Friends of Ham, Leeds

I don’t think that I have ever mentioned Friends of Ham on here and that is very remiss of me because if you were to find yourself in Leeds it is a venue that is well worth checking out.   And it is ideally situated within easy staggering distance of the station, making it the perfect place to both start and end an evening of revelry.  Although I warn you that if you start there you may never wish to leave.  No less a critic than Jay Rayner noted its quality back in 2013.  And the business has expanded since then so that it has a larger upstairs space and bar area and a food selection that extends (although not distractingly so) beyond charcuterie and cheese.  Many of the slightly more substantial options appear on a regularly changing specials’ board adding a bit of amplitude to the basic menu.

I say basic menu – but (may I refer to Mr Rayner again) when a place is serving meat and cheese of such quality, in generous portions with plenty of well-priced, interesting beverages on the side, basic isn’t quite the right word.  Sleek, perhaps.  Uncomplicated.  TASTY.

It was in Friends of Ham that I first began my love affair with ‘nduja, a spreadable, fiery Calabresian sausage that is desperately addictive.  I buy mine online from the Ham and Cheese Company, because that is where Friends of Ham acquire theirs.  So when we went to check out the breakfast menu last Sunday, the choice of ‘nduja toast topped with avocado, coriander and lime was an absolute no brainer, and very good it was too.

The breakfast / brunch market is definitely becoming a thing - which I quite like, especially when you get places like Friends of Ham offering something a bit different from a bacon sarnie on sliced white.  D had a Chorizo Monsieur, a pleasing fusion of Spanish spice with French indulgence.  Other offerings included smoked mackerel and cream cheese and Portobello mushrooms with poached eggs, spinach and béarnaise – which actually sounded like a really nice dish rather than a tacked on, obligatory veggie option.  They don’t have a lot of kitchen space at Friends of Ham, so it’s mostly a variation of things on toast, but it is nice things on excellent, nutty toast, washed down with good coffee.

One very small thing – I do NOT understand why you would serve hot coffee in a glass with no handle.  It is unnecessary and impractical.  Since I am generally drinking good local ales or wine when I’m in there, I’m not going to let it bother me too much.  Any place that sources and serves such consistently yummy things is one worth treasuring.  Not to mention that any place that is good enough for Jay Rayner is surely good enough for me.

The perfect birthday breakfast

For years and years now - certainly as long as I've been with D - I have always had the same breakfast on my birthday.  Smoked salmon, scrambled eggs.  D shreds some of the salmon through the eggs so that it lightly cooks, then drapes the rest over a toasted bread product (which for preference would be an English muffin) and tops with the golden, buttery scramble.  Mimosas and fresh Yorkshire tea on the side - utter bliss.

This year, D decided that it was time for him to find his birthday breakfast.  A traditionalist, previously he has tended towards the bacon or bacon and egg sandwich, but felt that this was not quite celebratory enough. And so began a quest.  We made a list of potential contenders and for the last few Sundays I have cooked my way through it in order that he could make an informed decision.

We started simple with a deconstructed sausage and egg McMuffin - now, come on, you know they're delicious really.  Toasted English muffin topped with cheesy scrambled eggs and grilled sausages.  V tasty.  V high in points (obviously, points do not count on birthdays, but they do count on most other days of the year.)  The key is to go for quality ingredients.  If you don't have a good local butcher, Waitrose sausages emerged victorious in a recent supermarket taste test that I came across.

Photo from www.nigella.com

Next up, something completely different that I adored, although D was less enamoured - French toast.  I used Nigella's recipe which suggests sprinkling the hot fried bread with granulated sugar to give it a doughnut quality.  With berries on the side I thought this was a real contender.  One tip - slice the bread and leave it out the night before you intend to make it - this will dry it out which in turn means it absorbs the milk and egg mixture better.

Photo from www.theguardian.com 

Omelette Arnold Bennett was another completely new one on me - had heard of it, never cooked it.  It basically consists of omelette topped with a smoked haddock bechamel and cheese and then grilled until bubbling.  I stuck pretty closely to Nigel Slater's recipe although subbed out Parmesan for Gruyere which I thought would have a meltier texture (and on reflection, strong Cheddar would work well too).  I made the fish sauce element the night before so that it was relatively quick and easy to assemble in the morning.  Another one that was utterly delicious although I need to make it again to perfect it - my sauce was not quite thick enough which meant the resulting dish was a little sloppy.

No search for the perfect breakfast dish could ignore that brunch menu staple, Eggs Benedict.  I cheated and bought a jar of Hollandaise rather than attempt to whip it up first thing (I am never at my best in the mornings).  Now I love Eggs Benedict, but this is a dish that I would rather have cooked for me than produce it myself - it's a bit of a pain to try and juggle the grilling of the muffins and the poaching of the eggs all at the same time.  This scored high on D's list, but I suggested that next time we divide and conquer - he will be in charge of the eggs and I'll assemble the toasted muffin and ham base for them.

You may have already seen my smoked salmon kedgeree post so you'll know that this was a great success.  I loved it, and again has the advantage that much of it can be done the night before.  Another serious contender - I thought it might edge it.

We discussed the possibility of a Full English - as with the Eggs Benedict, I tend to think this is one to have out rather than try and cook at home.  D made himself a bacon, egg and black pudding bap while I was in London as a nod - good, he said, but not quite celebratory enough.

We also tried out a Welsh Rarebit for something a bit...left field.  Or as left field as breakfast ever gets.  I stuck pretty much to the Hairy Bikers' recipe, swapping Cheddar for Lancashire, and thought it was delicious but even I, devotee of melted cheese in all its forms, conceded that this was better as a supper than a breakfast. What a supper though - I need to get it on the meal planner soon.  

And so to the final choice - which surprised me, although as D says he reserves the right to change it year on year.  It turns out that the perfect birthday breakfast is....

...Pancakes with grilled bacon, maple syrup and chilli!  This is an April Bloomfield recipe from her excellent book, "A Girl and Her Pig".  It is kind of fusion cooking in the sense that the bacon and maple syrup combo, classic American diner food, is served with crepes rather than the more traditional buttermilk pancakes.  Sterling stuff.

So go on, I'm intrigued - did we miss out on anything good?  Does anyone else "do" birthday breakfasts?  And having done them, am I the only person who promptly requires a digestive nap?  Answers on a postcard please.