Easter Deviled Eggs - Rainbow hard boiled eggs

Post in collaboration with Juliettes Interiors

Unicorn eggs - the ideal dish for an Easter brunch. Celebrate the arrival of Spring with all the multicoloured shades of the rainbow in this pretty pastel retro-tastic canape which is perfect for parties or picnics. Take your devilled eggs to a whole new level of sophistication by colouring them and serving with smoked salmon and caviar. 

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Chaise Longue? For me it's luxury, decadence, quaffing champagne, Art Deco and The Great Gatsby! It's a piece of furniture that I would absolutely love to own and I can totally imagine myself luxuriating on one wearing a silk dressing gown and being waited on hand and foot. Surely the height of glamour and sophistication? When I was invited to take part in a creative challenge and create a lunchtime menu inspired by my favourite Chaise Longue from the collection at Juliettes Interiors I didn't have to be asked twice. But which one to choose? I pondered over Neoclassical, Contemporary or Baroque, Leather, Velvet or Linen and Mahogany, Walnut or Gold Lacquer but in the end had to go with my initial gut instinct and the absolutely stunning Button Upholstered Italian Designer Turquoise Velvet Chaise Longue. Isn't she just gorgeous?

Spaghetti Carbonara Frittata

Spaghetti Carbonara Frittata, a twist on the Italian favourite. The perfect midweek meal using eggs, ham and pasta (plus any other fridge leftovers). Wonderfully filling and works really well served cold for picnics or packed lunches. 

Did you know that 4th January is Spaghetti Day? Nope, neither did I. That was until I bought a Christmas Pressie for myself (aren't they the best kind?!) of a National Days Poster from mylegoman.com  This fab hand drawn A2 poster provides a charming pictorial guide to 2018 with a calendar of national food/drink days, some of the big national events and a few of the large sporting events of the year. Yesterday was Chocolate Covered Cherry Day and tomorrow is National Sausage Day but for now I'm taking the opportunity to update and re-share a recipe for Spaghetti Day. 

I first published the recipe below in March 2015 but it's been a family favourite long before and ever since. A really tasty and wonderfully filling midweek supper dish. Exactly the same ingredients you would find in a traditional Spaghetti Carbonara, it's just the quantity ratios have been juggled. The recipe makes 4-6 portions depending on how hungry you are and if you serve anything alongside. It is however very much worth your while to keep at least one slice back to pop in the fridge. It makes an awesome cold breakfast the next morning, or you could pop it in your packed lunch box or take it on a picnic. 

The great thing with this recipe is that you can adapt it to suit whatever happens to be lingering in the fridge. I've been known to add peppers, mushrooms, salami and potatoes. You don't even have to use spaghetti, any pasta will do. In the wise words of Nigel Slater "I like it when people use a recipe as a starting point, going off piste and tweaking it until it is right for them. That is when I feel recipes are often at their best, as something to inspire rather than something to be followed word for word, robot style."

Spaghetti Carbonara Frittata

200g spaghetti

125g sliced thick cut ham

6 free range eggs

large handful of wild garlic - chopped (or chives/spring onions)

generous pinch of ground black pepper

100g strong cheese grated 

splash of oil

Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water for 12 minutes and drain.

In a large bowl beat the eggs and add a pinch of pepper (no salt required as the ham is salty enough)

To the beaten eggs add chopped wild garlic/chives/spring onions, 75g of the grated cheese, the chopped ham and drained spaghetti and mix thoroughly.

Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan then add mixture, spread it out and cook over a low heat for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat your grill.

Sprinkle the remaining 25g of cheese over the top and grill for 5 minutes until the cheese is melted, bubbling and lightly browned.

Slice, serve and enjoy.

The ham that I used to make my pictured Frittata was actually my Irn Bru Ham whose recipe continues to provide so much interest worldwide, particularly for Christmas, Hogmanay and Burns Night. We enjoyed it ourselves on Boxing Day last year (still seems strange saying that - hello 2018) and I was delighted to have so many of you sharing your Christmas successes with it on my Facebook page. Super chuffed to have been a small part of some of my readers festive meals. Makes it all worthwhile. Although I'm not sure what's going to happen now that Irn Bru are planning to change the recipe! Alas I don't think I've got quite enough influence to prevent that happening so I suggest you start stockpiling. 

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Potato Rosti and Quail Egg Easter Nests

Syn Free Easter Eggs! A seasonal savoury treat which is perfect for breakfast, brunch or brinner. These bitesized Potato Rosti and Quail Egg Easter Nests taste amazing and are Syn Free on Slimming World.

