English Breakfast:: Fried Potatoes

Fried potatoes is nearly always a side dish with our game lodge. Here is a absolutely fabulous version.
To make a small portion as a side for 4 people.
You will need:
 2 large potatoes peeled and cut into discs quarter inch (about 7mm) thick then halved into "C" shapes.
1 small onion halved and also sliced. 3 or 4 spring onions with half the green tops is way better if you can lay your hands on some.
2 teaspoon brown sugar.
Method;
Par- boil the potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Brown the onion in a little olive oil and remove.
Brown the potatoes being careful not to break them up to much.

Add the onions and sprinkle the two teaspoons over the potatoe and onions. Add a good shake of black pepper. Keep shaking the pan and watch it like a hawk so that the brown sugar doesnt burn. A few browny almost burnt bits is nice though.
Remove it and keep it warm, uncovered (so it doesnt go mushy) until the rest of your Breakfast is ready to serve.

This is so popular in my family that I often make larger amounts and serve it as part of a main course.

English Breakfast:: Perfect Garlic Pork Sausages

Why do I say perfect? Well because cooking a pork sausage is not that easy. They can burst, brown too much on the outside and be raw inside and they can also taste bad.
I have eaten a lot of commercially packed pork sausages and they vary enormously. In our part of the world there are very few decent sausages. The Eskourt brand is ok. Not great, but better than many others. Not badly spiced, and appears to have a reasonable amount of real pork in them. The best choice is to check out a few butchers own packed sausages.
Even there we have a problem. I would say 90% of butchers produce a pork sausage by mixing their pork mince with a commercial, pre-packed "Pork sausage Mix" Which means that all these butchers produce very similar sausages, and regretfully, they all contain MSG a vile over used flavour enhancer which is so not good for you, and is a little known,major cause of migraines in migraine sufferers.
So whilst you may be happy with your butcher, shop around for sausages. Ask 2 questions. Does he mix his own pork sausage spices and herbs. Does it contain MSG.

So now you got your good quality sausages what do you do?
chop a single large segment of garlic finely.
With breakfast you need to be careful with garlic. Just a hint.
A little splash of sunflower oil in the pan. Lay the sausage in and sprinkle the garlic on top. A twist of the black pepper grinder. Bring up to a low heat slowly. They should barely sizzle. They must be covered the whole time. After 15 minutes turn the sausages to brown the other sie. Cover again for 15 minutes. Its all about slow steaming and slow browning. The result? Perfect lightly browned sausages cooked to perfection.

English Breakfast:: Sherried Mushrooms and Bacon

This is a continuation of my English Breakfast theme. Remember, this is not "English" Breakfast, but rather one of the components dished up for the traditional English style breakfast in Southern Africa. I have worked at 5 Star Game Lodges for the last 12 years and have been able to experience some of the amazing variation cooked up by our local chefs.

This one, mushrooms and Bacon is very simple, but absolutely delicious. Why dont we mix mushroom, bacon and onion more?
Here are a few good brands among the millions..

You will need:
250g packet of smoked bacon.  There are some great brands like the above but we get a marvelous product in Botswana from Senn foods.
200g packet of white shitake, white button mushrooms or closed brown.
5 spring onions chopped into rounds with half of the green stem included.
good shake of black pepper.
Dash of sherry.

Start of by slicing the bacon rasher across into pieces about 1 cm wide.

Then slice the mushrooms..

Start by frying the bacon, moving it around to break it apart. Do not crisp it. Remove from the pan and fry the onions and mushrooms together. Add the black pepper.
Combine all the ingredients and let some of them brown well before sprinkling on sherry. Let any liquid evaporate and serve or keep warm.
This is a fantastic side dish to the full English breakfast-African Style!

English Breakfast part 2. Fried tomatoes

This is very simple..

Cut the two ends off the tomatoe. Then cut the tomato in half as in the illustration. That is one Serving.

Ingredients
2 Knobs of butter
2 tbspn olive oil
1 tblspn Fresh basil finely chopped
Pinch of brown sugar for each tomato half.
Melt the oil and butter together until butter starts to brown. Add the tomatoes large face down in the pan and cook as quickly as possible on high heat until just brown. Turn over and sprinkle finely chopped basil and the pinch of sugar.Wait until the bottom has browned and the brown sugar should have just about dissolved. A teas spoon of golden treacle works better but not everyone has it in the cupboard. Brown that side quickly and serve. The tomato should be browned but still firm. Its easier to say than do! The secret is a hot pan.

Savoury kidneys on toast for breakfast.

English breakfast part one.
Throughout Africa this traditional English breakfast is still cooked but with a few variations.

Generally the kidneys are ox kidneys and sometimes lambs kidneys. A great delicacy is Baffalo kidneys. They all follow the basic recipe...
500g kidneys for 3 servings.
1 large onion peeled and roughly chopped
2 pieces of garlic sliced
Small Pinch of thyme or rosemary...NOT both
Salt.
Tspn Ground black pepper.
Vegetable oil or olive oil
Brown the kidneys with the onions and other ingredients in same pan. Add a little red wine or water and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes or until onions have completely softened and there is a sauce. Not too watery. It may not be particularly slimming but often quite a bit of oil is used to cook with and this captures the flavors and makes a delicious sauce to go on the toast!