Crispy Microwaved Bacon and a Cling Film Poached Egg

Dear readers,

No one believes me when I tell them that one can make crispy bacon in a microwave. Most people think that it won't become crisp. I didn't believe it either when I first heard of the idea. Now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I never cook my bacon any other way. I have the same feeling about the genius idea of cling film poached eggs.

Poached eggs are my favourite type of egg, as I have mentioned previously in my San Francisco Brunch post. However, I am usually put off of making them because the art of poaching an egg is so difficult to conquer, especially when the eggs aren't fresh. This all changed when someone shared the cling film method with me. It was given to me by one of my housemates, and I believe that she first heard of it from one of Jamie Oliver's shows. It is practically fool-proof (I say practically because one of my housemates managed to fail due to his impatience!) and provides an evenly-cooked white with a runny yolk, and no mess or egg soup!

Microwaved crispy bacon:

Place the strips of bacon onto 2 pieces of kitchen roll (to soak up the excess fat) on a plate and place in the microwave. Cook on high for 2 minutes. Turn the bacon strips over and cook for a further minute. For crispier bacon strips, cook further in intervals of 30 seconds.

Note: The bacon strips usually turn out a little dryer than if they were grilled or fried, however, I believe this to be healthier since more fat has been removed during the cooking process.

Cling film poached eggs:

Place a large square of cling film over and onto a shallow cup or mug and push down the centre of the cling film to make space for the egg. Crack an egg into the cling film and then bring the edges together and twist to seal the egg into a package. Poach as normal, i.e. in a pan of boiling water, covering the egg entirely, for four minutes. Carefully remove the cling film and serve.

Note: This cooking time is for a large egg at room temperature (~20°C). If the egg has been stored in the fridge, cook for five minutes. The result is an evenly cooked white with a runny yolk. I don't usually grease the cling film first, but lining with butter or oil can make the removal of the poached egg from the cling film a little easier.

I ate my microwaved bacon and poached egg with a zucchini pancake and some garlic-fried mushrooms.

Has anyone else tried these kitchen tricks?

Salted and Spiced Dulce de Leche Brownies

Dear readers,

This is my fifth recipe with dulce de leche... is it a little obvious that I'm addicted?! I've been thinking about this recipe for a while now and I finally found some time to test it out.

I've seen salted brownies, dulce de leche brownies and chilli brownies before, but I've never seen brownies with dulce de leche, salt and chilli before.

I wanted to combine saltiness, spiciness and the gorgeous gooey-ness of dulce de leche, in the world-famous baked treat - brownies. There's a mountain of brownie recipes out there. The only brownies that I used to make were Nigella's flourless brownies. She uses ground almonds instead of flour which makes them even richer and gooey-er; there's nothing worse than a dry brownie! However, I thought that the dulce de leche might have gotten a little lost in all that gooey-ness, so I decided to use a flour recipe. I researched many different brownie recipes and came up with this:

Warning: I like my food hot, so these have quite a kick!

200g high-cocoa dark chocolate
200g butter
3 eggs
125g flour
40g cocoa
250g caster sugar
200g dulce de leche (around half a tin)
3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper (tailor this to your own taste buds!)
A sprinkling of sea salt

Melt the chocolate and butter together and set aside to cool. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and mix with the cooled chocolate and butter. Sieve and stir in the cocoa, cayenne pepper and flour. Pour half of the brownie mix into a lined and greased baking tray. Heat up the dulce de leche to make it runny and drizzle half of it over the mix. Add the rest of the brownie mix and drizzle the rest of the dulce de leche on top, using a knife to create interesting patterns!

Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C, or longer if needed. Allow them to cool before sprinkling with sea salt and slicing.

The only problem I had with this recipe was that the dulce de leche on top caramelised further and almost burned. I did think about this beforehand, but of all the recipes that I found, I never read anything about the problem of dulce de leche burning. I would suggest covering the brownies with foil for part of the baking in order to prevent this from happening (as with pie crusts). I still enjoyed the extra-caramelised flavours and it gave the top of the brownies a nice chewy texture, too.

These were almost as squidgy as Nigella's flourless brownies! They were dense and fudgy with a slightly crisp (and chewy!) top layer. They packed quite a punch with the 3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper (this may not be to everyone's taste). The sea salt gave spikes of saltiness in-between the spicy hits of chilli. rich and deep chocolate flavour, and the smooth, sweet and creamy dulce de leche, which managed to hold its place well between all of that squidgy-ness!

These are so rich that just one bite may be enough to satisfy you, and, therefore, they may last a while (meaning more than a day... depending on who's around!) If I may say so myself, I rather enjoyed these!