Rosie Lovell - Spooning with Rosie

For 2

There’s a great bona fide Colombian restaurant in Brixton market called Como y Punto, and they do an epic breakfast. Their proud kitchen is reassuringly evident from the café, and little pots of salsa sit at every table for you to help yourself to. The last time I ate there, we entirely demolished the salsa, because it’s so jolly delicious.

Luckily there are wonderful shops in Brixton where you can buy and even see corn bread being made. Though in case you haven’t any Central or South American shops near you, I’ve added a cornmeal pancake recipe too, from Raf’s mum, Maggie, and her epic cookery book collection. This colourful and tangy breakfast is all about finely chopping everything. It is best with milky Colombian-style coffees.

1 big juicy tomato

a few stalks of fresh coriander

1 spring onion

1 big red chilli

2 teaspoons white sugar

3 dessertspoons white wine vinegar

1/ 2teaspoon table salt

First prepare the salsa by seriously chopping the tomato, coriander, spring onion and chilli finely with a large sharp knife. For best effects, you want to get a swinging rhythm going by holding down the pointed end of the knife and chopping all over the vegetables. However, if you have a little hand-held blender it would be helpful here to make this a thin and fine salsa. Then add the sugar, vinegar and salt. Decant this into a ramekin for the table.

100g coarse or medium cornmea

40g plain white flour

1/ 2teaspoon salt

1/ 2teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 large free-range egg

200ml soured milk (soured by squeezing 1/ 2lemon into the milk, and leaving to rest for 5 minutes)

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

Measure out the cornmeal, flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda, and thoroughly mix together. Then beat together the egg and soured milk, and gradually whisk this into the dry ingredients. It should be a sloppy cake-mixture type of batter. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a medium frying pan on a high heat to bring the heat of the pan right up. When the oil is rippling and ready, turn the heat right down to low and wait a moment before pouring in enough batter to form a 12cm round. Fry for a few minutes, so that the edges are quite brown and crinkled and the surface is smattered with rising bubbles and is nearly dry. Release the cake around the edges with a palette knife or flat frying flipper, and turn it over. You will only need to fry the second side for a moment, to seal it. The cake should be speckled brown and a little risen if fried correctly.

Remove from the pan to a kitchen towel, to absorb any excess oil. Repeat this process with another teaspoon of oil until all the batter is gone.

1 green chilli

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 small onion

1 small fresh tomato

4 large free-range eggs

a pinch of table salt

Remove the seeds from the chilli and finely chop so that it is almost shredded. Heat the oil on a medium heat in a big frying pan. When it is rippling, add the fine pieces of chilli. While they’re sizzling, peel and dice the onion really small and add to the pan. Deseed the tomato, and again finely chop this before adding to the pan. Leave to sweat for a minute. Then crack the eggs into the frying pan. With a heatproof spatula, break the yolks and stir everything together, but so that the white and yolk colours are still quite defined. Turn the heat down and continue to fold the eggs over with the spatula. When they are quite firm and integrated with the vegetables, remove everything from the pan and lay it out on two plates with the corn cakes. Heap the salsa on top, and season with table salt if necessary.

Makes 4 pancakes

I love making pancakes: so easy a child can make them, and super fun because of the theatrical flipping. I spent a good deal of my formative years making pancakes, so I have happy flipping memories, but I must admit I don’t always get it quite right. I loved making them so much that in my early teens my dad bought me a beautifully thrown pottery batter bowl with a perfectly sculpted lip for pouring. The best pancakes are made with a little patience, as the batter should really sit for an hour at least before it is used. And for some reason, the first one to hit the oil is always a bit dud. My grandmother calls the first the dog’s pancake, for that very reason.

Buckwheat has a really distinctive flavour and texture. It is almost sour but in a really good tangy way, and gives a much more delicate body to the pancake, as it seems more finely ground than regular flours. It is also dark with a malty aftertaste, which really suits the combination of the banana and honey. By whisking the egg white in these pancakes, you will achieve a wonderful lightness that perfectly contrasts the dense banana and sticky honey.

1 medium free-range egg

80g buckwheat flour

100ml full-fat milk

a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

4 bananas that are just about to turn

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 dessertspoons runny honey

Separate the egg, placing the yolk in a lipped jug or bowl, and the white in a really clean metal mixing bowl. Add the buckwheat flour, milk, salt and sugar to the egg yolk, and whisk thoroughly to integrate into a smooth thick paste. There shouldn’t be a single lump. Set this aside for an hour and then vigorously whisk the egg white so that it forms quite firm peaks. Fold this into the thick batter mix, being careful not to lose the air you have laboriously made.

Peel the bananas and set aside, ready to be rolled in the pancakes. Heat a little oil in a good hard-bottomed frying pan. Get it consistently hot before pouring in about a cup or ladle of batter. You should have to really work it around the pan to cover it, as the foamy batter is not loose like a regular batter. By working it, though, it will be a light and crisp affair (rather than a stodgy mattress of a pancake). When the first side is cooked, the pancake will begin to brown at the edges. At this point quickly flip it (or turn with a flat bendy knife, carefully releasing it from the edges) and quickly cook the other side by merely sealing it. The pancake should look slightly decorated with golden spots. Now place a banana off centre on the pancake and fold the pancake around it, pressing down a little to seal. After a few minutes, remove from the pan to a waiting plate and hungry face before starting the whole process again with a little more oil if necessary. Pour over a little runny honey before serving.

Makes 2 sandwiches

I’m so lucky that there’s a great butcher round the corner from my shop. They make their own sausages in all the colours of the rainbow…with herbs, lamb, leek, even chicken. If you can build up a relationship with your butcher, meat-buying will be a rewarding and pleasurable part of the shop, so give it a go. And you’ll be supporting your local community, which will make it a better place for you to live.

The ultimate sausage sandwich is subtle in perfection. Sometimes the simple things are the most challenging to get right, like a roast or a fry-up. Here, it’s all about the scrumptious balance of husky sausage, tart mustard, sweet tomato, peppery rocket and buttery warm bread. These are fast catching up with scrambled eggs and chilli jam as the Saturday morning favourite at Rosie’s.

3 good pork sausages

1 small ciabatta loaf or 2 ciabattini

2 large tomatoes

unsalted butter (French, if you can find it)

2 teaspoons smooth Dijon mustard