A divine brunch on St Stephen’s day

We walk right up the headland and across rocks to reach the shore at the end of the peninsula where we watch the waves crash, do some beachcombing and search for seaweed. On the way back the kids run up and down grassy dunes. When they reach the car they moan about taking off their jackets and going home. We corral them into the car by reminding them that their friends are coming over for brunch.

Shakshuka is one of my favourite dishes for this occasion. It is a hearty Middle Eastern dish made with tomatoes and eggs, and it can be eaten at any time of the day. I learnt how to make it from Doktor Shakshuka himself, at his eponymous restaurant in the old town of Jaffa near Tel Aviv.

He says you can use fresh or tinned tomatoes (indeed he used the latter), and at this time of the year it is probably best to use the canned variety. There was an enormous amount of oil in his recipe and although it tasted delicious, I have included less in mine — with the same great results. The amount of heat from the cayenne pepper can be modified to suit everyone, or you can use fresh chillies instead. I add spicy sausage to the tomato mixture when feeling carnivorous or add roasted peppers for a change — it is a dish that is open to interpretation. I prepare the tomato sauce in advance so I can pull it all together in a flash. Serve it with some crusty bread and a fresh green salad.

The yoghurt panna cotta is perfect for brunch. It is a slightly indulgent breakfast yoghurt that is not too sweet but could still pass for dessert. It is similar to the one we used to make at the Ballymaloe Cookery School years ago. I serve it with prunes soaked in earl grey tea as the mild orange-flavoured panna cotta complements the citrussy bergamot notes of the tea. Best made the day before, the panna cotta will also keep in the fridge, covered tightly, for up to a week.

Shakshuka
Serves 6

What you will need
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
60ml/2 fl oz olive oil
2 x 400g/14oz tins of tomatoes
2 tsp tomato purée
1 tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp Maldon sea salt
200g/7oz spicy sausage, cut into small chunks (optional)
6 eggs
250ml/9 fl oz labneh (you can make this by straining natural yoghurt overnight in cheesecloth over a dish in the fridge) or greek-style natural yoghurt
1 small bunch of coriander, chopped
1 loaf of crusty bread, for serving

How to prepare
Place a pan on a low heat and gently cook the garlic and onions in the oil, without browning. Add the tinned tomatoes and allow to cook for five minutes. Next, add the tomato purée, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt (use less if including the sausage), and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the sausage in the final five minutes of cooking. If you’re preparing this dish for another day, stop here and store it in the fridge.

When planning to serve, warm the tomato sauce in a pan. Make six wells in the sauce and crack an egg into each one. Cook on a very low heat until the eggs are done (the eggs will cook faster if you place a lid over the pan). Spoon the labneh over the top and sprinkle with the chopped coriander. Take the pan straight to the table and serve with the crusty bread.

Yoghurt and orange panna cotta with tea-soaked prunes
Serves 6-10

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What you will need
100g/3½oz sugar
250ml/9 fl oz milk
250ml/9 fl oz cream
Rind/peel of two mandarin oranges
3 tsp powdered gelatine
4 tbsp water
500ml/17½ fl oz yoghurt

For the prunes
250g/9oz dried prunes
300ml/11 fl oz earl grey tea

How to prepare
Place the prunes in a bowl and cover with piping hot, strong earl grey tea. Cover immediately and leave to infuse at room temperature for 12 hours or so, until the prunes are soaked and the liquid is syrupy. After this you can store them in the fridge.

Place the sugar, milk and cream in a saucepan and warm gently, until the sugar has just dissolved. Let the mixture cool to room temperature and then twist the peel of the mandarins, to release the oils, as you drop them into the milk mixture. Allow to sit until cold. Put the gelatine in a small heatproof bowl and add the water, mixing slowly as you pour. Warm the bowl in a saucepan containing a little boiling water, until the gelatine is clear.

Remove the mandarin peel from the milk mixture and discard. Pour 3 tbsp of the mixture into the gelatine and mix thoroughly. Then pour the now-milky gelatine back into the rest of the milk mixture. Whisk through and then whisk in the yoghurt. Pour into a large serving dish and place in the fridge to set for about five hours or overnight. Take the cold dish to the table and serve with a spoonful of prunes.

Cook’s library

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Dinner at the Long Table by Andrew Tarlow and Anna Dunn (Ten Speed Press, €35)
This is a love story: the love of food and the people who gather around the table. Andrew Tarlow is an innovative restaurateur behind a string of cool and brilliant eateries in the New York borough of Brooklyn. In an effort to create somewhere special to hang out and eat, Tarlow and his business partner Mark Firth and chef Caroline Fidanza renovated a 1920s Pullman dining car, with the help of their friends, in 1999. They called it Diner.

Tarlow and co now have six individual food businesses in New York including Achilles Heel (with chef-manager Lee Desrossiers); the fabulous Wythe hotel; the She Wolf Bakery; Marlow &amp; Daughters butchers; and even a beautiful leather goods and clothing shop, Marlow Goods, with Tarlow’s wife, Kate Huling. The leather goods are made from the hide of the animals bought from farmer friends while the meat is used in the restaurants.

Reading Huling’s intimate introduction to this book makes you want to start a little bit of magic of your own, in the form of a restaurant. The book is co-authored by Anna Dunn, editor-in-chief of Diner Journal, Tarlow’s independent magazine that features art, literature and recipes.

Each chapter of Dinner at the Long Table is a collection of recipes for a full meal, a celebration and a reason to gather around a long table. The recipes are not to be rushed as the time in the kitchen is as important as the time at the table. Hence there’s a lot of slow and outdoor cooking. Recipes include rabbit and chorizo paella — one of my favourites — and there are chapters such as Under the Harvest Moon (vegetarian) and Cold Night Cassoulet. These are not restaurant dishes; they are recipes for friends and family, cooked from the heart.

Sourdough pancakes with hard cheddar and apple
Makes 8-12

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What you will need
2 tbsp sourdough starter
320g/11oz flour
475ml/17 fl oz full-fat milk
2 tbsp butter, plus more for frying
2 eggs
30g/1oz wheat bran
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
500g/1lb 2oz mature hard cheddar, crumbled
8 apples, cored and sliced thinly
Maple syrup, for serving

How to prepare
In a bowl, stir together the sourdough starter with 250g/9oz of the flour and the milk. Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight. In the morning it will look all curdled and weird, but don’t fret.

Next morning, melt the butter over a low heat in a pan, stirring constantly until it is browned and smells nutty (about five minutes). Remove from the heat.

Fold the browned butter along with the eggs, wheat bran, sugar, baking soda and salt into the starter mixture until just combined. Don’t overmix — there will be lumps. If the batter is too thick, thin with a little milk.

In a skillet over medium-low heat, melt one teaspoon of butter. Pour 60ml/2 fl oz of batter onto the skillet until bubbles form at the surface, then flip and continue cooking for a minute. Add a teaspoon of butter when the pan seems dry.

Transfer to a plate in a low-heat oven while you continue to cook the rest of the pancakes.

Crumble the cheddar over each pancake and finish with apple slices and maple syrup.