Potato and chive omelette and Instant Limeade

Relatively, because the bacon tends to be a bit pricy - ah well! If you’re well organised, if you’re a cook who plans ahead and all goes according to your plan, you can cut down the actual cooking time by preparing and cooking the potatoes in advance, and doing the same with the bacon (only make sure to store the crumbled bacon in an air-tight jar in the fridge to keep it crispy).

If not, proceed with the following ingredients:

1lb (500 grammes, or a little less) potatoes, peeled and cubed

6 large eggs

1/3 cup of milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 (about 5 blades) chive, sliced

8 slices of bacon fried until crisp, drained and crumbled.

METHOD

Put about an inch of boiling water (no more) in a fairly large saucepan, add the cubed potatoes, cover and heat to boiling.

Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for 6-8 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain and set aside but keep warm (try putting them back in the dry, warm pan with the lid on - but off the fire).

Using a fork or wire whisk, beat together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a 10 inch non-stick frying pan (skillet) on a medium-high heat, add the cooked potatoes and saut? for about 3-5 minutes until they are light brown in colour.

Stir in the sliced chive. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan. As the mixture begins to set, gently lift the cooked portions with a plastic spatula (surely you don’t want to scratch your expensive non-stick pan?) so that the runny, uncooked mixture can flow to the bottom. (no, don’t stir it, just let it flow).

Cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until the eggs are set but still moist on top. Sprinkle with the crumbled bacon and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Now for instant limeade made with

1 large or 2 small limes

2 potspoons (4-6 measured tablespoons) granulated sugar

6 ice cubes

Cold water from the fridge

METHOD

Make a pitcher of limeade by cutting a large lime in quarters and putting them in the blender. (What? Peel, seeds and all? Yes, all).

Add the sugar.

Add 6 ice cubes

Fill blender to 4-cup measure with ice-cold water.

Starting at the very lowest speed, blend, gradually increasing to the fastest, highest speed to reduce the limes to a pulp (takes about 1-2 minutes at most with my blender).

Strain the limeade through a large, plastic fine-mesh sieve, pressing to extract all the liquid.

Serve at once, or keep in the fridge until needed. Makes about 4 cups of fresh limeade. Bon appetit!