This recipe is the perfect antidote to all the chocolate overindulgence that Easter can bring. Whilst I'll happily demolish a chocolate krispie Easter nest filled with Mini Eggs, savoury is truly where my heart lies. #CheeseNotChoc I'm sincerely hoping that the Easter Bunny has procured a Cheester Egg for me as they have all sold out. With that in mind it's just struck me that you could even grate some cheese over the top of the Rosti Nests before they head to the oven. They'd make the perfect Easter breakfast or brunch but if truth be told I'd be delighted to eat them for pretty much any meal on any day of the year. (If you happen to be doing Slimming World, use Fry Light and they are syn free - can't be many Easter Eggs you can say that about!)

My Potato Rosti & Quail Egg Easter Nests are super easy to make if you follow my recipe. They did however entail a wee bit of trial and error on my part to perfect the method before I shared them with you.

• Muffin Tin - I baked the first batch in a silicone muffin tin but traditional metal ones are definitely better for heat conductivity and avoidance of soggy bottoms.
• Potatoes - Next the potatoes, I left the skins on, used a waxy variety and grated them using a food processor on the coarsest setting. They need to have as much as possible of the moisture squished out of them. I used a combination of my hands and squeezing them in a tea towel.
• Seasoning - Use much more salt and pepper than you think you'll need. My first batch was rather bland. You could also spice them up with paprika or chilli.
• Quail Eggs - Final hurdle was the quail eggs. I quickly learned that you can't crack a quails egg open like you would a hen's egg. I tried a number of methods that Google suggested finally settling on sawing them open with a serrated knife. The technique takes a wee while to master but by the second dozen I had no burst yolks which I count as a success (there were 3 casualties in the first batch)
• Eggs - You can use hen's eggs for this recipe. Just make sure they are small ones and make a nice big hollow in the potato nest so they fit.

Potato Rosti & Quail Egg Easter Nests

Makes 12

500g Waxy Potatoes

Salt & Pepper

12 Quail Eggs

Spray Oil

Preheat the oven to 200c

Wash the potatoes, no need to peel, and coarsely grate.

Squeeze as much moisture as you possibly can out of the potatoes using your hands, a teatowel or combination of both.

Season the grated potatoes really well with salt and pepper.

Spray a 12 hole metal muffin tin with oil and arrange the potatoes into 'nests' with a small hollow in the middle.

Crack a quail egg into each hollow.

Spray the nests with oil before baking them in the oven for 20 minutes or until the eggs are set and the potato rosti is golden brown and crispy.

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Rainbow Devilled Quails Eggs

Mayonnaise has got to be my absolute favourite condiment, even as a child of the 70's and 80's I was never a Salad Cream fan. Keep it to yourself but I don't even like Ketchup! Heinz have launched a new [Seriously] Good Mayonnaise which does exactly what it says on the tin. As part of their launch campaign they challenged me to come up with a recipe using the mayo that fits on a spoon. It could be savoury, sweet, traditional or modern – the only rule being that it needed to use Heinz [Seriously] Good Mayo and fit on a spoon. Time to get my thinking cap on. Forget the dish running away with the spoon, this is going to be the dish on the spoon.

As a Child my Grandma Corntown often used to take my sister, Mum and myself for lunch on a Friday at The National Hotel in Dingwall. My starter of choice was always Egg Mayonnaise. It's not something that you tend to see on a menu these days but was a ubiquitous dish of its time. In homage to classic egg mayo I've created Rainbow Devilled Eggs with #HeinzSeriouslyGood as my recipe to celebrate the product launch. I made a pastel variation of these at Easter but have downsized from Hens Eggs to Quail Eggs to fit my tasty morsels onto a teaspoon and bumped up the saturation on the colours. I'm slightly confused as to whether they are Devilled Eggs or Deviled Eggs. The number of l's seems to depend upon where in the world you are. 

Heinz [Seriously] Good Mayonnaise is rich, smooth and creamy and made using simple, high quality ingredients, with absolutely no added colours, flavours or artificial thickeners. Made with free range eggs consumers can choose from two varieties, Standard or Light, available in both the Heinz glass jar and the familiar top down squeezy bottle. If you've got a seriously good idea for a recipe on a spoon containing Heinz [Seriously] Good Mayonnaise as an ingredient visit www.seriouslygoodspoonsfuls.co.uk for details of how to enter the competition and full and terms and conditions.

