Nigel's fry ups
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
"The fry-up has always appealed to me, in particular the bits that stay put at the bottom of the pan, the crusty scrapings that brown rather too much." Nigel Slater
Uninspired as usual of late, I did my own kind of lucky dip by just picking a page from Nigel Slater's Tender volume 1 - and came up with A fry-up of pumpkin and apple to accompany a meaty supper - well why not I thought. Another enticing recipe title that sets a scene. I thought he might have some more fry-ups (he does) and anyway the fry-up in general is something to ponder on. The picture above is from the Observer, but the recipe there is behind a pay wall. I also don't think it's quite the same recipe, because of the creamy stuff you can see there.
It actually may be a variation of this recipe -Apples, potatoes and bacon, in which the pumpkin is replaced by potato.
The recipe in my book is pretty simple and can actually be found through the link to From Pyrenees to Pennines. Although sadly, the writer had no picture.
The potato version followed pretty much the same method, but there were juniper berries rather than caraway and some crème fraïche was added at the end instead of the lemon. and caraway. But he doesn't stop there for there is yet another version - without the apples Not quite as professional looking - but pretty good and simply called Pumpkin pan fry - from a website called Hazelnut. This one has rosemary, garlic, chilli, parsley and ciabatta - but no apples, and comes from one of his old videos.
Then with a further small step away from this there is Fry-up of cabbage, apple and ham in which the carbohydrates are replaced by greens - but still with the apples and ham. Lighter. It even almost looks like a salad.
The variations show pretty well, how Nigel, like just about all of us, makes little changes to his inventions as he goes along. I should pay more attention to which one comes first perhaps.
All of those fry-ups were made with fresh ingredients, so one more before I move on to leftovers and classics. The one more is called Tidy Friday fry-up and consists of sausages, bacon, greens, potatoes, spring onions. It was a dish from a TV series called Simple Suppers, but alas it is no longer available to view, and so no picture. This picture is from Food.com and one of their contributors French Tart. A bit of a mess really. I'm sure Nigel's looked rather better, but even so the mess above probably tasted pretty good. It's maker certainly thought so - "Another BRILLIANT idea from Nigel Slater" he/she says.
Before I leave the fresh ingredients part of the notion of a fry-up - I should mention that when I went looking for recipes and pictures I primarily got heaps of pictures and articles on the Full English Breakfast - you know the thing - eggs, bacon, beans, sausages, fried bread. We English love it but the world - well the foodie world generally derides it. And who said the whole notion of the fry-up is healthy anyway?
But I've done the English breakfast before so I won't go on about it. I'll just give you Nigel's rather classier looking version which he calls Breakfast hash and which is presented on The Spice Garden website looking rather classier than the usual Full English breakfast thing.
And so to leftovers. The fry-up is one of the perfect ways to use up leftovers - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, calls them hashes and squeaks in his Love Your Leftovers book. I know I also make kind of stir-fries with leftovers sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that foodies would consider this a travesty of the whole idea of a stir-fry. But surely you would think that this is a way of using leftovers around the world? After all frying is one of the most ancient - and satisfying - ways of cooking food - not to mention one of the quickest.
"Sometimes you don't have to do much: it's enough to take the remains of one meal, mix it all together season it up a bit, then pile it into a sizzling pan. And maybe flip a fried egg on top for a feisty finale" Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
And Nigel too finds a fry-up to be a good solution to leftovers with his Christmas leftovers fry-up. I sometimes wonder whether, if you are a food columnist you are always requested to come up with something to do with the Christmas leftovers at the appropriate time.
In the introduction to his recipe Nigel says:
"A leftovers fry-up needs to be a balance of sound, delicious leftovers and freshly cooked greens. So while it is a good idea to use leftover boiled, or even roast, potatoes, make sure the sprouts, or cabbage or kale if you prefer, are freshly cooked. Brown meat reheats better than breast meat, but whatever you use, make sure to include the delicious bits from underneath the carcass – that’s the spot where the most juicy bits lie."
And that's what we like about fried food isn't it? The crispy bits. of fried juice, skin and other bits. I didn't check what everyone else was doing with fry-ups and it's a bit difficult to find them too. I'm sure that Nigel has many more examples, but there is never any listing for 'fry-ups' in indexes and rarely for 'fried food'. You just come across them, or you spend hours looking. As I said - searching on fry-up - just brings you lots of fried British breakfasts. There are so many more options than that however, and hopefully the recipes above will give you some ideas. Or as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says - just throw things into a frying pan and cook. A child could do it, but probably shouldn't because it's potentially dangerous I guess.
"They are the sort of trencherman standbys that put an arm round your shoulder, a cold beer in your hand and say, 'You know, it's not always a bad idea to make a hash of things." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
YEARS GONE BY
June 22
2024 - Pumpkin gnocchi
2023 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2017 - On holiday
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