Neil Perry - Easy Weekends: Lazy Brunches

Good shopping , good cooking, good living has always been my mantra.

My hope is that this book helps you cook, inspires you to buy quality ingredients and makes you want to cook for your friends and family. Nothing in life is more beautiful to me than sharing a meal with the people I love; it is what I live for.

I believe the way to a healthy life is through a well-balanced diet comprising fresh food and variety. Nothing is really bad for you in moderation. I love pork fat, but do I eat it every day? No, of course not. Do I enjoy it as a treat in my bacon for breakfast or in an Asian stir-fry or braise? Yes, most definitely. Moderation is the key to good eating; balance your diet with fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, dairy and a good amount of fish. Then the big juicy steak, the chicken skin, the butter and a bit of pork fat wont hurt you. And boy oh boy is there flavour in those amazing ingredients.

Marry fresh food with a bit of daily exercise and you have the blueprint for a happy healthy life. You dont need to go to the gym every day, just go for a morning walk or run up the stairs at work; dont always take the elevator in life. Drink plenty of water, and wine in moderation. I should listen to my own advice

You can prepare most of these recipes without being an amazingly-skilled cook. I want this book to be approachable, to give you simple ideas that work well together. I hope it helps you explore the different cuisines that have always influenced my food. It is Australias multiculturalism that has defined me as a cook and I want to share some of those Eastern and Western influences, which have made me who I am.

A final word from me on becoming a better cook. If you enjoy it, simply cook more often and take notice of what you do. Try and remember if the fish was perfectly cooked last time and make a note if the chicken was a little overcooked. Was the oven too hot? Did I cook it for ten minutes too long? Every time you cook you can learn something every day. If you can be bothered, keep a little notebook and jot down what happened and how to make it better next time. It makes for an amazing read after a couple of years. Imagine your grandchildrens delight when they discover grandmas or granddads little kitchen notebook

Happy cooking is about memory, love, happiness and life.

Bloody Mary and fried pizza with egg

I first had this at my dear friend Ronnie Di Stasios country house. It was so simple but amazing. You will love the rich taste of the yolk as it breaks and mixes on the pizza base.

SERVES 4

4 x 70 g (2 oz) balls of

500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) olive oil

4 free-range or organic eggs

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

+ Roll out each piece of dough to the size of a bread and butter plate.

+ Heat the olive oil in a frying pan a bit bigger than the dough over lowmedium heat. Working one at a time, slide the pizza base in and cook for about 2 minutes, then turn over and carefully break an egg on top, being careful not to break the yolk. Now spoon the oil over the egg. Keep this up till the egg starts to set and at this stage the pizza base should be cooked.

+ Carefully remove the pizza with a fish slice, drain on paper towel then place on a plate, sprinkle with sea salt and lashings of freshly ground pepper. Serve and cook the remaining pizzas.

Pizza dough

750 g (1 lb 10 oz/5 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 tablespoons honey

500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) water

15 g ( oz) fresh yeast

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Pizza dough

+ Mix the honey and water together and warm to blood temperature. (Dont overheat the water or the yeast will die.) Add the yeast, crumbling it with your fingers. Stand for 10 minutes or until foamy.

+ Combine the flour with the salt in a large bowl, (this helps to dilute the salt as yeast hates it). Make a well in the centre then add the yeast mixture, after 10 minutes, add the olive oil to the flour. Mix the liquid into the flour. When it forms a mass, turn it out on to lightly floured work surface and knead. Continue kneading for 8 minutes until the dough is strong and elastic.

+ Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and allow it to prove in a warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. At this stage it can be knocked down for use or refrigerated until needed (it must be allowed to come back to room temperature, usually a couple of hours, before use). Or freeze it.

Bloody Mary

SERVES 1

50 ml (1 fl oz) vodka

50 ml (1 fl oz) tomato juice

20 ml ( fl oz) carrot juice

20 ml ( fl oz) celery juice

20 ml ( fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

5 dashes red Tabasco sauce

5 dashes green Tabasco sauce

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 small stalk celery, trimmed, to garnish

Bloody Mary

+ Place all the ingredients, except the celery stalk, in a cocktail shaker. Season to taste with salt and pepper and fill the shaker with ice. Roll the shaker forward and back three to four times to combine the ingredients.

+ Using a Hawthorne strainer, strain the liquid from the shaker into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with the celery stalk.

NOTES

This pizza dough is more than you need, but it works best in this volume, so make it and take what you need and freeze the rest.

Once the dough is made, form balls the size you want the pizzas and freeze like that.

Smoked salmon with poached eggs

When poaching, more than any other type of cooking with eggs, fresh is best. Other smoked fish like hot smoked trout or sturgeon are great with this little brunch dish.

SERVES 4

12 slices of smoked salmon

4 free-range or organic eggs

sourdough or Turkish bread, toasted

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon

+ Bring a saucepan of salted water to the simmer. Dont have your saucepan filled too deeply with water, no deeper than about 4 cm (1 inches). Dont have the water boiling too fiercely or your eggs will blow apart, just barely simmering is perfect. Dont try to cook too many eggs at one time. As you become more proficient, you can be a little bolder and fill the pan.

+ One by one, break the eggs into a cup and slide them into the water (gently tip the cup near the waters surface). Gently spoon water from the pan over the eggs as they cook. This helps to cook the tops so you dont have to turn them over.