• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Press
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Breakfast with Malcolm Eggs and recipe for Portuguese custard tarts

March 4, 2013 15 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

One of the oldest (virtually prehistoric in blog terms, 2005!) and best written blogs is The London Review of Breakfasts. The suitably pseudonymed Malcolm Eggs (or his doppelganger Seb Emina)  after a particularly bad breakfast, started crisis meetings over a monthly Full English, a secret breakfast club if you like, with hand-picked co-conspirators, whose entrance exam consisted of coming up with a similarly punning breakfasty pen name. These breakfast ‘agents’ then spread all over. Mission: review the best breakfasts, be they amongst the posh movers and shakers at The Wolseley, or elbow-deep in grease and condiments at working mens caffs. 
Breakfast is a neglected meal in terms of cookery books, until the twin-headed Seb/Malcolm wrote the recently released and rather brilliant ‘The Breakfast Bible’. Written in customary witty style, with great research into the origins of breakfast food stuffs, musings on the philosophy of the first meal, this book reminds me of Schotts Miscellaney, lots of fun facts but with recipes. 

The cover of The Breakfast Bible: it took me a couple of days to notice that the cover depicted rashers of bacon.

I met Seb/Malcolm for a MsMarmite/Malcolm Eggs breakfast summit at Caravan in Kings Cross, a cavernous warehouse with open kitchen, right next to Saint Martin’s art school. I ordered toast and marmite (“I’d never order that, so much cheaper and better at home” said Seb). Seb/Malcolm went for eggs, naturellement. 
Within the book is an essay about class at breakfast time, by Blake Pudding, the writer suggests that Marmite is a working class condiment whereas marmalade is upper class. If Marmite is working class then it is probably white working class. At a recent event I was speaking to several ethnic minority Britons (Caribbean, African, Indian) who said they would never eat Marmite at home, that only white people ate Marmite. One mum even said that she would feel ‘pretentious’ if she had it in her cupboard. 
Full English ingredients are underpinned by breakfast biblical commandments known as ‘the magic 9’:  eggs, bacon, black or white pudding, sausages, beans, potatoes, toast, mushrooms, tomatoes: in that order of importance. (I disagree, how can black or white pudding be more essential for breakfast than toast? )
Another chapter tackles why cake is never acceptable for breakfast but Seb/Malcolm delves into the pancake pantheon (waffles, Staffordshire oat cakes, crumpets), judging it to be a version of cake.
A breakfast sweet food is represented by a recipe for ‘pasteis de belem’, the light custard tart from Portugal, ideally served with a ‘gallao’ milky coffee. I’ve wanted to try this recipe for a long time. I was delighted with them, the custardy additions of lemon and cinnamon only increased the pleasure. As soon as I made them however, a visiting expert sniffed at the lack of spirally pastry and caramelised top as specified in this post. Must try harder. 

Pasteis de Belem/ Portuguese Custard Tart recipe from The Breakfast Bible. 
Makes 12 tarts:

250g of all butter puff pastry
Unsalted butter, for greasing

Custard:
2 tablespoons of whole milk
2 tablespoons of plain flour
340ml of whole milk
50ml of double cream (I used creme fraiche)
4 large egg yolks
150g caster sugar
1/2 cinnamon stick
3 strips lemon peel
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the custard ingredients together, gradually, in the order suggested, a little milk, flour, the rest of the milk, the cream, egg yolks, sugar, until they are smooth. Heat slowly, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, adding the rest of the ingredients; cinnamon, lemon peel, vanilla extract. When you can draw a distinct line upon your wooden spoon, the custard is thick enough. Remove from heat.
Butter your muffin tray and roll out the puff pastry, 3mm thick. 
Now the proper way is to then roll your puff pastry and cut horizontal slices from your role. This forms the basis of your spirally custard tart. Tuck each one into a muffin indent. The slice should be large enough to go up the sides of the indent.
I haven’t tried this yet myself though. I’ve got some spare puff pastry so I’ll have another go this week and update this blog.
Or, just roll it out, take a saucer slightly larger than the muffin indent, and cut around the saucer on the pastry, push it into the muffin ‘hole’. 
Pour the custard, now cooled, into each muffin hole.
Put the tray into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Gas mark 7 or 220º.
Aga instructions: I baked these for 20 minutes on the bottom shelf of my baking oven. 
Check that the custard has set.
Then for the authentic caramelised tops, place the muffin tray under the grill for 5-10 minutes until brown. 
Aga instructions: place the muffin tray on the top shelf of the roasting oven for 5-10 minutes.
Eat immediately or that day with a large milky coffee.

