LEAVING ASIDE the hair of the dog, one of the most common antidotes to a night on the tiles is comfort food. The world may already be full of novelty cookbooks, but here’s another: the appropriately titled The Hungoevr Coobkook.
In it African journalist and writer (and “drinker of distinction”) Milton Crawford details PG Wodehouse’s six different types of hangover – The Broken Compass, The Sewing Machine, The Comet, The Atomic, The Cement Mixer and The Gremlin Boogie – and how to distinguish one from the other. There are amusing visual tests and a questionnaire to figure out which hangover applies, and a selection of recipes to treat each one, graded according to difficulty.
The gastronomic cures range from simple “perfect tea and toast”, banana and passion fruit smoothies or knickerbocker glories with refreshers, to more complicated, often spicy, concoctions: English breakfast tortilla, cardamom porridge with spicy apple sauce, eggs bhurji with fried bread, chorizo omelette and melon feta mint and ham salad - or even the Elvis Presley peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich, recommended for curing the Sewing Machine hangover.
Alternatively, for a zing, try this one, for the Broken Compass hangover, from The Hungoevr Coobkook by Milton Crawford (Square Peg, £6.99).
ANNA AND TOMMY’S MEXICAN BREAKFAST
Difficulty: *
Time: **
This recipe comes courtesy of two of my favourite boozing companions, whom I’ve accompanied to many pubs and other drinking salons in London, from Gypsy Hill to Stoke Newington, and further afield. We’ve never made it to Mexico for a binge but there seems little reason to bother when they have brought Mexico to me, albeit in a slightly unorthodox fashion – via Poland – in the form of this fantastically hearty and spicy recipe.
Ingredients
Olive oil, for frying
Onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Green chilli pepper, de-seeded and chopped
4 Polish kabanos sausages, chopped into small pieces
3 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
2 soft-flour or corn tortillas
2 free-range eggs
Handful of grated mature cheddar cheese
A few jalapeño peppers (best from a jar)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Milton’s method
Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the onion and cook until it has slightly coloured and softened, then stir in the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute.
Add the chopped sausage to the pan and fry for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for another five minutes or so.
Heat the tortillas in the oven or under the grill, according to the packet instructions.
While the tortillas are heating, fry the eggs in a little oil in a separate frying pan.
Place the hot tortillas on plates, taking care not to burn your fingers. Ladle the sausage and tomato mixture on to the middle of each tortilla, but not too near the edges; you don’t want any filling to leak out later.
Top with the grated cheese and a few jalapeño peppers to taste. Carefully fold in the sides of each tortilla, then fold down the top and fold up the bottom, to form a parcel.
Place a fried egg on top of each parcel. Season with salt and black pepper and serve immediately.
