I've been shopping, so we have a fresh haul of food in and what better than a hearty breakfast to start the weekend?
Liver, bacon, onion, mushrooms and tomato over a leafy salad with pickled chillies, paprika, black pepper and Icelandic ash salt.
There's a waffle in there, too! Bird's Eye brand.
Potato waffles are pretty much just starch, in fact, the ingredients list as: Potato, Vegetable Oil, Potato Granules, Potato Starch, White Pepper, Salt & Stabiliser (E464).
So, pretty much all potato, no sugar, which is rare for processed foods and the role of E464 prevents the potato from being saturated with vegetable oil. In fact, the vegetable oil is probably the only "bad" thing in there ...
... but let's just read a little more about E464.
From Wikipedia: "Use in whole grain breads Agricultural Research Service scientists are investigating using the plant-derived HPMC as a substitute for gluten in making all oat and other grain breads. Gluten, which is present in wheat, rye and barley is absent (or present only in trace quantities) in oat and other grains. Like gluten, HPMC can trap air bubbles formed by the yeast in bread dough, causing the bread to rise. Although it has not been widely studied, it is predicted that whole grain breads made with HPMC will have cholesterol-lowering effects."
Okay, so a gluten alternative ... akin to xanthan gum, or other such stabilisers?
I'm waffling on a bit here, but wanted to investigate these fully. Processed food? Yes, but "sometimes it is better to eat the wrong food with the right attitude than the other way around" Chris Kressler.
I'm not making excuses and certainly not trying to squeeze this in as "paleo" in the way that you see "Paleo Cookies" and so on. The paleo template is large enough an hegemony for each person to take as far as the want to, personally.
If this is a step too far ... don't! Leave it off the plate, but if you want some potato in there, simply slices of sautéed potato will do perfectly.
Let's get cooking ...
Grill the waffle. It wants to become crispy.
In a large skillet, fry off the bacon and once cooked through, toss in some shredded onion and cook through.
Pull to the side of the skillet while you soften some butter in the cleared space and fry off pieces of liver.
While one side is frying, pop a few mushrooms in cap side down. These will cook through and soften.
Retrieve the mushrooms, slicing into quarters and return to the pan on top of the onion and bacon mound. Flip the liver and cook on with half a tomato, fleshy side down also just taking on a little colour and warming through.
Retrieve the tomato, quarter and return to the skillet, folding all the food together.
Serve out over a handful of salad leaves, pepped up with a little black pepper, paprika and Icelandic ash salt (sea salt will do fine); cut the waffle through the middle to make two thin waffles, then corner to corner giving four crisps. Push into the dish.
Brown Sauce over, you've got breakfast. Gorgeous!
