KILDARE COOKERY COLUMN: Quick and tasty weekday meals
Treat yourself to brunch for one. “This tasty little number goes to show you can make a belter of a brunch with a few simple store cupboard ingredients in no time,” says Chris Baber, whose easy recipes have won him over 160k followers on Instagram.
“If you have any fresh herbs lying around, like basil or parsley, throw them on at the end. If you can’t get any canned cherry tomatoes, a can of chopped tomatoes works just as well.”
Pesto baked eggs
Ingredients:
(Serves 1)
l 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
l 1 garlic clove, sliced
l 400g can cherry tomatoes
l 3tbsp basil pesto
l 2 eggs
l Salt and pepper
l Bread, to serve
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium–high heat.
2. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds, then stir in the tomatoes and two tablespoons of the pesto and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium, cover loosely and simmer for eight to 10 minutes until you have a fairly thick sauce.
4. Use a spoon to make two wells in the tomatoes. Crack an egg into each well, cover and cook for about five minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft.
5. Take off the heat, spoon over the remaining pesto and drizzle with a little more oil. Serve with bread to dip in the egg yolk and sauce.
Five-spice hoisin duck and rice bowls
Perfect for a quick and tasty weeknight meal.
“This is a mash-up of duck with hoisin sauce and roast Peking duck and rice,” says Chris Baber, author of new cookbook, Easy.
“Roasting a whole duck is a real art form and takes over a day to prep, so I’ve used duck breasts to keep this quick and simple. They stay super juicy and I think are best served pink.”
(Serves 2)
l 2tbsp dark soy sauce
l 2tbsp honey
l 2 duck breasts
l 2tsp Chinese five-spice
l 250g jasmine rice
l ½ cucumber, diced
l 4 spring onions, finely chopped
l 2tsp toasted sesame oil
l 2tbsp hoisin sauce
l Salt
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce and honey to make a glaze. Set aside.
3. Use a sharp knife to score the skin of the duck in a chequerboard pattern. Be careful not to score into the flesh.
4. Pat the duck dry with kitchen paper. Season with salt and evenly coat in the Chinese five-spice.
5. Cook the rice according to the packet instructions.
6. Put the duck into a cold pan, skin-side down. Turn the heat to medium and cook for three to five minutes until the skin is golden and crispy. Turn the duck over. Pour over the glaze to evenly coat the duck.
7. If your pan is ovenproof, transfer it straight into the oven. If it’s not, put the duck on a preheated baking tray. Cook for eight to 10 minutes for blushing pink meat or slightly longer for well done.
8. Remove from the oven. Leave to rest for five minutes, then cut into thin slices.
9. Serve on top of the rice with the cucumber and spring onions. Drizzle with the sesame oil and hoisin sauce. Give it all a good mix together before getting stuck in.
Summer strawberry and raspberry crumble
Sweet, crunchy and creamy, this dessert is ready in under an hour.
“This crumble is a perfect summer dessert. The recipe comes from one of my best mates and is something we always have round his house after dinner,” says Chris Baber.
“I love the sweet, cakey layer the ground almonds give between the fruit and crumble. Serve it warm with a good dollop of clotted cream.”
(Serves 6-8)
l 300g strawberries
l 300g raspberries
l 100g light muscovado or caster sugar
l 100g ground almonds
l 175g plain flour
l 75g cold butter, diced
l 100g flaked almonds
l Clotted cream, to serve
2. Remove the stalks from the strawberries and cut any larger ones in half. Put the strawberries and raspberries into an ovenproof dish. Scatter over one tablespoon of the sugar, then scatter over the ground almonds.
3. Put the flour and butter into a mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the remaining sugar and flaked almonds.
4. Scatter the mixture evenly over the fruit.
5. Bake for 30–35 minutes until lightly golden.
6. Serve with clotted cream.
Easy by Chris Baber is published by Ebury Press. Photography by Haarala Hamilton. Available now.