culture – once you have dinners that involve a smorgasbord of different platters from which you can pick, you’ll never truly go back to single plate dining.

But I digress.

Ever since the Beak and Sons launch I attended the other week, I had sausages sitting in my fridge, and really, we all know I don’t just eat them straight if I had a choice. =)
Inspired by one of the canapés we had that night, I decided scotch eggs were in order.

Shakshuka my way (Eggs and baked beans)

Breakfast Recipe November 9, 2013 7 Comments

A middle eastern version of eggs and baked beans, shakshuka features a tomato-based capsicum and bean stew, served with an egg baked right into it.

It’s Sunday morning, and despite your best efforts to sleep in, your stomach starts rumbling. You have a dream. A dream that magically, with minimal effort, you can have an enjoyable brunch with an oozing egg, hearty beans, but also looks like you’ve slaved over a hot stove.

Well, you don’t have to look too far.
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Father’s Day Gift Roundup

Round Up August 30, 2013 1 Comment

Dad can be so hard to gift sometimes, especially because your dad might just be the stoic type who tells everyone not to make a fuss. Well, Dad deserves some pampering too, and if you are stuck on ideas, here are some cute, thoughtful ones that I’ve come across, that I absolutely love.

Heston’s Bacon and Egg Ice Cream

Recipe August 28, 2013 4 Comments

In the spirit of Fathers’ Day being just round the corner, and in support of dude food, I decided to try Heston Blumenthal’s Bacon and Egg Ice Cream. This recipe is an absolute crackup – you should really watch the faces of people who first try this – and it’s so amazingly easy to carry out.

This smooth rich ice cream actually tastes intensely of bacon and egg, and the custard is actually more delicious than the ice cream. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So let’s just get stuck into the recipe:

Heston’s Bacon and Egg Ice Cream:

500ml full cream milk
Good quality bacon
12 egg yolks
60g sugar

So first the bacon. Pop it under the grill till it’s all nice and golden and delicious – try not to eat it all! – and put it into a pot.

I gave it a quick chop, but you don’t really have to. Also, the amount of bacon used does affect how strong the bacon flavour is. I used about 2 rashers because I figured that it would be infusing overnight, so I could afford to use a little less.

Add your milk to your bacon, then bring to the boil

This just helps to get those flavours mingling. At this point, your milk will start to look a little pink. Then pour it all into a container and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Now you don’t want anyone to drink or throw away your funky concoction, so LABEL THE DANG THING!!

Bring your milk back up to the boil, then strain it. In a separate bowl, whisk together 12 egg yolks with 60g of sugar.

Why so many egg yolks? Well, while the custard would still work with less egg yolks, you want the eggy-ness to come across. It is a bacon and egg ice cream after all. So you achieve that by adding more egg yolks. And the whites don’t have to go to waste either! Simply give them a good whisk and use them to flavour some nuts!

Then stream your hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking, then return the mixture to a clean pan. Cook, cover low heat, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. For the nerdy cooks, you can take this custard to about 80C before it starts curdling. If you do intend to take it to 80C, then prepare a bowl set over another bowl with ice to stop the cooking process. Otherwise, take it to a little less and pour it into another bowl.

Then chill the whole mixture – this helps it freeze faster and prevents large ice crystals which can make your ice cream ‘crunchy’ – and then churn according to your ice cream manufacturer’s instructions.

The result?

A rich creamy ice cream that tastes of exactly what it’s meant to be – bacon and eggs. Personally, I thought the custard tasted wayyy more intense than the ice cream, so before you start dialling down on the flavour, try the finished product first.

To serve, Heston does this funky thing with using dry ice and a mixer, where the ice cream turns out look like scrambled eggs. You can totally do that too, but I’m short one mixer at the moment. I just topped my ice cream with toasted bread crumbs and some crispy bacon on the side.

Bet dad will get a kick out of this!

Spiced Nuts

Recipe August 26, 2013 3 Comments

With Father’s Day just round the corner, I’m sure everyone’s racking their brains to figure out just how to spoil dad. Well, if your dad loves flavoured nuts, I’ve got a really simple recipe here for you.

When I first had this idea, I went trawling through the net for spiced nuts recipes, but all of them seem to just dust roasted nuts with spices. But what about that gnarly crispy coating that you get with store bought nuts?

Well, the secret? Egg whites.

I learnt a recipe for almond biscuits that use just lightly whipped egg whites with icing sugar and slivered almonds, and it gave the exact texture that I wanted for my nuts.

Cayenne Spiced Nuts:

1 large egg white
350g raw cashews (or any nuts you like)
3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
1 tsp of paprika
2 tsp salt (or smoked salt if you can get your hands on it)
2 tsp icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Simply whip up the egg whites to soft peaks, then stir in all the seasoning. Coat the nuts in the mixture, then spread onto a baking paper lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake till golden brown, then let cool. Break up the nuts – it would have baked into one single sheet – and if things aren’t as crispy, you can dry it out a little in a low (150C) oven.

Then simply pop into a jar/airtight container/cellophane bags and serve it up to Dad with his favourite whisky on the rocks/beer/beverage of choice!

This super simple recipe means that you can make a whole ton of variations – anything from sweet vanilla almonds, to peri peri peanuts…the sky’s the limit. As long as you can mix it into the egg white mixture, you’re good to go. Just remember that the flavour can get a little muted, so if you find that it’s not quite as strong as you’d like it, just scatter more flavouring over the top while its still warm, and just mix it in once it’s cooled.