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Baked French Toast

I have always loved to wake before anyone else in the family is up. There is something about getting up in a quiet house and having even just a few minutes to stand at the bench or sit in my favourite chair, often just staring out the window while I wake up enough to make my coffee. No questions, complaints or arguments.

Just me, my thoughts and my warm coffee cup.

I have started doing it again lately, as we have all been 1000% together 1000% of the time. Oh the joys – and the constant-ness of constant company.

Sound familiar? I think what started as a feeling of ‘Yay, everything’s cancelled, let’s bunker down and have lots of QUALITY TIME TOGETHER’ has turned into a daily battle of choosing to keep ‘bearing with one another in love’ as the days together turn into weeks and months, with little connection from others or change in scenery.

So it was in the stillness and quiet of last Sunday morning, coffee in hand, that I popped this beauty in the oven. I love any recipe that can be prepared in advance, and this one is all the better for a night in the fridge – bread soaking and flavours developing as I sleep.

I love this recipe as it has no added sugar other than the small amount for sprinkling across the top and the maple syrup on the base of the dish. There are many versions of this recipe out there, and most contain unnecessary cups of added sugar!

You will be pleased to know I had a whole hour to myself reading and drinking coffee in the quiet while the family was sleeping and this deliciousness was baking away in the oven. I think it was the smell of it baking that got most of them out of bed in the end.

Baked French Toast

Serves 4-6

Recipe adapted from Bills Basics, by Bill Granger

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup cream (use milk if you don’t have cream)
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 8-10 slices of day old bread – I used a loaf of fruit sourdough, but you can literally use anything, even old bits and bobs of bread from the freezer.
  • a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries, optional (or any berries you have on hand)
  • butter for greasing
  • Demarara Sugar (or raw) for sprinkling

Method

  • Grease a medium size rectangle baking dish with butter
  • Pour maple syrup on base of dish
  • Lay slices of bread in dish, over lapping the slices slightly to fit it all in. Keeping the crusts on and having some pieces not submerged makes for a crunchy topping and yummy texture.
  • Whisk together eggs, cream, milk and vanilla and pour evenly into the dish.
  • Scatter with berries if using.
  • Cover and place in the fridge overnight.
  • When ready to bake, remove cover and sprinkle with sugar. Demarara gives it a crunchy caramel finish, raw sugar is a perfectly fine substitute.
  • Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 50-60 minutes, or until golden on top and custard is set.
  • You can either eat it warm or at room temperature, on it’s own, or with your yoghurt of choice, creme fraiche or thickened cream.

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Slow Cooker Chilli Beans

This is a great recipe for using up those tins of beans you’re not sure what to do with and often find collecting dust at the back of the pantry. I used tinned Mixed Beans because that’s what I had in the pantry, but you could use tinned Kidney Beans or Cannellini Beans and it would work just fine.

Cooking at home in this season of empty supermarket shelves and limits on purchases means we need to be a little flexible with our recipes – don’t be afraid to substitute and get creative. Worst case, it won’t turn out that nice and you won’t do that again. I didn’t have chicken stock when making this, used water instead and found it to work perfectly. I didn’t have passatta, so used a jar of pasta sauce + 1 tin of crushed tomatoes and you would never know the difference.

We served ours on top of jacket sweet potatoes, layered with baby spinach and cheese. But your options are endless – serve on toasted sourdough with poached eggs for breakfast or simply enjoy a bowl of it on its own for a quick healthy lunch.

I wasn’t sure if this would be a hit with the boys – but they really loved it!

The original recipe is from ‘Slow Cooking’ by the Australian Women’s Weekly.

It made enough for dinner for the 5 of us and we had leftovers for breakfast/lunch the next day for 2 or 3.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 6 pieces of rindless bacon, roughly chopped (leave out to make it vegetarian)
  • 1 green capsicum, seeds removed, roughly chopped OR 1 stick of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 2 carrots, unpeeled, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes – this gave it a nice heat but still tolerable for the kids. Put in more if you like it hotter. You can use a fresh chilli, deseeded, if you have one.
  • 1 jar of passatta OR 1 jar of pasta sauce + 1 tin tomatoes
  • 2 x 400gm tinned beans – whatever you have on hand, rinsed and drained.

