Cooking eggs the Heston way - eventually!

Fair makes my mouth water ..

Because it's currently Farmhouse Breakfast Week, here's another treatise on the subject of breakfast.

Those of us who are based in the U.K. will know the t.v. programme to which the title of this blog post refers.  However, for those who aren't as familiar with our t.v. scheduling, it refers to Heston Blumenthal's latest t.v. series "How to cook like Heston" in which he shares some of his techniques.

The first programme was about eggs, the second was beef, then chocolate and this week's is all about chicken.

Now I have a long-standing passion for the humble egg.  Quite apart from the belief that you'll never go hungry all the time you've an egg in the house, I have to admit that it's tricky to keep an egg in this house because no sooner have they arrived than they are eaten - in one form or another.

We were watching Masterchef on t.v. last night and one of the contestants moved a tray of eggs from point A to point B - and I thought "phwooaaar!", much in the same way as you would if you'd spotted a juicy steak, or a delicious oozy pudding.  So, you can see, an appreciation of the many forms of egg is fairly fundamental to my being.

I was recently lucky enough to receive a copy of Michel Roux's cook book, "Eggs", as one of the runners up in a competition held by the lovely Clarence Court eggs.  In this book, he details just about every method of cooking eggs known to man - including the good old boiled egg.  His method was well known and is how, ordinarily, I would cook a boiled egg.

In cold water, ready to go!

Heston's method, however, is somewhat different.  He recommends that you place the eggs in the smallest pan available and only add enough cold water to cover them.

Boiling!  Quick .....

Then put the lid on the pan and place over the highest heat possible.  When the water comes to the boil, remove the pan from the heat and wait for 6 minutes.

..... remove it from the heat and now, wait.

After the time has elapsed, remove the lid and carefully remove each egg.

By all accounts, this method of cooking an egg will result in a less rubbery, more tender egg white - and a beautifully soft yolk - owing to the gentleness with which it has been cooked.

Ever the optimist and ever keen to improve my own techniques, this just had to be tested.

~cries~  No soft anything, here!

All I can say, is that Heston's cooker must be a darned sight better at getting the water to boil than ever mine is, because my first attempt was solidly hard boiled.  Nonetheless it was edible, however I couldn't detect any difference in the egg white.

Forlornly waiting for the perfect egg ...

Never one to give up after a first attempt, my second egg I left for just 5 minutes, instead of the recommended 6.


Aha!  This produced a fairly soft yolk - one which wouldn't have been out of place inside a Scotch Egg, but not really dipping material.  The jury is out as regards the texture of the egg white, as we couldn't really tell any difference.


The third and final attempt was left for 4½ minutes, which produced the perfect dippable yolk inside soft egg white.  I have got to admit, however, that I am still not seeing the promised difference in texture where the white is concerned.  If there is one, it has to be so minimal that as an egg lover - and as such, I really don't mind how my eggs arrive - it is "beyond my ken", as they say in Scotland.

That's the one!  Perfect!

Having conquered the Heston boiled egg, I then turned my attention to the interesting method he employed for cooking scrambled eggs.


Before I get into that, however, I must tell you about the yawning chasm of divide between scrambled egg methods that occurs in our house.  Hubby is wedded to the Escoffier method - that of lots of butter, in a pan, low heat, lots of stirring.  I, however, have evolved into scrambling my eggs in the microwave.  ~cue mass sharp intake of breath~  I know, I know, it's not the best way of doing it - but I have a well developed method that I have passed on to son & heir that is not only fairly safe (no hot cooker tops on which to burn himself or set fire to the daily newspaper) but can (I admit, the results are slightly random) result in lovely creamy eggs.  Or what I used to THINK were lovely creamy eggs - right up until I sampled scrambled eggs the Heston way.


Now I can't imagine cooking my scrambled eggs this way every day - because it takes patience and patience is at a bit of a premium, most mornings (hence the microwave method!).  However, on a morning when I'm craving a bit of indulgence, or have someone who needs a little "pampering on toast" for breakfast - this is definitely going to be right up there.