Do you think Marmite is working class? Or a ‘white’ condiment? What is your ‘Magic 9’? Is toast more important than ‘black or white pudding’? Do you eat cake for breakfast? 

Recent posts

Air Fryer recipe: aubergine sticks with yoghurt, tahini sauce

June 20, 2022

A dingle in Donegal: seven-day family trip discovering my Irish roots

June 12, 2022

silver barfi pic: Kerstin Rodgers

Platinum Jubilee recipes

June 3, 2022

Previous Post: « Recipe: Pears poached in saffron
Next Post: Recipe: Marmite French Onion Soup »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helen

    March 4, 2013 at 8:29 pm

    Funnily enough, I rather like eating cake for breakfast, which is weird because I don't really eat it in general. Then again, I'll eat anything for breakfast, just as long as it isn't a breakfast item. cold pasta is my favourite. or cold pizza. Or curry. Or anything I should have eaten the night before. Man, I want cold pasta now.

    Also I just realised I missed this unintentionally when LROB has been one of my favourite blogs for years. Someone started a sandwich blog with a very similar name. Fucking cheek!

    Reply
  2. theundergroundrestaurant

    March 5, 2013 at 12:17 am

    I LOVE cold spaghetti for breakfast. And Aubergine parmigiana. The tomato mellows beautifully.
    Do you mean this blog? http://londonreviewofsandwiches.wordpress.com
    I've heard the writer is writing a book on the same subject! Can't wait.

    Reply
  3. hrminx

    March 5, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    How fascinating about the Marmite. I suppose I think of it as a middle class condiment, but can't comment on the black/white question, just have no idea. My magic 9 in order would be sausage, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, baked beans, fried bread,toast,(either/or!) black pudding, a properly cooked piece of tomato, not half raw as usually served, and then tomato sauce/Tewkesbury mustard. Ideal breakfast? Loads of sausages, mushrooms and mustard. Actual breakfast? 2 slices home made granary bread, toasted, butter, marmalade. Sigh.

    Reply
  4. Mark Willis

    March 5, 2013 at 1:06 pm

    So, you're going to be on the Good Food programme then? (Saw a trailer last night). Hope it is/was good, and showed you up in a good light, so to speak, rather than portraying you as a quirky eccentric, as TV progs are apt to do!!

    Reply
  5. theundergroundrestaurant

    March 5, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    hrminx: no it never occurred to me that well, not everyone in the UK ate Marmite. I must keep asking people. I did ask on Twitter and a few people from Indian backgrounds said they ate it. But India does have Marmite.
    Marmite isn't served in many restaurants so if your parents had emigrated to the UK and didn't have it at home, you probably wouldn't have much opportunity to have it.
    The Breakfast Bible thinks Marmite is working class. My family has half working class (my dad, hard-working half Italian orphan made good) and half lower middle class (my mum from similar stock to Margaret Thatcher, her parents owned a greengrocers). God everything is still about class in this country which is both fascinating and depressing.
    In terms of your Magic 9, it seems that meat items are the front runners!

    Reply
  6. theundergroundrestaurant

    March 5, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    Mark: yeah that stereotyping is really boring. Of course I cringe at myself, but you soon get used to seeing oneself on camera.
    I saw a TV agent last week who came the whole 'aren't you quirky?' crap. Yawnarama. Everybody is quirky. In fact the quirkiest people are the normals who hide it.
    Maybe it's the way I look.
    My hair is pink right now, a slightly over enthusiastic hair dresser, I said to him: I want to look a bit cartoony with a clear 'look' but not Sue Pollardish. It's a fine line.

    Reply
  7. hrminx

    March 6, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    I was thinking about the marmite thing again on the way to work (!) and also wondered whether it's lack of popularity amongst West Indian/Caribbean communities has anything to do with the general flavours of West Indian/Caribbean food. I don't know much about it, but what I do know is about spicy, herby, sweet (fruity) – specifically not salty. And, let's face it, salty is pretty much what Marmite is about. Was v excited to see you on TV the other night (as, obviously, whatever in UK isn't about class is about 'S'lebrity' LOL)

    Reply
  8. theundergroundrestaurant

    March 6, 2013 at 7:15 pm

    hrminx: talking to my upstairs neighbour Karen, who is first generation British born Jamaican. She doesn't eat Marmite, too salty. She had it at a friends house, at around 7 years old, once she started school but that's too late really. 'Give me a child until the age of 7 and I'll give you the man' said the Jesuits. Marmite inculcation needs to start early I think.
    Her son, born here, eats Marmite however.
    Her great granny was first to come to Britain, her mother lives here but was born in Jamaica. So maybe it takes 4 generations before you start eating Marmite.
    God I'm actually obsessed with Marmite. Why the hell won't Unilever give me some money? Tight bastards. They wouldn't even send me a free jar of gold marmite. I'm like their free sodding ambassador. But the whole subject of Marmite is fascinating.

