British Breakfast with Broccoli

It’s hard to believe, but my 2 months are very nearly up. This time next week I’ll be back in Brazil! As a treat this morning, my Mum and I decided to have a fry-up. For non-English readers, a fry-up is the rather unappealing name commonly used for the traditional English breakfast.

There are plenty of variations, but I would say that what we had this morning is pretty much the classic. Toast, bacon, fried eggs, fried mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. Aficionados will be screaming “What about the sausages?!” – well yes, I suppose a sausage or two should have been included, but we didn’t have any and I was very happy with what we came up with:

It's not something you'd want to eat every morning if you had plans to live past 55, but once in a while it's not going to do any harm is it? If you added a couple of sausages and a slice or two of black pudding you would have what is known as a "Full English".

Couple of things I should clear up here. Firstly, apologies to anyone who finds that photo repulsive – I guess it’s not for everyone. Secondly, are we all familiar with what “black pudding” is? Basically it’s a super-rich blood sausage – again, not to everyone’s taste! Some people will also advocate the addition of baked beans but personally I’m happy without them.

To bean, or not to bean, that is the question. I suspect my Brazilian readers won't recognise beans in this form - they're stewed in an insipid, sweet tomato sauce. Personally I find them a rather bland, unnecessary addition. (photo: Alamy)

Another optional extra that everyone seems to love (certainly I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love it) is “Bubble and Squeak”. This slightly indeterminate dish is made from the left-overs of your roast dinner of the night before (you did have a roast dinner last night didn’t you?). Primary ingredients are leftover (i.e. already cooked) potatoes and cabbage, but pretty much any other leftovers can be mixed in (cauliflower, carrots, peas, etc). The unusual name comes from the noise this mixture makes as it is fried in the pan. When it is done, you have a delicious, flavourful mush that combines brilliantly with all the other items on the plate.

So there you have it, a traditional English Breakfast. I say English rather than British because the traditional Scottish breakfast is somewhat different, including (I think) such items as “Square sausage” and “White pudding“. I won’t say any more on that subject as I don’t know much about it.

If you’re wondering about the Broccoli in the post title, I have to admit that I included it mostly for alliteration’s sake. But we did have some rather amazing Purple Sprouting Broccoli last night and I thought I’d throw in the photos I took.

It's broccoli, but it's purple!

As I kid, I always found this stuff completely amazing - you don't get much purple food do you? (ok, aubergine/egg plant/beringela...)

Sadly the purple colour drains out of the florets and into the water as it cooks, so by the time it arrives on your plate it looks just like ordinary broccoli.

Does this stuff exist in Brazil? I don’t remember seeing it. The only other spectacular broccoli (yes, I said ‘spectacular’) is the Romanesco which, along with the fern, appears to have been the main inspiration for Fractal Geometry.

Truly a spectacular broccoli. What's that you say? "Get a life"? OK, fair point...

OK, time to end this Broccoli digression and today’s post. Until next time Broccoli fans!