Tag: Bacon

My Best Ever Breakfast Muffins: Sausage, Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffins

bakesbymeguk1 Comment

This is the ultimate hangover breakfast. Obviously there are some hangovers where a McDonalds muffin is the only answer, but for those ones where you feel able to get in the kitchen – this is the cure. To be honest this is amazing even if you’re not hungover. Let’s rephrase that first sentence to the ultimate breakfast – big claim but I can back it up. We have a really flavoursome, seasoned sausage patty fried until caramelised with plastic cheese, crispy bacon, fried egg, ketchup (or your sauce of choice, but clearly ketchup is the right one) inside a toasty English muffin. You cannot go wrong! Lots of this muffin is open to editing:

  • Cheese: I love the flavour & melty texture of plastic cheese in a burger or breakfast muffin, bt if you’re not on board switch it for something classier
  • Bacon: smoked, unsmoked, streaky, back – the world’s your oyster
  • Egg: Fry it however you list – sunny side up, over easy (I don’t know what these words mean), runny yolk, hard yolk. I like my eggs flipped with a mostly hard yolk, which may get some hate but eating a sandwich with a runny yolk is just impractical
  • Sauce: Ketchup, brown same, Siracha etc. etc.

Please let me know any different variations you try and how they are!

Sausage, Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Muffins

Serves 1 | 20 mins cook & prep

Ingredients

Breakfast Sausage Patty:

2 pork sausages (or ~115g sausage meat)

1 clove garlic, minced

2 sage leaves, finely diced (or switch for 1tsp dried sage)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp soft brown sugar

Large pinch nutmeg

Chilli flakes to taste

Salt &. pepper

Muffins:

2 rashers bacon (streaky or not, smoked or unsmoked – personal preference)

1 egg

1 slice American cheese

English muffin

Ketchup (or sauce of your choice)

Method

  1. Remove the sausages from their casing (skip this if using sausage meat) and combine all the sausage ingredients. Taste for seasoning by frying up a small portion of the meat and adjusting as needed
  2. Cook your bacon – I prefer to do this under a high grill until quite crispy.
  3. Meanwhile, split and toast the english muffin, put this on a plate and spread your choice of sauce on both sides. Set aside ready to assemble.
  4. In a frying pan or skillet heat up enough oil to coat the bottom on medium high heat. While this is heating up, using your hands roll the sausage meat into a ball and press into a thin, even patty in your hands. The patty should be about 1cm thick. It’ll end up being much bigger than the muffin, this is okay as it will shrink when cooked.
  5. Place the patty into the pan and cook for 1-2 mins until the bottom is browned & caramelised. Flip the patty and leave for 30-60seconds, then add the cheese on top. Put a lid or plate over the frying pan and leave for another 30-60 seconds until cooked through (no pink left) and the cheese is melty. Cooking time will depend on the patty thickness, the pan and hob. Place this on the bottom half of the muffin.
  6. If needed, add more oil to the frying pan and crack in an egg. Cook this to your liking (I like mine flipped with the yolk mostly cooked through). Once cooked, add the egg on top of the sausage.
  7. Add the bacon on top, then the other half of the muffin and enjoy!
Meg's Perfect Spaghetti Carbonara

Meg’s Perfect Carbonara

bakesbymeguk1 Comment

I would like to say as a disclaimer I am not Italian, and I apologise if this recipe does not represent a traditional carbonara. I am merely a super-fan of the Italian cuisine who happens to have made a delicious carbonara recipe. As a word of warning, this is probably the richest carbonara you will have, owing to the use of an egg and an egg yolk per person, so be prepared to be very full if you make this. This is not your everyday carbonara – you have been warned.

You may find it odd I only use parmesan and no pecorino, but I actually prefer an all parmesan carbonara (again, sorry) – so feel free to half & half pecorino & parmesan if you so wish. The thing I will definitely stick to tradition for is the guanciale. If you can get your hands on it I reaaaally recommend using guanciale. It adds a much deeper flavour than pancetta and really elevates this dish. I get mine from Eataly usually, but I’ve also ordered it from Lina Stores who ship nationwide! This is the product of endless carbonara trial & errors, until I found the perfect egg/egg yolk/cheese etc. balance. I am finally here sharing with you my perfect, foolproof carbonara: the dinner to wow anyone made in under 30 mins.

Meg’s Perfect Carbonara

Serves 2 (hungry people) | 20 mins prep & cooking

Ingredients

200g pasta of your choice (my personal faves include paccheri, rigatoni & linguine)

150g Guanciale chopped into chunks (or pancetta if you can’t get your hands on guanciale, but the guanciale really adds the ‘wow’)

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

75g grated parmesan (or half pecorino, half parmesan)

Freshly ground black pepper (you won’t need much if you’re using guanciale)

Method

  1. Cook your pasta in a pot of water salted like the sea for 2-3 mins less than instructed on the packet.
  2. In the meantime, add your guanciale to a cold frying pan and bring up to medium/high heat. This renders out he fat giving you extra crisp and completely not flabby fat (ew). Drain any excess oil and set aside off the heat until the pasta is ready.
  3. Beat your eggs, egg yolks, parmesan and freshly ground pepper until combined. Add 3-6 spoon fulls of pasta water (this depends how loose your like your sauce, 3 spoons will be a drier sauce) to your egg mix one by one, beating the whole time to temper your eggs and help prevent scrambled egg pasta
  4. When the pasta is done, transfer it to your guanciale pan and return to medium heat being sure to reserve the pasta water.
  5. Add a ladle of pasta water to the pan and cook until almost disappeared. Check if your pasta is cooked to your liking, if still a little too firm repeat this stage.
  6. Once the pasta is cooked, take the pan off the heat and add your egg mix to the pan while constantly moving the pasta. Keep tossing the pasta while moving between off the heat & on low heat (this helps you keep more control of the cooking, and stop the eggs scrambling)
  7. Continue this process until the sauce has thickened and clings to the pasta. Exactly when the sauce is done depends on how you like your carbonara, but you need to cook long enough for the eggs to be cooked thoroughly. You can add some extra pasta water here if you want your sauce a little looser.
  8. Serve with extra parm and some freshly cracked black pepper