Simon Stallard - The Hidden Hut - Irresistible Recipes from Cornwall’s Best-kept Secret

Give your frying pan a quick clean, then fry the sausage patties in olive oil for 2 minutes on each side or until golden and crispy. Turn the oven right down to 110°C (90°C fan oven) gas mark ¼ and pop the patties in with the potato cakes to keep warm.

For the tomatoes, turn up the heat under the frying pan and cook the tomatoes for 2 minutes, turning once. Try not to stir them too much. Throw in the spring onions and add the lemon juice, oil and nigella seeds. Cook for 1 minute or so to lightly wilt the onions.

Serve the potato cakes topped with the sausage patties. Spoon oven the tomatoes and spring onions, and top with the crispy potato skins and some fresh basil leaves.

CHILLI SAFFRON TOAST WITH CRISPY BACON

Here’s one for chilli lovers. Head down to your local bakery to pick up a Cornish saffron loaf, and get the frying pan on for this eggy bread with a twist. The fiery green chilli and coriander really wake everything up. These toasts are great with a bowl of Greek yogurt on the side.

Serves 4

2 large eggs, beaten

16 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

40g butter

4 slices of 1 large saffron loaf, about 2.5cm thick and 100g each

4 tsp wild honey

1–2 small green finger chillies, to taste — depending on how hot you like it — finely chopped

a bunch of coriander, leaves roughly chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the eggs with salt and pepper, then pour them into a deep saucer or shallow bowl and put to one side. This is for dipping the saffron bread into.

Preheat the oven to 195°C (175°C fan oven) gas mark 5½ and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Lay out the rashers of bacon on the prepared baking tray. Lay over a second layer of parchment on top of the bacon and put another baking tray on the top to keep the bacon flat and stop it curling up while it cooks. To get crispy bacon, cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Dip each slice of saffron bread into the egg and press down to soak up the egg, then turn over so that both sides are soaked equally. Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. When all the slices are fried, put them onto a baking tray and pop them in the oven with the bacon to keep hot until you’re ready to serve.

Put the crispy bacon on top of the saffron toast and drizzle with honey. Serve sprinkled with the chillies and coriander.

ASPARAGUS BAKED EGGS, POTATO RÖSTI AND FIELD MUSHROOMS

For those fresh spring mornings when asparagus is in season and calling out for runny yolks. These asparagus baked eggs are served with golden rösti, richly flavoured field mushrooms and a citrusy tarragon hollandaise sauce for a really wholesome vegetarian breakfast.

FEAST

Serves 8

300g Cornish asparagus, tough ends snapped off

50g butter

2 tbsp light olive oil

2 white onions, finely sliced

8 eggs

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE POTATO RÖSTI

2kg potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated

2 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

100g butter

FOR THE TARRAGON HOLLANDAISE

250g butter

2 large egg yolks

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

juice of ¼ large lemon, or to taste

1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon leaves

FOR THE FIELD MUSHROOMS

2 tbsp light olive oil

8 field mushrooms, peeled and cut into 1cm slices

50g butter

Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan oven) gas mark 3. Chop the tips off the asparagus and put them to one side. Using a swivel vegetable peeler, pare the asparagus into ribbons.

Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and a good pinch of salt and pepper, then cook for 8–10 minutes until lightly caramelised. Add the asparagus ribbons and cook for a further 1 minute.

In a small roasting tin, lay out two-thirds of the onion and asparagus mix, then crack the eggs over the top, leaving a gap between each one. Put the remaining onions and asparagus ribbons, and the asparagus tips, over the top to protect the eggs. Lightly season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To make the rösti, put the grated potato in large mixing bowl and add the salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Pour the melted butter over the potato and mix well. Once well coated, split the mixture in half and press it into two non-stick frying pans. Cook over a medium heat for 4 minutes or until the edges start to become golden.

Hold a chopping board or a plate over the frying pan and flip the pan over to turn the rösti out onto the board, then sweep the rösti back into the pan to cook the other side. Do the same with the other pan of rösti. Cook on this side for 2 minutes or until turning golden. Transfer the rösti from each pan to a baking tray.

Put the rösti, and the roasting tin with the asparagus mix, into the oven, and bake for 15 minutes or until the rösti is golden all over and the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny.

While the rösti and asparagus are cooking, make the hollandaise. Put the butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and gently melt, then set aside. Put the egg yolks and vinegar in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water, and whisk continuously until the eggs have thickened to the consistency of mayonnaise. If it becomes too thick, add a tiny splash of warm water.

Take off the heat and slowly whisk in the melted butter in a steady stream, discarding the white sediment at the bottom of the pan. Add 1 tablespoon of warm water, most of the lemon juice and all the tarragon, then season with salt and pepper and add more lemon if required.

To cook the mushrooms, heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the mushrooms and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the butter and cook for 2 minutes more. Serve the asparagus baked eggs with the rösti, mushrooms and tarragon hollandaise.

2

Noon

Lunch is the main meal to be served from our beach kitchen. The menu is chalked up daily, often twice daily if it’s busy, and we whizz through produce. Our food doesn’t follow any particular cuisine; instead, we allow ourselves to be influenced by the seasons and the fresh produce they bring, and even by the variable weather. Cornish soul food might be a way to describe it.

When browsing the recipes for inspiration, let yourself be guided by the day around you. If it’s a hot, sunny day, bring out the salads and grilled fish. If it’s cold and blustery, warm up with spiced dhals and slow-cooked joints of lamb.

If you’re interested in having a go at building your own wood grill or fire pit, there is a feature (see here) that takes you through it step by step. Though I warn you: once you start cooking with fire, it can get pretty addictive!

Soup Sundays at the Hidden Hut

Come wind, rain or shine, a warming bowl of soup can solve everything.

Soup Sundays have become a bit of an institution at the Hidden Hut. The appeal of hugging a warm pot of soup after a long coastal walk is pretty unbeatable. The atmosphere on these days is great — everybody is in day-off mode in their wellies or walking boots. Dogs and children play on the beach. The super-brave even swim here from the village! The place becomes a hub where you end up bumping into old friends and meeting new ones.

Soup Sundays for us are all about the spring and autumn months when the temperature starts to dip and the best soup veggies are in season. We get up early in the morning and prep mountains of produce to make fresh stocks, adding flavours layer by layer. The night before, we roast chicken, simmer turbot frames (bones), braise oxtail and prove bread; everything is done from scratch. At noon we chalk up around five or six fresh soups onto the boards and offer them all for a fiver with bread, butter and a selection of toppings. For us, soups aren’t an apologetic starter made from yesterday’s leftovers; they are served as our main meal of the day on our busiest day of the week!