Out Of The Way Of Temptation

The temptation to spend money, that is, money that I don't have and that doesn't exist. It was time for a catch up with Orlaith, but this was liable to take hours, and hours equal many cups of coffee, which equals many euros, if one is to drink that coffee in town. So, rather than have both of us face the potential hazard of accidentally wandering into shops and accidentally parting company with funds that should be employed elsewhere, I suggested brunch in my house. This was found to be a most agreeable arrangement, and a little menu planning ensued. I settled on onion and cumin hash browns with poached eggs, followed by lemon and raspberry muffins for dessert. What?! YES there was dessert, I don't care what meal of the day it's supposed to go with. I had dessert after breakfast this morning, in fact. Anyhow, this particular meal was to follow a long run that turned out to be 17 miles in the end, so it was responsible refuelling. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This was another lil number from Ravinder Bhogal's Cook In Boots. Oh I might have had more than a few narky things to say about the way that the book is written, packaged, pitched, etc, but I've had it for less than a month and I've already gotten great mileage out of it. I did begrudge, a little, the fact that I was dipping into the hangover food section of the book on this particular occasion, as I had been a paragon of virtue all weekend, but that was not sufficient to lure me away from the crispy potatoey promise of homemade hash browns.

Ah my trusty old pal, the spud. This time, in a new guise: grated, about 500g.

A small red onion, also grated, 4 tbsp chopped coriander, 1 green chilli and 2 tsp cumin seeds.

I put all of that together before I left the house for my run, and I left the grated potatoes soaking in water to get rid of the starch, giving them a good squeeze when I got back.

After that little lot is smooshed together, you add 1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour and a beaten egg.

Slap them into round little patties and on the pan they go. They are a joy to cook as the mixture keeps together beautifully, no bits flying off here and there, and they brown up into perfect crispiness. They are so perfectly low maintenance as to give you plenty of time to poach a couple of eggs while they look after themselves.

Carbs and protein, essential for feeding hard-working muscles.

The muffins went on before I turned my attentions to the hash browns, and I used yogurt instead of milk as there was some in the fridge that needed using.

Unfortunately I was a tad over-eager to pop them out of their molds; they really could have done with a little cooling off, but I was just too impatient for that waiting around nonsense.

At least one of them popped out in a vaguely presentable fashion.

And somehow they all got eaten in spite of their unkempt appearance.

Thanks, in no small part, to the copious amounts of coffee that helped wash them down.