I'm a big believer in the saying 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'. Eating breakfast helps to stabilize your blood sugar levels. Breakfast helps regulate your energy and appetite and I know I can't get it together in the morning until I've fueled my body up.
While I tend to stick to something simple during the week, my guilty pleasure on weekends is a big, yummy brekkie featuring my 'signature' brunch tomatoes.
I don't cook these up if I'm only making breakfast for one, but when we've got a few people coming around it's fantastic to make up a big batch. I always try to cook up a few extra so that I can keep them in the fridge, but they're so popular they rarely survive the morning!
Here's how to cook them...
Get a really large, deep, frying pan and pour beautiful-quality olive oil into it so that the oil is about one centimeter deep across the entire base of the pan.
As you heat your oil over a medium to high flame, cut your tomatoes in half horizontally.
Once the oil is hot, lie the tomatoes skin-side down in the pan and sprinkle them with dried oregano, sea salt flakes and ground pepper.
Cook the tomatoes on a high heat, standing well back (or using a spatter shield) because the oil can get a bit splattery! Adjust the temperature if you need to so the oil is hot enough to cook the tomatoes, but not so hot that the herbs burn.
When the tomatoes start to go soft, flip them over and use two forks to peel the skins off. They should be cooked enough that the skins slide off easily.
Continue cooking until the tomatoes are soft all the way through. Then mash them into the remaining oil and pour them into a beautiful bowl. Tomatoes are a great source in vitamins and minerals including Vitamin A and C, and Folate, potassium, calcium and antioxidants and - although there's quite a bit of oil in this recipe - I think it's good to have some olive oil in your diet.
You can either serve them up in their bowl and let people help themselves to them, or use them to make up my favourite brunch stack...
Take a slice of good quality toast (I like a really dense, seedy sourdough). Spread mashed avocado thickly on the toast, layer on the tomatoes and sprinkle with crumbled goats cheese. My ultimate guilty pleasure weekend brunch, best served with a big cup of builders' tea!
PS: Kris likes to top this dish with a fried duck egg. We only discovered them this year when a friend brought some around for him to try. Ducks eggs are bigger and richer than chicken eggs and the yolks are so plump and yellow. You really only need one.
PPS: If you do manage to save some tomatoes from the starving hoards, they're delicious mashed down and served with pasta, some freshly picked basil leaves and a little freshly grated parmesan cheese for dinner.
Bon appetite!
D x
For more musings from Ms Minogue, visit her MyDaily editor page.