Heston (as one would expect) totally pushes the boat out on the indulgence side of things, using butter, whole milk and double cream - then finishing off with brown butter and sherry vinegar.


I however, whilst erring on the side of weight-gain caution, just went for the butter.

Nearly! Nearly there!

Heston's method involves placing a bowl above a saucepan of simmering water, then melting the butter and adding the lightly beaten eggs.


As with the boiled egg method, this method is all about being gentle and not scaring the egg into tightening up and becoming tough, but warming it through gently and cajoling it into forming a scramble.  So don't - for a second - think this is going to be done swiftly.  I would recommend you grab a chair.


Make sure you have your toast ready for the moment when the egg finally submits to the heat and, with an almost audible sigh, scrambles.  You don't want to have to leave it congealing in its bowl, while you rush around toasting bread.

Happy sigh - now THAT's what I'm talking about!

The end result - placed on top of some delicious home-made, toasted soda bread - is so deliciously creamy that it truly is the definition of Greg Wallace's favourite word, "unctuous".  Far better than the dictionary definition, that of "having an oily or soapy feel".  To my mind, the milk and cream just aren't necessary as the egg itself forms so beautifully smoothly that the creaminess is all there.  Mind you, as I say, I didn't try the eggs with the cream - maybe it'd pass from sublime to "totally off the scale".  Hmmmn, maybe I'll give it a go, the next time I've some cream sitting looking for a home to go to!


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Soda bread with tomato, bacon, black pudding & an egg - breakfast of champions!

Well, if it isn't the breakfast of champions, then it jolly well ought to be!

I was invited to participate in the Breakfasts of the World Challenge from VeryGoodRecipes.com - you can see what it's all about on the challenge page there.

Naturally, my thoughts about making soda bread got roped in at the same time, along with the fact that it is, after all, Farmhouse Breakfast Week.  You can also find the original recipe for the soda bread on BakingMad.com. 

I was pondering on what would comprise a great Farmhouse Breakfast in England - and immediately the ubiquitous Full English Breakfast came to mind.  It would have been too easy to have gone down that route though, so I contemplated how I could use those ingredients to create a breakfast that both represented the current trends in both presentation and creation, whilst still channelling Ma Larkin from the t.v. programme "The Darling Buds of May" (who is quintessentially "farmhouse kitchen", to me).

I pondered on omelettes, and wraps, and maybe even pancakes - but nothing really spoke to me until I considered the Italian Bruschetta.

Bingo!

So here, for your undoubted delight, is an English breakfast on Irish bread, after the style of the Italian.

Hmmmn .. ~scratches head~ .. well, it tastes pretty darned good, so who cares where it came from - it's my contribution to the Breakfasts of the World!

The soda bread is toasted, which helps to bring out the nutty butteriness of it and makes it rather more robustly able to support its toppings.

The cherry tomatoes are sliced twice and then fried in olive oil (with ever an eye to health).  Make sure to leave them alone - don't keep poking them and moving them about, or they won't take on the lovely caramelisation that you're looking for, to maximise the flavour.

The bacon is grilled (again, with an eye to health and to maximise the crispiness of the fat) and cut into small strips.

The black pudding, as you can see, is cut into small squares which take just seconds in the frying pan, to crisp up and become deliciously savoury and flavoursome.

Fry the egg gently in extra virgin olive oil, which adds that touch of luxury and singular flavour that the olive oil brings.

With a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, another of sea salt and a sprinkling of chopped parsley for colour, you'll be wanting to take a photograph of it just so that you can eat it again with your eyes.

I resolved, approximately two forkfuls into this masterpiece, that if ever I achieved a restaurant or cafe of my own, this would be on the menu.  Ooooh yes.