Rainbow Devilled Quails Eggs

Retro-tastic multicoloured bite sized canapes on a spoon

12 Quails Eggs

Gel Food Colouring

2 Tbsp Heinz Seriously Good Mayonnaise

Salt & Pepper

Smoked Paprika

Hard boil the quails eggs in salted water for 3 minutes.

Drain and cool under cold running water before peeling.

Cut each egg in half lengthwise and carefully remove the yolks and place them in a bowl.

Mash the yolks until smooth with 2 tablespoonfuls of Heinz Seriously Good Mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Fill small bowls with water and food colouring in as many colours as you want your eggs. Gel colouring will give a better result. Experiment with quantities of colouring and how long you leave the eggs immersed to get the colour results you desire.

Remove the coloured quails egg halves and drain on kitchen paper.

Fill a disposable piping bag with the egg mayonnaise mixture.

Place the coloured quails egg halves on teaspoons.

Snip a tiny piece off the end of the piping bag and pipe swirls

Sprinkle your devilled eggs with smoked paprika, chill and serve.

Check out the creative recipes below that some of my fellow food bloggers have been putting on spoons of all shapes and sizes and follow the #HeinzSeriouslyGood hashtag on social media for more tasty mouthfuls.

• Micro Quail Egg & Smoked Ham Danish Open Sandwich
• Coronation Chicken with Mayo Croutons
• Rosemary Potato Stars with Lemon
• Crispy Fish Balls with Easy Tartare Sauce
• Potato Canapes with Bacon and Asparagus
• Nori-Wrapped Hot Smoked Salmon Cubes With Miso Mayonnaise
• Russian Olivier Canapés

Disclosure : This is a commissioned recipe for Heinz Seriously Good Mayonnaise. All views expressed are my own.

Smoked Salmon and British Asparagus Mini Crustless Quiches

This week is National Picnic Week although I suspect someone may have forgotten to tell the weather. It's been somewhat soggy and driech, certainly in my wee corner of Aberdeenshire. If things are looking brighter where you are it's a great opportunity to fill a flask, dig out the wicker picnic basket and tartan travel rug and set out on an edible adventure. If the weather really doesn't want to play ball the recipe that I'm sharing today for Smoked Salmon and British Asparagus Mini Crustless Quiches makes a perfect packed lunch or light supper. And for anyone following Slimming World these tasty morsels just happen to be Syn Free.

Its nearing towards the end of the short but sweet British Asparagus season and I've been indulging in the tasty green spears on a very regular basis. Alongside salmon and egg they really are the most perfect of flavour combinations. To line my mini quiches I've used squares of smoked salmon which are sold as sandwich slices.These are the perfect size for a muffin tin but if you can't track any down you can instead jigsaw together regular smoked salmon to do the same job. I cook these in a very simple bain marie which stops the edges overcooking before the centre of your mini crustless quiche sets.

Smoked Salmon and British Asparagus Mini Crustless Quiches

Fry Light Spray Oil

100g Pack of 6 Scottish Smoked Salmon Sandwich Slices

12 British Asparagus Spears

2 Free Range Eggs

4 Tbsp Quark

Salt & Pepper

Preheat your oven to 180c
Spray the indentations of a 6 hole muffin pan with Oil and line each hole with Smoked Salmon.
Cut the tips off your Asparagus Spears and set them aside.
Slice the stems of the Asparagus into 1cm lengths and saute them in a frying pan with a squirt of spray oil for 5 minutes.
Whisk together the Eggs and Quark and season with freshly ground Salt & Pepper.
Divide the sauted Asparagus equally between the 6 mini quiches and pour over the egg mixture.
Top each quiche with two of the Asparagus Tips and fold in any overhanging salmon.
Use a roasting tin, large enough to sit your muffin tray in, as your Bain Marie. Half fill it with boiling water and place the muffin tin into it.
Cook for 20 minutes or until the egg is set.
Serve warm or chilled.

If you fancy a picture perfect picnic without the hassle of creating it yourself, the three hampers being launched this week by Mercure Hotels will be right up your street. The classic British pastime of picnicking is brought slap bang up to date with a bespoke range of ‘Pre-Instagrammed Picnic Hampers’ combining our modern obsession with uploading foodie phots to social media, with the age old passion for al fresco dining. There have been almost 300 million (and counting) food posts on Instagram since its launch in 2010. At the moment I'm responsible for 2612 of them! The three hampers, created in partnership with contemporary food designers, Bompas & Parr, have been designed to fit the style, shade, and colouring of the UK’s favourite Instagram filters - Mayfair, Hudson and Juno. 