    Reply
  9. theundergroundrestaurant

    March 6, 2013 at 7:16 pm

    hrminx: yeah and slebrity is the new class. Why do you think Pippa Middleton and lots of posh people want to be famous? It's not enough to be super connected and well off I guess.

    Reply
  10. Donald Edwards

    March 17, 2013 at 8:32 am

    I remember having a long chat with the Portugese pastry chef at Hawksmoor, she said that they made the pastry with butter and lard, then spread it with lard and rolled it up, sort of like a fatty swiss roll. Then cut slices which they pressed into the tart moulds.
    If memory serves she said the custard was made with some flour too. (I should point out it was breakfast when I was there and I was on my 3rd cocktail…)

    Reply
  11. Donald Edwards

    March 17, 2013 at 8:34 am

    oops just re read your recipe and the custard sounds quite similar to the one she described..

    Reply
  12. Catherine

    March 25, 2013 at 11:36 am

    Didn't know much about Marmite until I came to live here at age 17. A friend used to give me buttered granary bread, toasted, with Bovril spread on it, which I really liked, and I then moved onto Marmite. I like it on toast, and then with grilled tomatoes on top.

    I would eat certainly cake for breakfast, especially the American coffe cake types, with the streusal toppings. Americans go a bundle on sweet things for brekkie, but I don't see Staffordshire oat cakes as a type of cake at all. I have them grilled with melted cheese on top.

    Reply
  13. Rachel McGrath

    March 30, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    I have literally just eaten the most amazing Nata then I read this… Have to make some!

    Reply
  14. Louise

    April 4, 2013 at 8:20 pm

    Hi! I grew up in S'affrica. We ate a lot of Bovril on sandwiches (shudder) at home until I graduated onto the strong stuff (Marmite) in my early teens. I haven't looked back. Marmite (spread thinly, on hot buttered toast) is probably the best cure for travel and morning sickness around.

