a small non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the remaining butter to the pan, followed by the three-cornered leek. Season with salt and cook for a minute or two, stirring, until it has wilted into the melted butter. Toast the bread and warm two plates.3 Add the egg mixture to the pan with the leeks and cook, stirring, until all the butter has melted and the eggs are coagulated but still silky and creamy. Butter the toast and top with the scrambled eggs, season with salt and some freshly ground pink or black peppercorns or chilli flakes and garnish with some of the three-cornered leek flowers, if you can find some.
Kimchi and sweetcorn fritters
with chilli maple syrup
Serves 2 (makes 4–6 fritters)
Sweetcorn fritters have been a staple since childhood. My mum used to make them to go with her ‘chicken Maryland’ – basically spiced fried chicken. My sister and I used to fight over the fritters, so I’ve given them a recipe in their own right, which makes a great brunch dish and also happens to be gluten free. I’ve added the fire and spice in the form of kimchi, which gives them a lovely sour crunch and an addictive, chilli-spiked maple syrup. Add fried eggs, avocado and streaky bacon to this to make it a brunch for four, otherwise serve two fritters per person with some avocado on the side.
2 eggs
3 tbsp water
½ tbsp soy sauce
65g rice flour
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp ground turmeric
100g My ‘Kind Of’ Kimchi (see here), or shop-bought kimchi, drained and finely chopped
165g drained tinned or frozen sweetcorn (or fresh corn boiled and cut from the cob)
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp coconut, rapeseed or vegetable oil
1 avocado, halved and stoned
sea salt flakes
For the chilli maple syrup
80ml maple syrup
½ tsp dried chilli flakes (preferably Urfa chilli flakes), or 1 fresh bird’s-eye chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
10ml dark soy sauce
1 tsp black sesame seeds
spring onion greens
1 Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the water and soy sauce and whisk to combine. Sift in the flour, baking powder and spices and whisk to form a smooth batter. Leave the batter to sit for a few minutes while you make the syrup.
2 Put the maple syrup, chilli flakes, soy sauce and sesame seeds into a small saucepan and stir. Heat until really runny and warm but not reducing or bubbling. Remove from the heat.
3 Stir the kimchi, sweetcorn and spring onions into the batter and coat well to make sure everything is cloaked in the batter. Add a dash more water or soy sauce if you think it needs loosening – it should be loose enough to drop off a spoon.
4 Line a plate with kitchen paper and heat half the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. To make the fritters, spoon 2–3 dessertspoonfuls of the batter into the pan in little piles, leaving space between each pile. Use the back of the spoon to flatten them slightly and fry for 4–5 minutes, flipping them over to cook on the other side halfway through, until golden and crispy on the outside and cooked all the way through. Drain on kitchen paper and season with salt. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the rest of the batter, keeping the first lot warm in a low oven until you’re ready to serve. Serve the fritters with the syrup poured over, and slices of avocado alongside.
Wild mushrooms on toast
with lemon and thyme seeded crumb
Serves 4 as a starter, or 2 as a lunch
I made this dish for 120 people from the kitchen of a pub in Borough Market with a brigade of brilliant female food writers and chefs. We were cooking a dinner to raise money for the food poverty charity Action Against Hunger, and even though it’s just fancy mushrooms on toast, it went down a storm – though the logistical effort of cleaning wild mushrooms and making toast for that many people is not something I wish to repeat!
Try to sniff out wild mushrooms, which have more of an interesting woodland flavour than standard ‘shrooms, and come into season from early autumn onwards – girolles and porcini work well but if you can’t find them, try chestnut or oyster. The crumb provides extra texture and lovely nuttiness thanks to the toasty, malty quality of the buckwheat. The butter and crumb can both be made in advance.
4 thick slices of sourdough bread (shop-bought or (see here))
1 garlic clove, peeled and halved
½ tbsp rapeseed or neutral oil
500g wild mushrooms (see tip), cleaned (larger ones halved)
leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
lemon juice, to taste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the seeded crumb
2 thick slices of sourdough bread (shop-bought or (see here))
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp buckwheat groats
2 tbsp olive oil
grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
sea salt
For the garlic and herb butter
1 shallot, peeled and quartered
1 tsp sea salt
2 garlic cloves
20g flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
10g tarragon, leaves picked
1 tbsp lemon juice
70g
