It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe (possible the first one on this blog!) so I thought I would put this one up! It was a bit of an experimental recipe to use up an excess of capsicums bought cheap at the market, and it was a complete winner – quick and delicious!

Ingredients:

2 capsicums, cut into fairly large pieces, say about 1.5cm x 1.5cm

1 onion, chopped into large chunks

4 tbs oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

A sprig of curry leaves

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbs besan flour (chickpea flour, and can be found at all Indian grocers)

Pinch of turmeric powder

Chilli powder to taste

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves, chopped, half a bunch or so

1. Heat the oil in a kadai (or wok/skillet/frying pan).
2. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter.
3. When mustard seeds have popped, add the curry leaves and the cumin seeds and brown them. This should take about a minute.
4. Add the onions and fry until they are soft and translucent. Add the salt too.
5. Add the besan flour and stir constantly until the flour is browned. The should end up as a crumb like consistency.
6. Add the remaining spices and the capsicum, and mix through. Allow the capsicum to cook, tossing regularly. Do not put a lid on the pan, this will make the capsicum so soft and soggy. The capsicum should end up slightly charred, but not too soft.
7. Add the coriander leaves, mix through and remove from the heat.

This is is great served hot with rice, or any Indian breads, and also tastes great the next day!

Weekend breakfasts are such an indulgence. Nothing beats sitting around with a great coffee, some oozy eggs or deep friend fritters, the paper open on the cryptic crossword page, all in a gorgeous cafe. Recently we've been to quite a few great places, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog about them. Some have photos, but with others I was too excited about diving straight in, and forgot to capture the moment!

Mixed Business – Clifton Hill

This was an odd little place, that was relatively empty given that we went on a public holiday. The interior has a rather warehouse feel, and was really quite hipster which I liked. Firstly let's start with the coffee. It was fabulous, and if I was judging purely by the coffee this place would be a winner, but unfortunately the food didn't follow suit. I had pan fried mushrooms with goat's cheese and mixed greens on toast which ordinarily should have been great, but instead it was just good. Not bad, but not amazing. Still I love mushrooms, so I ate my plate clean!

Foxy Brown – Northcote

Foxy Brown had been recommended to me by a friend who has great food taste and she didn't disappoint. This was such a funky little cafe, a great retro feel, and a relaxed vibe. Once again the coffee was great, and the menu was huge! I settled on V for Victory – sour dough toast, grilled marinated tofu, new york potatoes, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and some greens. DELISH! The tofu was amazing, I don't know what marinade they used, but even my non tofu loving other half had to conceed that it was good tofu! If there was one criticism it would be that the toast was super tough and made it very hard to eat L But all was forgiven when our waitress offered us a pen to complete the cryptic crossword!

Jackson Dodd – Preston

We picked Jackson Dodd on it's location and the fact that it had a pretty high Urbanspoon rating. The people of Melbourne hadn't lied! The coffee was super! I'd rate it as the second best coffee of all the places on this list. The fit out of the place was a bit different too with the coffee machine just on the side wall, and not behind a counter! Their service was a bit substandard (he almost spilt our coffee!), but I'm pretty sure our waiter was new, so I'm more than willing to forgive him! I had the spicy scrambled eggs with chilli and shallots on toast which was rather yummy! I did want to taste the dukah eggs too though. The table next to us was having them, and they looked delicious and oh so oozy! The other half couldn't go past pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, but later admitted, that whilst pancakes and maple syrup was a great combination, and bacon and maple syrup was a great combination, perhaps the three of them together was a combination that didn't work so well together! He did say that his pancakes were great though!

Boundary Espresso – Preston

We were walking, on our way to try out Brother Alec, when we decided to get lazy and stop when we reached the inconspicuous little Boundary Espresso. I had read about this place online, and everyone had been raving about it, and for good reason! It's a tiny little place that was super busy, so we got a table outside. Not ideal on a winter morning, but sacrifices have to be made if you want good coffee, plus the sun was trying to peak through, so it wasn't too bad. To say the coffee was great, would be an understatement – it was fan-bloody-tastic. Best coffee on this list, possibly best coffee in Melbourne! The menu was small but solid. I decided on the caramelised leek and goat's cheese omelette with olive tapenade. The waitress said they were out of goat's cheese and asked whether I would mind swapping for Danish fetta which wasn't a problem for me at all, I can hardly taste the difference when it's cooked! The meal came out with two pieces of toasted Turkish bread, which was a lovely variation on the standard sour dough, and a little piece of butter so you could butter your own bread if you wanted to. I refrained. The omelette was delicious. The sweetness of the leeks, the creaminess of the cheese and the fluffiness of the egg all made for a perfect omelette! Surprisingly the omelette was served in a dish, rather than on a plate, which was different, but made the dish look a bit more special. All in all, this was a complete winner of a breakfast and I'm so glad we changed plans to stop here!