I remember the first time I heard of muffins for breakfast. I wasn’t fooled, I knew it was a way for people to acceptably eat cake for breakfast and it’s a notion that I still eschew to this day. I can eat pancakes or other sweet things but I draw the line at eating cakes aka muffins for breakfast. Morning tea and afternoon tea is fine but I feel that it’s too much for breakfast. To me, it’s a little like buying a Snuggie. That signals the beginning of the end, giving up if you will. Apologies to all Snuggie owners, but you need to know that it looks like a cult outfit

I saw this on Barbara’s blog for her Daring Bakers entry. Her fruit version didn’t quite work out to plan and determined, she awoke the next morning to give this version a go – an attitude I fully understand. The strudel itself is delicious, like a Quiche Lorraine. I knew that I’d love this and with the long weekend coming up I wanted to make this for a brunch. I’m not crazy enough to suggest you get up at 7am to make this. Serving this around 11am seems like a more normal time. And no Snuggies involved I promise

Tell me Dear Reader, what’s your favourite Long Weekend brunch meal? Pancakes? Scrambled eggs? Eggs Benedict? Or something more exciting altogether?

P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to do so, I’d be ever so pleased if you could fill in the Not Quite Nigella survey. There’s a chance to win 1 of 3 Nigella Lawson aprons! Link here.

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This recipe is an effort to balance what is my seemingly never ending sweet tooth with something savoury. Readers of my blog will assume that due to the number of sweets that I make, that I have an achingly sweet tooth. Not so, really. I don’t eat sweets that often unless they are exceptional (Zumbo, Laduree or Herme) but my natural instinct is to go for savoury. Cakes and sweets are awfully pretty to look at and if you’ve read my About page, you’ll see that I think that they belong in an Art Gallery (true, look at Zumbo’s creations). But savoury is what I crave.

I have a deep seeded fear of deep frying. I burnt my arm badly when I was cooking as a teenager and ever since then I’ve been afraid of it. But things such a Briouats are wonderful because they allow you to have the buttery crispness of deep frying whilst cooking them in the oven. I shall investigate a similar way to do Spring rolls in the same manner although I am not a big Spring Roll fan.

I based these on the delicious Etli Borek pastries that we tried from Ottoman Cuisine at the Taste of Sydney event. The reason why I remember the name so clearly is that the man behind the counter made us all recite the name after him, thereby drumming it into our memories. Sure he was a bit odd, firstly telling us that it was snake but the trick worked. They are earth shatteringly crisp and buttery and serving them scattered with Pomegranate seeds, minted yogurt and sweet chili sauce is ideal. “Ras El Hanout” roughly translated to “Top of the Shop” whereby a spice store would do their own blend of the best spices. No two shops’ Ras El Hanout is exactly the same and I used Herbies Ras El Hanout which was gifted to us at the Allrecipes dinner, which contains a Moroccan blend of 23 spices including saffron. I upped the quantity to what was recommended as I felt it really enhanced the flavour and was over the moon with the flavour. I made these on a rainy night when the sky was dark even at 3pm and by the time I got these on the table 45 minutes after starting, it was pitch dark outside so I hope you’ll forgive the photography.

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There’s something I know for certain: it’s pie season. The cooler temperature and shorter days signal to me, the need for comfort food and even thought the temperature itself hasn’t dipped that much, it’s low enough for me to yearn for the heat of the oven. I’m a different creature in Winter. During Summer it’s all about salads and water but in Winter, it’s a pastry and soup fest.  And this comparatively cool Sydney evening made me hanker for some pies.

We try and eat vegetarian a few nights a week for health reasons and to reduce our reliance on meat. That’s not a sign that I am about to go full time vegetarian – I tried that once and it wasn’t for me but it feels healthier and better for the environment to do so three to four nights a week. It also lightens our grocery bill which is a nice bonus for my husband who tears his hair out at the things I like to put in my trolley.

If you’re a hardened carnivore, you could certainly add some chicken to these but I do think that they are perfect as is although by all means substitute it with whatever vegetables you have to hand – 3.5 cups will do. One thing that I never really saw any point to was making your own pastry. That is, until I found an amazing Pâte Brisée shortcrust pastry recipe. I will say that if you are not so inclined to make your own, you can use store bought but this Pâte Brisée pastry is to die for. But don’t worry I haven’t lost the entire plot, I still bought the puff pastry. That would probably signal a descent into utter madness if I were to make my own puff pastry. Feel free to call the authorities to pick me up should that ever happen.

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