    Reply
  15. Ali

    June 20, 2015 at 11:20 am

    nice

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My piece in the @hamandhigh about the 3 day @heat My piece in the @hamandhigh about the  3 day @heathostile training course. Incredibly interesting & challenging. Link: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/hostile-environment-training-9037980 to read more #hostileenvironmenttraining
Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot eggs, cheeseboard, stracciatella & cucumber, tomato/strawberry/peashoot salad with real balsamic & spruce oil, home cured dill gravlax, smoked salmon, homemade sourdough crisp bread, potato salad with wild fennel & lots more! #supperclub #midsummer #eattherainbow (miss you @linnsoederstroem)
Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 years was great fun. I’m pleased with my food, the guests were lovely, it looked magical in the garden. But the weather! I even had to bring my duvets from the bedroom out. They looked like refugees. But this brought even more laughter! Next event September
My first supperclub in two years will take place t My first supperclub in two years will take place this Saturday 18th June starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £50 byo you can book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club there are still a few places left. Pescetarian menu. Scandi and botanical influences. #gettingbackonmyfeet #postpandemic #smallbusinesses #supperclub #london
I recently completed the 3 day @heathostile train I recently completed the 3 day  @heathostile training course. On the last day I was kidnapped by ex-special forces for a few hours & learnt how to deal with compliance training & a hostile environment. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 3 intense days of combat first aid, navigation & how to survive in a war zone. I handled short, long guns, mortars, grenades, bullets, and tourniquet & bandaged an amputee. I learnt where to sit in a car, where to hide from a bullet, where to protect myself if in a car. It was brilliant. Highly recommended for any journalists, photographers, cameramen, charity workers, paramedics going into any difficult environment say a disaster or war. The stories from the tutors & the other participants were so interesting. My piece on it out soon. Book a course: https://hostile-environment.co.uk/  They also do jungle & desert training. I’d love to join the Antarctic expedition. Anyway that’s me hooded in the front. #adventures #het #hostileenvironmenttraining #experiences #travel
Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking o Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking on doors, going to libraries, searching through graveyards for my Irish forebears. It’s really hard to find information prior to 1850. I found this in last years trip to Arbroath in Scotland. Headstones wear out, records are lost or burnt in a fire, everybody has the same name and are known by nicknames, successive children have the same first name, that usually means they died and the next one is called by the same thing. Women did have children out of wedlock, and people remarried more often than you’d think, plus families fall out & never see each other again. I learnt that my Irish great grandfather michael went to Glasgow & met a woman who came from a similar place: somewhere wild & beautiful by the sea. Then they and their children came to london. Chasing the work & the money always. Politics and economics matter for they push people around from rural to city. And now we rodgers are Londoners. #ireland #scotland #family #travel #roots
How some of us celebrate the Queen’s jubilee! My How some of us celebrate the Queen’s jubilee! My sister & a random Irishman come for the Rory Gallagher festival in ballyshannon. Sis has pulled already!  #getyourcoat #sexpistols #ballyshannon #rorygallagherfestival #ireland
Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal, where my grea Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal,  where my great great grandfather john Rodgers was a postman, then a tailor, then a pawnbroker. #irishheritage #donegal #myancestry #irish #rodgers #travel
I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor timing considering what’s happened over the last 24 hours. Being British I’ve not grown up around guns. It’s interesting to be on this course and find out more about the reality of them, although my focus is learning the ‘golden triangle’ of first aid, communications and navigation. But at the same time It’s depressing how in America nothing will ever change regarding gun law. RIP.
Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa
Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite pop up yesterday. I’m all about repairing and upcycling my brocante finds: this time a beautiful pale wood lamp shade stand which had broken off at the bottom. I’m going to rewire it with 2 core sky blue twisted fabric wire, pop on my hand sewn pleated lampshade I learnt to do @workshopminerva and it shall be beautiful. Don’t chuck out your chintz: repair it! #therepairshop #selfie #interiors #popup
in June I’m having my first supper club in two y in June I’m having my first supper club in two years: here is the link to book: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club £50 18th June  Saturday night. Byo.
#chelseaflower coming up. Last year I bought these succulents and planted them in a vintage zinc garden sieve. Now they are flowering. My balcony is like a little greenhouse: I can grow aubergines & other plants that usually need to be under glass. #londongarden #may #plants #succulents in the garden
Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on t Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on the citrus. I used 7: 2 Italian lemons (from Lidl):some ordinary lemons and some limes (18p) at Lidl. Don’t be afraid to mix and match your citrus. I also used buttermilk from @fenfarmdairy in Suffolk from their honesty shop. Last night we ate it still warm from the oven. #cake #lemondrizzle #homebaking #citrus #buttermilk
A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spa A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spanking fresh asparagus / fried in olive oil, season, then add a little boiling water, not too much, put on the lid, dressed with lemon zest & Parmesan, @fenfarmdairy baron bigod cheese, good bread. This is how I like to eat. Claire’s plates found at the beccles brocante. #suffolk #suffolkfood #supper #dinnerwithfriends  #vintageplates
Can’t wait to see what they will be like when th Can’t wait to see what they will be like when they are fired. All my favourite themes: gingham and scallops. Thanks to @clairebelljar for a wonderful weekend and pottery workshop. Such fun! #workingwithyourhands #playtime #creativity #ceramics #pottery #suffolk
Making plates with talented potter & old South Ham Making plates with talented potter & old South Hampstead girl @clairebelljar in Suffolk. She has the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen. Such a joy to be reunited with her. #friendsreunited #makers #potters #scalloped #wildflowers #cowparsley #pottery
Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian capona Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian caponata, which is like a more interesting ratatouille, in which you add capers, olives & vinegar. £2.50p. I was asked to develop a series of recipes which were delicious enough to serve at a dinner party but also cheap. I shopped at Lidl. #costoflivingcrisis #budgetgourmet #recipe #vegetarian #vegan #lidluk
Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Lemon & herb smoked mackerel fillets from @lidl (take off skin)3 big scoops creme fraiche from Lidl and juice of half a lemon. Blend. Plenty of black pepper. Serve with bread. #budgetgourmet #costoflivingcrisis #eatorheat
Just wrote a very personal piece for @hamandhigh o Just wrote a very personal piece for @hamandhigh on my decade as a single parent on benefits, how I learned to cook & how things are so much harder now because not only are ingredients pricier but the cost of cooking them is too. 3 budget gourmet meals serving 4, for £2.50 each. #costoflivingcrisis #budgetgourmet #povertyshame #singleparents #foodblogger
Easter Sunday. Daffodil skeletons. Easter Sunday. Daffodil skeletons.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2022 msmarmitelover