Tart London: how to make Mexican-style bruschetta

Brunch is one of our favourite meals and this bruschetta is just what a mid-morning dish should be: full of fun, flavour and colour. When we had our pop-up restaurant in Queen’s Park a couple of years ago, we would come up with a new weekly dish and serve it during all-day brunch every Saturday and Sunday. The early birds would come in for granola; then the bacon and eggs brunchers would arrive; followed by the gangs of friends ordering cheesy quesadillas, spicy noodles and jug upon jug of Bloody Marys. Brunch would go on until dusk, when the last people would be dancing out of the door and there would be a lot of empty rosé bottles to tidy up. This recipe is one for the brunch party gang, to be enjoyed with an ice-cold margarita on a Sunday afternoon.

Everything can be made in advance, including the poached eggs. The cheat for pre-cooking eggs is to plunge them into cold water after poaching. They can stay there for at least an hour. When you’re ready to serve, dip them in boiling water for a few seconds to warm. Make sure the avocado salsa has lots of citrus in it to prevent it going brown. You can also try keeping the avocado stone in the middle of the dip – it sounds like an old wives’ tale but it seems to work for us.

We are obsessed with the little crispy corn kernels that top this dish. They are a completely addictive snack to have with drinks. We put them on a lot of dishes to add crunch, particularly salads. You can find them with the dried fruit and nuts in the supermarket. PS: did you know that although some people say bruschetta with a soft ‘sh’, it’s actually pronounced ‘broo-sketta’.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

For the avocado salsa

1 garlic clove, chopped

4 pickled jalapeños from a jar

1 bunch of coriander

2 avocados, peeled and de-stoned

Juice of 1 lime

Salt and pepper

1 large tomato, chopped in half

1 large red pepper, seeds and pith removed and cut into quarters

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for frying and drizzling

Salt and pepper

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cumin

Squeeze of honey

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

4 eggs

4 slices of sourdough bread

100g feta, crumbled

1 bunch of coriander, chopped

2 handfuls of crispy corn

Juice of 1 lime

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 240C. First make the salsa by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor. Taste and add more lime juice or seasoning if you like, then put to one side.

For the vegetable topping, place the tomato and pepper on a tray and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, then roast in the oven for 20 minutes until starting to turn black. Remove and leave to cool. Heat a little more oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaves and sauté for 5 minutes. Roughly chop the roasted pepper and tomato and add to the onion mixture along with the paprika, cumin and honey. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer.

Bring a small pan of water to a gentle boil and add the white wine vinegar. Crack the eggs one at a time into the water. While they’re cooking, toast the sourdough and place on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil, then top each slice first with the avocado salsa, then the tomato mixture. Sprinkle over the feta, coriander and crispy corn, add a squeeze of lime juice, and finish with the poached eggs.