The vibrantly coloured hampers feature beautifully created, totally bespoke food, with locally inspired ingredients from selected by Mercure hotels, including Ardoe House Hotel just down the road from me in Aberdeen. The “Pre-Instagrammed” picnic baskets will allow you to snap a perfect picture shot that doesn’t need to be filtered or adjusted; tapping in to the growing trend for #nofilter food photography. You'll be sure to get maximum likes, shares, comments and taste! 

Disclosure : I have received compensation from Mercure by way of a hotel stay in return for this post. All views expressed are my own.

Shakshuka - Spicy Tomato Baked Eggs

Not all tinned tomatoes are created equal. This is something that took me a while to discover. As a student tinned tomatoes were a staple of my food shop due to their sheer versatility. Once you can make a simple tomato sauce the world is your oyster. Serve it with pasta, make it into chilli or bolognaise or combine both into a lasagne. It's one of the building blocks of basic cooking skills. However as a student with limited budget I always opted for the cheapest supermarket own brand or basics version. Big mistake. Buying cheap tinned tomatoes is a false economy. It's definitely worth spending a wee bit more for a quality brand and I'm delighted to be teaming up as an ambassador with with premium Italian tomato brand Cirio.

Founded in Italy 1856, Cirio make a wonderful range of tins, jars and cartons of tomato products. Although it is tempting to reach for the cheapest tinned tomatoes in the supermarket you can tell the Cirio difference as soon as you pick up the can. With cheaper brands there is a lot of sloshing about as there will be a lot of juice and not a lot of tomato. When you open the tin the colour comparison is stark, their tomatoes are actually bright deep red, the chopped product is thick and whole tomato flesh firm. But the real difference comes in taste and intensity of flavour. Their products are simply richer, sweeter, less acidic and bursting with tomatoeyness. Give Cirio a try and you'll be converted.

The recipe I'm sharing today is for Shakshuka which is essentially eggs baked in a tomato based sauce. It works well as a Vegetarian dish but meat eaters could add spicy chorizo for an extra kick of flavour. Shakshuka has its origins in North Africa and is a simple rustic one pot dish in which the quality of the tomatoes can really shine through. The name means to mix up or shake up and in my recipe I've mixed the traditional tomatoes and eggs with seasonal Jersey Royal potatoes. It makes a perfect brunch or supper dish and you can spice it up or down according to you own taste. I'm a bit of a woose so go heavy on the smoked paprika and light on the chilli. Shakshuka is frugal food that's full of flavour, but only if you splash out a wee bit on your key ingredient.

Shakshuka - Spicy Tomato Baked Eggs

Ingredients

400g Jersey Royal New Potatoes

Splash of Olive Oil

1 Shallot, finely sliced

1 Red Pepper, diced

2 Cloves Garlic, crushed

200g Carton Cirio Passata

400g Tin Cirio Chopped Tomatoes

100g Spinach

1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Basil

1 Tbsp Chopped Parsley

2 tsp Smoked Paprika

Chilli Flakes/Chopped Fresh Red Chilli - to taste

Salt & Pepper

4 Free Range Eggs

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c

Boil the potatoes for approximately 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well and thickly slice.

Whist the potatoes are cooking add a splash of rapeseed to to a frying pan - ideally an oven proof one.

Fry the onion, garlic and peppers until softened.

Mix in the Cirio Passata and the Cirio Chopped Tomatoes

Stir through the spinach and allow it to wilt down before adding the precooked sliced potatoes.

Season with the basil, parsley, smoked paprika, chilli and freshly ground salt and black pepper.

Make 4 shallow hollows in the mixture and crack and egg into each.

If you're not using an oven proof frying pan, transfer the tomato mix to an ovenproof dish before you add the eggs

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Sprinkle the eggs with some extra smoked paprika and ground black pepper and serve with a green salad and crusty bread for dipping.

For further Cirio Tomato inspiration take a look at Bintu's Joloff Spaghetti and Helen's Slow Cooked Beef Ragu and Fagioli all’uccelletto. 

Disclosure : This is a commissioned recipe for Cirio. All opinions expressed are my own.

SPAM® and Eggs = SPAMbled™ Eggs

SPAM® + Eggs = SPAMbled™ Eggs. A recipe that does exactly what it says on the tin! Shake up your scrambled eggs by adding chopped pork and ham. Perfect for breakfast or brunch this quick and easy SPAM® recipe would also be ideal for camping as tinned SPAM® requires no refridgeration.

