Boiled Egg and Soldiers

Mum would always get the eggs just right, with perfect yellow and runny yolks. The bread, a standard white loaf in our house, would be lightly toasted. Firm enough for a good crunch, and warm enough to tantalisingly absorb a spread of butter. Here at Cafe Pump, we take great pride in re-living a childhood throwback. We've grown up and changed our tastes a little, so there's a wholegrain bread, and some fresh, sharp, sweet peppers to offset the warming softness of the egg. If you like your egg yolk runny, see our tip below...

(to serve him and her)

Ingredients: 2 eggs, 4 pieces of bread, pepper, 1 red pepper

Method: Boil the eggs and pop the bread into the toaster. Chop some pepper. Plate up. Simples!

Tips: For the perfect boiled egg... bring a small pan of water to the boil (the eggs should have their tops just poking above the water's surface). Only put the eggs in once the water is boiling. Leave on the boil for 3mins, then remove from heat, keeping the eggs in the hot water for a further 2.5mins. Rinse under cold water, and serve.

Music: How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Morning? - Dean Martin and Helen O'Connell

Heart Pancakes and Forest Fruits

After yesterdays French-inspired fancies, this morning it was back to basics. The humble pancake. When the beauty of simplicity is the over-riding factor, efforts to 'dress up' should be minimal. We plumped for a heart-shaped mould (Cafe Pump has it's foundations placed firmly in love), and a tiny side of forest fruits & blueberry yoghurt.

Ingredients: 2 eggs, some flour, some caster sugar, a pinch of brown sugar, a few drops of milk, maple syrup, yoghurt, and a selection of berries.

Method: We never weigh our pancake mix, we just know. Whisk it, fry it, and serve it.

Tips: There's no need to flip it.

Music: Glenn Miller - In The Mood

French Toast Croissants with Forest Fruits & Greek Yoghurt

The second day of Farmhouse Breakfast Week saw Emily rise early for a shift in the kitchen. Proving that 'fancy' doesn't always equate to spending a significant amount of time slaving over fine details, this delicate smattering of flavour took only 20mins to prepare. However, on a slightly contradictory note, 20mins of the previous evening were spent whipping up the sweet orange syrup which serves to hold the pieces of this subtle feast together. From France, toasted brioche bread plays the lead role. From Greece, natural yoghurt lashed with honey is the trusty sidekick,  and supporting cast is played by German forest fruits.

Ingredients: 2 croissants, Greek yoghurt, honey, personally selected forest fruits, crushed walnuts, and mint leaves to garnish. Syrup: fresh orange juice & zest, vanilla, sugar and water.

Method: The ingredients for the syrup should be made the night before, and left at room temperature to set. Soak the halved brioche or croissants in the egg, with a pinch of black pepper, and fry gently on a low heat. In the meantime, plate up the fruits, and a generous glob of Greek yoghurt. Drizzle with a good quality honey. Serve the brioche as soon as it's browned, and garnish with mint leaves.

Tips: Brioche bread should be used for optimum results.

Music: Belleville - Rendezvous 

Baked Avocado and Shiitake Mushroom Omelette

Somewhere in the UK, sometime not so long ago, someone dreamt up the idea of breakfast week. Farmhouse breakfast week to be precise. Not ones to miss out on a celebration of food, especially breakfast, Cafe Pump will be joining in all week. As always, you can follow us here on the website, or over at Twitter via #shakeupyourwakeup. 

Currently in the province of Noord Holland, the sunrise is somewhere between 8-9am. It's hard to know exactly, and some days the sun doesn't even register. When the mornings are that dark, cold, and colourless, it's important to inject a bit of life and colour. Kicking breakfast week 2015 off this morning was Glenn (always a dab hand at talking about himself in the 3rd person), who sprung out of bed at 6.20am to make baked avocado and shiitake mushroom omelettes...

(to serve you and your loved one)

Ingredients: 1 avocado, 2 eggs, a small ciabatta, a few shiitake mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. 

Method: First, pre-heat the oven to 175c, then half and de-stone the avocado. Remove a little more flesh from the avocado, just enough to fit an egg yolk and a little white as the supporting cast. Place the two avocado halves in a large ramekin, and bake for 15mins or so. In the meantime, in a drizzle of olive oil (or butter if you're bold), fry up the chopped mushrooms, tomatoes, and slices of good ham/chorizo/serrano. Serve on toast, sat amicably next to the fresh-from-the-oven avocado.

Tips: Remove the avocados while the egg white is still transparent.

Music: Roy Ayers - Everyone Loves the Sunshine

Dark Chocolate and Espresso Cake

Here at Cafe Pump we don't really believe in chemical-filled, magical vitamin bars or energy tablets. Forgive us, we're a little more old school and soulful. Therefore when it's not quite lunch time or dinner time, and you're still faced with a significant distance to pedal, or if you simply feel like indulging, we recommend good old fashioned caffeine and calories. Take our Dark Chocolate and Espresso cake for example...

