Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everybody. I hope 2011 will be a good year, for me included. There are many things I need to focus on this year and I think many things may change for the better. 

having being poorly with a bad cold for the whole of Christmas week, (hence the lack of posts), Neil and myself are slowly recovering. Neil is a little better than me, however, as his cold began sooner. So, imagine my surprise and delight today when he presented the above to me for lunch. 

He was pottering around for a while and I have to admit that I didn't really take any notice of what he was doing, too busy engrossed in the latest edition of Saveur magazine, so when he called me over, I was gobsmacked. 

Not only was it beautiful and darned tasty, but the ingenuity of ingredient use was very impressive. He toasted the peppers under the grill, spread them with Marmite, topped that with finely diced shallot and grated Cheddar and then topped each piece with an egg, boiled to a perfect level of squidgy-ness, which he then liberally sprinkled with crushed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. He laid it on the table and it looked exactly as you see above, I did nothing to it, except move it to a better light source for the photo. 

The Marmite was an unusual but inspired addition, as its salty, briny, yeasty taste worked well with the cheese, egg and shallot and it also melted on contact with the hot toasted pepper creating a sauce of sorts which has given me ideas for some future meals.

I think today a hidden culinary talent made an appearance. (We may not see it again for quite some time)! Bravo Neil!