Two recipes in honour of it being week 25.
Continuing on from last week’s high-powered mixer madness, I thought it only right to have a go at Nigella’s Roquamole, to rev some more ingredients into a pulp; and my lover fancied the Mexican Scrambled Eggs – because we weren’t sure what a Quesadilla was!
Both recipes come from the Nigella Express book, and were really easy to make. I’ve always been a fan of dipping things in guacamole, so the chance to combine guacamole with a big hunk of smelly cheese was too good to miss! To make Roquamole for four hungry dippers you will need: 125g Roquefort (or St Agur), 60ml sour cream, 2 ripe avocadoes, 25g sliced pickled green jalepeno chilli peppers from a jar, 2 spring onions, and a quarter tsp of paprika.
First loosely mash the cheese with a fork, mix with the sour cream, and then mash in the avocados. Roughly chop the jalapenos and finely slice the spring onions, and stir it in.
Spoon the Roquamole into a respectable dish and dust with the paprika. Nigella recommends putting the bowl in the centre of a large dish and spreading the crisps round it – If I’d done this only my dog would have eaten crisps. She also recommends blue corn tortilla chips to dip, but I couldn’t get them and wolfed it down with doritos instead.
Now for a confession: I have never scrambled an egg before, and I don’t really like them. So Mexican scrambled eggs seems a strange choice for dinner. I liked the idea of it being more than just a wet yellow mess, so I thought I’d give it a go!
To make Mexican Scrambled Eggs for two you will need: vegetable oil, 2 soft corn tortillas, 1 tomato, 1 spring onion, 1 small green chilli (I used a jarred one from the Roquamole) 4 beaten eggs and a quarter teaspoon of Maldon Salt (or a pinch of normal salt)
First de-seed and chop up the tomato and chilli, and roughly chop the spring onion. Then heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your heavy based frying pan, cut up the tortillas and lob them in the frying pan and toss them round a bit until golden and crispy. Remove them from the pan and put to one side.
Put the tomato, chilli and spring onion into the oily pan, stirring it around for a minute to two. Add the fried tortillas and then pour in the beaten eggs and the salt.
Scramble the eggs in the normal style, once the eggs start setting remove from the heat and continue stirring until they’re done to your liking. This is where I went slightly wrong, never having scrambled an egg before – I think I kept it moving in the right way but I just kept on going. As a result they were a bit rubbery and squeaked like halloumi against my teeth.
Voila! Mexican Night! It was delicious. I wish I’d made the Roquamole for four rather than halving the ingredients, normal Guacamole is dead to me now and I will probably die a fat cheesy mess. I loved the eggs, the tortillas gave it a brilliant texture and were really tasty – and it wasn’t too spicy!
Halfway through his eggs my lover turned to me and said “I’ll teach you how to scramble an egg and you can try again…”
High praise indeed.
Nigella Express, by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus 2007 ISBN 9780701181840)
New Recipe Night 