The Best Scrambled Eggs Ever

If you've visited this blog before, you'll know I sometimes struggle to eat eggs. I'm not a giant fan of their taste, but as such a great source of protein I'm always trying to find new ways to tart them up. 

Easier to put together than my yummy breakfast muffins, I reckon these scrambled eggs have cracked it. (Sorry!)

In the picture above, I've served my eggs on a toasted slice of ProFusion Protein Bread. It's made with flax seeds, wheat and milk protein and rye flour and works out to about 5g of carbs per slice. You can get it in The English Market. 

The Best Scrambled Eggs Ever (Serves 1)

Ingredients

2 Medium Eggs

Generous Knob Of Butter

Tablespoon Cream Cheese

Salt & Pepper

Method

1. Turn your stove/ hob on at a medium heat.

2. Crack two eggs into a small saucepan and add the butter.

3. Place over the heat and stir with a spatula. Don't use a whisk.

4. Continue stirring until the eggs begin to thicken and bind together as one. It usually takes about 90 seconds-2 minutes to get the right consistency.

5. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the cream cheese. Stir until completely mixed.

6. Season with salt and pepper. Serve!

These creamy eggs are tasty enough to eat alone, but to avoid samey-ness I like to mix it up from time to time. Here are a couple of my favourite variations:

• Add a pinch of chili flakes when stirring in the cream cheese, skip the salt and pepper.
• Fry off some bacon, finely chop 1 spring onion and mix into the eggs.
• Sprinkle with grated cheese before serving.
• Fry a bunch of cherry tomatoes on the vine, then mix into eggs before serving.

Nando's Coming To Cork City Centre

While wandering around town recently, I was sad to see that Meadows and Byrne on Academy Street had closed. It was a great resource for those odd kitchenware items you couldn't get anywhere else.

On passing the other day, I noticed that a planning permission sign had gone up outside and I couldn't resist being nosey. I was absolutely delighted to see that Nando's was named as the tenant and they were going to create a new restaurant there!

You may have read about my experience in Nando's Mahon Point a while back (where I intelligently forgot to take food pictures- doh!) and while it was a tasty, low-carb friendly meal, it's just too far to trek to. Now, I'm delighted to have this restaurant come to the city centre, and I'm hoping to make a lot more visits for their tasty chicken and low-carb friendly sides!

You can take a look at their menu here.

Low Carb Cheesecake (Take 1)

Okay, so it collapsed but it still tasted good! Too many berries I reckon. Overberried.

On the plus side- the low carb almond and chocolate base was perfect. I'll post the recipe once I've perfected the top part and it holds.

Quick & Easy Chicken Skewers with Homemade Tzatziki

The weather is starting to warm up here in Cork, which always makes me crave light, spicy dinners.

These skewers are so easy to make- easier (and tastier) still if you can marinade the chicken the night before. And chop the veggies. There's nothing like coming home to a fully-prepped meal you can put together without much concentration.

We make this kind of meal a lot, so metal skewers are an economical choice. Using metal skewers also helps the meat cook quickly from the inside out. If you're using disposable wooden ones, don't forget to wet them under cold water before use to avoid burning.

For The Skewers (Makes 6)

6 Chicken Fillets
4 Capsicum Peppers, Various Colours
1 Courgette
1 Onion
Chop All Of The Above Into Large Chunks Which Wont Break On The Skewer

For The Chicken Marinade

Here's the list of spices I used, you can of course add/remove/adjust to fit your personal taste. These are listed in order of most to least used:

Paprika

Cumin

Salt

Black Pepper

Fennel Seed

Cinnamon

Ground Cardamom

Ground Ginger

Ground Nutmeg

Ground Cloves

Crushed Coriander Seed

Crushed Star Anise

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F.

2. Combine all your spices in a bowl with a few glugs of olive oil. Add your chicken chunks and mix to coat well. 

Ideally, cover and let the chicken sit overnight in the fridge. An hour or so will do too, but overnight is definitely tastier!

3. The rest is pretty self-explainatory! Build your skewers alternating chicken and vegetables.

4. Lay out on a wire tray and pop in the oven for 30 minutes, turning once during cooking.

While the skewers are in the oven, I like to knock together an awesome homemade tzatziki which compliments the spices perfectly. 

For The Tzatziki

200g Greek Yoghurt

1 Cucumber

Juice of Half A Lemon

1 Clove of Garlic, Crushed

Pinch Of Salt

Pinch Of Black Pepper

Handful Of Fresh Dill, Finely Chopped

1. Cut your cucumber in half and carefully remove all the green skin.

2. Using a cheese grater or similar, grate the cucumber onto a sheet of strong kitchen paper. (It's important to use a strong paper so you don't end up with chunks in your tzatziki!) When you're done grating, fold all the cucumber up into the paper towel and squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible.

3. In a bowl, combine the yoghurt, grated cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt and pepper. Mix Well and chill slightly before serving. Sprinkle with a few springs of dill if desired.

Fillet Steak

I just had to share this mouth-watering snap of last night's fillet steak, fresh from Tom Durcan's stall in The English Market.

These beauties were blotted with kitchen paper and sprinked with sea salt to help dry the meat out.

Preheat the oven to 90C/195F. Then heat your frying pan to smoking point- I use a heavy cast iron pan which means I don't need to add any oil.

Once the pan is super hot, each steak gets 2 minutes on either side. Don't move it around in the pan, just let it sit where you've placed it.

Then I popped the steaks into the oven and pushed the needle of my indespensible meat thermometer to the centre of the thickest steak. I like mine to be pink through, so aim for a centre temperature of 54C/130F. S likes some red in the centre of his, so we'll usually take his out at 51C/124F.

I know this all sounds a bit mental, but just a couple of degrees can make such a difference!

Let your steak sit for a minute or two before cutting into it. You shouldn't get any blood running out if you dry the meat beforehand and use this cooking method.

Did you know you can order Tom Durcan's meats for delivery to anywhere in Ireland and the UK? Visit their site for more details, you can also follow them on Twitter or Facebook.