We're now at at that strange time in between Christmas and New Year. I believe the official name that has been coined is "twixtmas". We've all eaten and drank ourselves silly and after days of slaving over a hot stove just want to get back to some kind of food normality. The recipes I'm sharing today are super quick and easy to make and use an iconic ingredient that over the years has been maligned, celebrated and musicalised. We're talking SPAM - chopped pork and ham. It was one of my absolute favourite school dinners back in the day in the form of Spam Fritters and the two recipes below give a new twist on a traditional family favourite. 

Discover more SPAM® recipes on Foodie Quine

SPAM® Mac ‘n’ Cheese

SPAM® Hawaiian Style Pizza

Sizzling SPAM® Fajitas  

SPAMBLED™ eggs (serves 4)

Ingredients

1 x 200g tub or can of SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham

3 x large eggs

3 x tablespoons milk

2 x spring onions - finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

15g butter

Method

1. Beat the eggs, milk and salt and pepper together in a mixing bowl.
2. Fry cubes of SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham, turning until golden in a dry frying pan. Keep warm.
3. Melt butter in a frying pan on a medium hot heat, sauté the spring onions lightly then add the egg mixture. 
4. Scramble with a wooden spatula until still soft and glossy.
5. Add SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham and mix.
6. Serve with extra black pepper.

SPAM® Fries

Ingredient

1 x 340g can of SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham - cut into 1/2" sticks

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 350f 180c/160c Fan
2. Spread the SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham sticks on a baking tray and place on top shelf of preheated oven for approximately 12 minutes until golden but not crisping up
3. Serve in an empty SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham can with a selection of dips

Disclosure: This is a commissioned post for SPAM® Chopped Pork and Ham. As always, all views expressed are my own. Images and recipes courtesy of SPAM®.
Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me as a passionate Scottish Food Blogger to continue to share my Edible Food and Travel Adventures with you. I’m super choosy who I work with and promise to bring you only the cream of the crop.

Fully Loaded Vegetable Frittata

Eggs are an absolute mainstay of my shopping list and have a multitude of uses in the kitchen. Breakfast, baking, pastry, pasta, souffle, ice cream, custard, sauces, main meals and much more. Egg mayo is undoubtedly my favourite sandwich filling and with eggs on hand you can always whip up a quick and nutritious meal in minutes. What’s more eggs are a great source of protein, vitamins and minerals and keep you feeling fuller for longer. For me it has to be Free Range and for the highest standards of food safety look out for the red British Lion mark on your eggs. 

Since its introduction in 1998, the British Lion scheme has been successful in effectively eliminating salmonella in British eggs. The British Lion mark means that the eggs have been laid by hens vaccinated against salmonella. For further information and lots of exciting (eggciting?!) recipes head over to www.eggrecipes.co.uk

Today I'm sharing a fantastic Frittata recipe from vlogger Barry Lewis of My Virgin Kitchen. I've never made anything like this before without using a carb such as potatoes or pasta and the inclusion of avocado was totally new on me. It certainly was fully loaded and the amount of veggies meant you really didn't miss the carbs. The avocado worked really well as did cooking it in a flan dish in the oven as opposed to a frying pan on the hob and finished under the grill. I greased my flan dish before pouring in the mix and the slices came out perfectly. It was also great served cold the following day and would make perfect picnic food. 

FULLY LOADED VEGETABLE FRITTATA

Ingredients

8 British Lion eggs

8 cherry tomatoes, sliced

6 button mushrooms, sliced

Handful fresh spinach

4 tbsp sweetcorn

1/2 courgette, sliced

3 spring onions, sliced

1 pepper, sliced roughly

1 avocado, peeled and chopped in chunks

Handful fresh parsley

Large handful grated extra mature cheddar cheese (use extra cheese if you wish to top up before baking)

To serve: sweet chilli sauce, side salad

Method - see video

For further vegetarian main meal egg inspiration take a look at these fab recipes from fellow food bloggers.

Rainbow Chard Souffle by Fab Food 4 All

Spicy Tiffin Eggs by Tinned Tomatoes

Egg Curry by Coffee & Vanilla

Spanish Tortilla with Jersey Royals and Spring Greens by The Veg Space

Full English Breakfast Baked Eggs by Amuse Your Bouche

Easy Vegetable Crustless Quiche by Family Friends Food

Three Allium Smoked Chilli Tart by Tin & Thyme

Pea, Caramelised Onion & Feta Quiche by Nadias Healthy Kitchen

Disclosure - This is a sponsored post for British Lion Eggs. All views expressed are my own.