It's the perfect mix of the good kind of chemicals to get the endorphins firing - made with two fine shots of Italian espresso, and traditional baking ingredients to give you that satisfying feeling of being full - bursting with 70% cacao dark chocolate, no less. The perfect coffee pairing will depend on the time of day. We find it makes a great breakfast with a modest cappuccino, a triumphant mid-morning snack with a cortado or macchiato. Naturally, we're strictly Italian when it comes to coffee, so ordering this one after mid-morning would see an espresso as the natural accompaniment.

Ingredients: 180g of  good quality dark chocolate, a few knobs of butter, 3 eggs, 2 bean-to-cup espressos, 250g caster sugar, 250g flour, and icing sugar and/or cacao powder to decorate.

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Combine the butter and chocolate in a bowl, and melt over boiling water. Mix the eggs and caster sugar in a mixing bowl. Once the chocolate has melted, combine with the creamy egg and sugar mix, and add the espressos. Gently fold in the flour, and put in the baking tray or silicone mould of your choice. Bake for 40mins.

Tips: Plain or self-raising flour will both work, and always lick the bowl.

Music: Me Voy a Morir de Tanto Amor - Alberto Iglesias

Festive Cycling Travel in Mallorca

Probably the first time i'd ever really enjoyed a climb. The early afternoon sun, though at it's strongest, was just enough to warm my glove-less hands at a moderate altitude. Ascending slowly but steadily, trying to count the hairpin turns but losing count, and hopelessly distracted by the dominance of mountains, and gentle winter scenery which appeared both barren and luscious green all at the same time. 

In 1997 the Soller tunnel opened on the main road from Palma to Soller, thus rendering the old road rather obsolete. Nothing too noteworthy there, but the old road has an average gradient of 6%, 7.5km's of perfect smooth tarmac, and 52 hairpin bends on the way up and down. With most road traffic logically opting for the shorter route through the tunnel, the Col de Soller is a cyclists paradise, and really the epitome of off season cycling in Mallorca - stunning scenery, a great mix of testing routes and gentle courses, kind or totally absent road traffic, and plenty of plain, old-fashioned, good hospitality. Of course, the term 'off season' should be taken with a heavy dose of irony as Mallorca doesn't really have to endure a winter. Only on top of the highest peaks, and they are proper peaks at 1445m, is there anything close to freezing temperatures. The vast majority of the island provides more than kind weather all year round. Coming from a cold and damp Dutch winter, the daily sunshine and temperatures of 18degrees were wonderfully appreciated.

Of course, the west of the island is where it's at. The Tramontana mountains both hug and clash violently with the coastline from north to south. We based ourselves in both Palma (south) and Pollenca (north) to get the best of the routes, and make them manageable for us beginners. From Port de Pollenca our local, cafe Bar 1919, became the start and end point of each day in the saddle. With each day in the saddle seeing relatively comfortable distances of 60-85km's a day, we were able to; take in a somewhat short but breathtaking route to Cap de Formentor and back, explore the north coast; Alcudia, Can Picafort, and Son Serra de Marina, and sample some altitude en-route to Lluc and returning via Selva and Sa Pobla. Next on the itineary were three days cycling with backpacks, and therefore taking it easy en-route back to Palma. We stayed overnight in Sineu, and just outside Llucmajor, before returning to the island's capital. Once back in Palma, the mountains were again within our reach. There are a plethora of routes and resources online, our favourite being Mallorca Cycling based in the UK.

Up on top of the Col de Soller, in all that New Years Day solitude, was the only mild inconvenience in two weeks of bicycle travel: the two 'halfway house' cafe stops were both closed for the season. This was indeed only a mild inconvenience, as i'd already enjoyed a cortado and almond cake in Valledemossa, and an early lunch of cerveza and p amb oli in Deia. Any extra calories would have been simply greedy on my part. My palette, stomach, appetite, and senses, already more than satisfied, yet ultimately left wanting more of the same. Cycling on the island of Mallorca in a nutshell. There's more than enough to satisfy you - mountains, hairpins, straights, views, flats, bends, curves - but they'll leave you wanting them time and time again.

Practical Info...

Flights: Eindhoven to Palma de Mallorca with Transavia
Hotels: HM Balanguera in Palma de Mallorca, Hotel CanFont in Sineu, and a treat of a stay at the Puig de Ros d'Alt on the Cami de Sa Torre just outside Llujmajor.
Bikes: We took our own, making use of sturdy and affordable bike boxes from the guys at Wiel Rent NL.