Method

  • If you have a searing slow cooker, heat the oil in the slow cooker on the searing function and then add the bacon, celery or capscicum, onion, carrot and chilli and fry until onion softens. Add tomato paste and cook for a further minute. This step can also be done in a frying pan over medium heat.
  • Add remaining ingredients. Fill the empty tin of tomatoes about half way with water and add to the slow cooker. Do the same again with the empty jar of pasta sauce or passatta.
  • Give it all a big stir, put the lid on and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
  • Serving Suggestion – to make jacket potatoes, scrub potatoes or sweet potato till clean, wrap them individually in foil and place on a baking tray. Cook for an hour in a 200 degree oven, until soft when pierced with a knife.
  • Remove the foil, split the potatoes in half, scatter with baby spinach leaves, top with Chilli Beans and sprinkle with grated cheese.

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Vietnamese Chicken Salad

The warmer weather has us all looking for fresh and light dinner ideas that don’t take too long to prepare. Even passionate cooks don’t want to be standing at a hot stove for too long this time of year.

So, grab a BBQ chicken, chop up some salad ingredients and put a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge. That’s dinner sorted my friends.

Ingredients

  • 1 BBQ chicken, meat shredded
  • 1 250 gram packet of fresh bean sprouts
  • 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and shredded into ribbons, or grated
  • 2 lebanese cucumbers, cut into bite sized chunks
  • 3 srping onions, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup of roasted cashews
  • 1/2 bunch of coriander (substitute Thai Basil if you like)
  • 1/2 a bunch of fresh mint

Dressing

  • juice of 2 large limes
  • 3 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed

Combine all salad ingredients in a bowl and toss lightly.

Combine all dressing ingredients in a small glass jar and shake well. Drizzle over salad, toss again and serve.

Serves 4-6

/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 1 Comment

Italian Lentil and Bacon Soup

I feel like I owe you all a huge apology……..for not sharing this recipe with you sooner! This has been in my ‘top 5 favourite soups’ list for as many years as I can remember. I am not sure why it has taken me so long to get it on the blog.

When the boys were little they wouldn’t eat it and so Andrew and I would enjoy huge bowls of it ourselves and then have leftovers for a few days. Well, those days are gone. This is now a family favourite and there is never a spoonful left.

Sometimes after a long hard week, when my body and spirit are both feeling a little worn out, all I need to refill my tank is some time on the lounge, a good movie to escape into and a steaming bowl of this soup.

Recipe by Belinda Jeffery

Print
Italian Lentil and Bacon Soup

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Category: Soup

Yield: 6

Italian Lentil and Bacon Soup

Comfort food at it’s best – this soup makes staying home on a winters night even more perfect. It’s rich, hearty and satisfying and only made better by enjoying near a roaring fire with a glass of red.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped
  • 1 small red chilli, finely chopped (with seeds) or 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
  • 2 carrots, cut into small chunks
  • 3 sticks of celery, cut into small chunks
  • 175gm packet of bacon, chopped into small pieces
  • 2 tablespoons of sun-dried tomato pesto
  • 300ml passata or pasta sauce
  • 250gm French Puy Lentils (*see note), rinsed.
  • 1 1/4 litres of chicken or vegetable stock
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • juice of a lemon
  • handfuls of baby spinach or chopped kale
  • grated parmesan

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over a medium heat.
  2. Add the onion and cook, stirring a little, until golden.
  3. Add the garlic, chilli, carrot and celery, stir frequently until fragrant, for a about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the chopped bacon and give it a few more minutes to brown the bacon a little.
  5. Spoon in the pesto and stir for a minute or so.
  6. Add the pasta sauce, increase the heat a little and bring to the boil. Let it simmer, uncovered for about 20-25 minutes.
  7. Add the lentils and stock to the pot, and bring to the boil.
  8. Reduce the heat, and let the soup simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
  9. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.
  10. Just before serving add spinach or kale and stir until slightly wilted.
  11. To serve, add freshly grated parmesan and pour a glass of red wine 🙂

Puy Lentils, also known as French-Style Lentils are from France. They were named after the region they were grown in, in central France. They are dark green/grey colour and hold their shape while cooking, unlike red and brown lentils, that end up mushy after cooking. This soup will work with other lentils, but Puy Lentils are easily found in all supermarkets and I would encourage you to use them. They have a nutty distinct flavour that really adds to this dish. Remember to rinse well before using.

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