We had a bit of a foodie weekend in Melbourne a couple of months back and I was inspired. Particularly by the breakfasts we ate at Pint of Milk and the Dutchess of Spotswood. The Dutchess of Spotswood was particularly outstanding serving up all sorts of rich unusual english fare such as blood sausage and sweet breads with an upmarket tangent. Really innovative stuff for a breakfast menu and I found a pretty good review here. I also located a Pint of Milk review here.

It was the dish I had at Pint of Milk that made me itching to get back to my kitchen and give replicating it a go. My version is slightly different as I didn’t have any sumac at home and I really had no idea what the ingredients were but mine looked very similar and tasted fab. First to give you some visuals of the Dutchess. My breakfast was a beautiful creamy scrambled eggs with salmon roe and a flat white in a great little courtyard in the sun. Heavenly start to the day.

Spicy tomato and chickpea stack with poached eggs and labneh with paprika, mint and black sesame seeds

(Makes enough for two)

1/2 cup of chick peas (you can use canned but I make up batches in bulk and freeze them)
2-3 medium tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 a medium yellow onion finely sliced
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pinch of cumin
1 tbspn tomato paste
A dash of verjuice (I am currently using a rose verjuice)
4 eggs
4 tablespoons labneh
extra paprika
black sesame seeds

Sautee onion and tomato in a saucepan then add paprika and cumin and stir well. Add chickpeas, tomato paste and verjuice and simmer until tomato has gone mushy. Spoon ingredients into ramekins and put in the oven to bake for around 10 minutes on 180ºC.

Meanwhile poach or boil and peel eggs and prepare labneh portions on plate. Sprinkle labneh with paprika, mint and black sesame seeds. When the chick peas are ready turn them out onto the plate and top with poached eggs. Wilted spinach would also go well with this (as served at Pint of Milk) and sumac would go well mixed into the labneh (also served at Pint of Milk).

Enjoy!