Bring on the Summer

We've moved house recently and I'm still finding notebooks with recipes and references to who inspired them.  I don't think I've ever thrown out a cookery book so some of the references that have been made in sometimes very old note books have been great reminders of how my role models have changed over the years.

Elizabeth David, a great cook and writer, really influenced me in my earlier years, especially for her almost casual way of describing recipes.  In a her book an omelette and a glass of wine, I was fascinated by her travels and her people watching skills but, not only that, but by the title of the book itself.

It inspired almost 20 pages of notes, on a Spring day in April 1992, on the omelette but not, unfortunately for Elizabeth (sorry Elizabeth) of the French kind.  It was the Spanish omelette that actually drew me in.  As a tapas or as a picnic contribution or as a meal in itself, this humble food appears in my notes dozens of times over the years.

The basic recipe is simple:

• a good glug of olive oil
• four medium potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced and par boiled or precooked from the previous day's meal
• a large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
• four large eggs
• a good pinch of salt

In a eight inch /20 cm hot pan put the oil, potatos and onion.  Turn the heat down and flip the potatoes until cooked.

Whisk the eggs with the salt and add to the mixture, using a fork around the base to help the egg cook through.  Once the base is cooked, place a dinner plate over the top, flip it and slide the omlette back into pan and cook for a further five minutes or so.  Alternatively, place under the grill.

In much of Spain this recipe is the base of many a left over feast - as in households in many other countries I have no doubt, left over cooked vegetables, meats and fish are added wherever you are.

Great for breakfast as well as for the aforementioned picnics, this is an all year Summer feeling dish.

As you can see in the picture, breakfast can be great with left over peas, beans and roasted potatoes, especially with some great smoked bacon on the side!  This particular omelette also had a pinch of smoked sweet paprika, good pinch of dried thyme and a small finely chopped clove of garlic.  Fantastic with a glass or two of Bucks Fizz.

The great people of the Wine Pantry in Borough Market have suggested a number of British wines for both picnics and simply to drink on their own.

Here's what they suggested for their top five:

• Avonleigh Brut Sparkling - used in the great Bucks Fizz mentioned above
• Camel Valley Rose - a great social wine, they also have a Sparkling Red from the same label
• Balfour - a fresh British alternative to Champagne
• Biddenden Ortega - good "sipping" wine and good with spicy food
• Pheasant's Ridge Bacchus - a great social wine and great with one of my favourite foods - Cheese!