Buckwheat Waffles

For ease during my busy season, my husband and I have taken to eating boxed frozen gluten-free waffles in the morning. I really try my hardest not to eat packaged foods, but sometimes, you give in. 

After a few months, I decided to make my own. We bought a waffles iron from black and decker which rotates and allows you to cook two at a time. I then came up with a recipe using buckwheat flour (my favorite gluten-free flour for baking!) that turned out fluffy and delicious and held up well to freezing. 

Buckwheat Waffles  
Makes 20

Ingredients

3 cups buckwheat flour
3 tbsp erythritol or honey or sweetener of your choice
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup melted coconut oil (or butter) 
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat waffle iron.

In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together, making sure everything is well incorporated. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients. Combine in the larger bowl with the wet ingredients and with a hand held mixer, mix until smooth.

Ladle about 1 cup of the mixture onto your waffles iron and cook until brown. Remove and enjoy with butter or coconut oil, honey or maple syrup and topped with fruit! 

I freeze the remaining waffles in Ziploc bags for up to a month! 

Breakfast - Fried Hake Roe and Poached Eggs

I am starting my blog with a unique way to prepare the first meal of the day. Breakfasts can become incredibly boring if you don’t have time to prepare them or have just run out of ideas. But there are so many interesting ways to spice up the most important meal of the day!

When I was chefing in London, I loved accepting the deliveries for the day - especially our fish delivery. In the spring, when the hake we used in our fish pie was spawning, our fishmonger would throw in the roe sacs as a little extra treat for us.

Every fish has a unique roe. Most of us are familiar with the clear orange pearls of salmon that are so briny and large they hardly need anything else done to them to enjoy.  Or, of course, the smaller black sturgeon caviar served atop smoked salmon on blinis with herbed crème fraiche.

Hake roe, though, should be prepared whilst still in the sac. The eggs are so tiny, searing the entire sac creates a creamy – almost milky filet to top your eggs for breakfast. We would put this on as a special - lightly dredged in flour, fried in butter and resting atop chewy sourdough toasts with poached eggs and a squeeze of lemon juice.

A similar and easier to find alternative in the US is sea bass roe. Available only in the spring, these sacs should be sought out at your neighborhood fishmonger. It’s such an easy recipe to try at home – just be sure not to overcook the roe as this will produce a mealy effect rather than the smooth, silky texture you’re going for.

Fried Roe and Eggs

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 sea bass roe sacs
3 tbsp unbleached flour or gluten free flour
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 organic, free range eggs
2 slices sourdough bread
½ lemon
arugula or watercress to garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix salt and flour in a small bowl. Lightly dredge the sacs in the flour mixture until lightly coated. Shake off excess flour and set aside.

In a small sauté pan, over medium heat, heat the butter until it begins to foam. Gently place the roe in the butter, browning each side. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel.

Prepare the eggs any way you like them – poached, scrambled or fried. In the meantime, Toast your sourdough and finish the roe in the oven for 5 minutes.

Serve immediately on toast and top with lemon wedges and your greens for garnish.