Edited to say : this recipe achieved third place in the Breakfasts of the World Challenge!  Yay!  ~does happy dance~

SODA BREAD WITH TOMATO, BACON, BLACK PUDDING & AN EGG  (serves 1)

Ingredients :

2 rashers of smoked back bacon

1 tbsp olive oil
5 cherry tomatoes, each sliced twice
1 slice of soda bread
a 1-2" piece of black pudding, diced small
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
an egg
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a pinch of chopped parsley.


Method :


1.  Place a suitably sized plate to warm up under the grill, or in an oven.


2.  Grill the bacon rashers until the fat has rendered and is golden and crispy.  Using a sharp knife or some scissors, cut into small strips, then reserve and keep warm.


3.  Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and add the tomatoes.  Do not move them until they have taken on a good colour underneath, whereupon you should flip them over and cook the other side in the same way.  When they're all done, carefully reserve onto a warmed plate, to keep warm.


4.  In the meantime, once the bacon is done, grill the soda bread until toasted on both sides and reserve to keep warm.


5.  Using the pan the tomatoes have come out of, cook the black pudding - just seconds - until it has darkened and become crispy on the outside.


6.  Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a small frying pan and add the egg.  Cook on a low to medium heat until the white is solidified yet the yolk is still runny.


7.  It is now time to assemble the dish.  Take the warmed plate and place the soda bread onto it.


8.  Lay on the tomato slices until the bread is completely covered, then sprinkle on the slices of bacon.  Next, place the black pudding cubes across the surface of the bacon and carefully lay the egg over the top.


9.  All that's left is to add a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, a pinch of sea salt (not too much - don't forget the bacon might be salty) and a light sprinkle of parsley.


10.  Stand back and admire, whilst your hand blindly reaches for the nearest knife and fork.


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It's Farmhouse Breakfast Week, so let's make Soda Bread!

Isn't that what everyone is thinking?

Well, it's what sprang to my mind - but then, I've been wanting to make some soda bread for quite a long time now.  

This week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week, which is being promoted by the Home Grown Cereals Association.  You can find out all about it on their website and Facebook page, if you're as much of a fan of breakfast as I am!

Breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day.  I've been known to have some (supposedly) odd things for breakfast - but then I can't see that they're any odder than cold pizza, or last night's kebab, or leftover Chinese takeaway, which seems to be the breakfast choice of many.  For sure, I had a phase of having things like a Mars Bar and a can of coke for breakfast - but then that's not recommended and I was just 18 at the time.  For years, my breakfast of choice was a couple of pieces of buttered toast, eaten as I drove to the stables.  I can also remember going through a number of years when breakfast became later and I would have a coffee and a "Paddington Sandwich" (orange marmalade) once I'd reached work, having walked the dogs and done the horses.


However, more recently, breakfast has become rather more formulaic, as in tea, toast, porridge or cereal, swallowed in a hurry in between tending to one or other of son & heir's wants.

As son & heir has grown up and I have become aware of the anti-inflammatory diet, breakfast has changed.  Nowadays, during the week I have my breakfast once I've taken son & heir to school and we've walked the dogs.  Because of the new information regarding protein keeping you fuller for longer, along with the positive news of the egg -v- cholesterol situation, I've found that eggs - and now oily fish - have taken up star billing.

Getting back to the soda bread, the problem with it you see, is that being on the Anti-inflammatory diet, most carbohydrates are off the menu - and that includes soda bread.  Looking on the Nutrition Facts analysis for it however, it appears that 100g represents a negative score of -235 (moderately inflammatory).  This isn't terrible, but it's not good.  However, if you're choosy about what you're putting onto the bread - and perhaps what you eat for the remaining two meals of the day, then you can cut down the inflammatory effect.

Strawberry jam won't help make it anti-inflammatory - but it's jolly nice!

For instance, if I was to take a slice - approx 20g - and put some mackerel on board, then the total score becomes in the positive, such is the effect of the mackerel!

The next job, having decided that I'd throw caution to the winds and make some, was to find a recipe.  My usual resource was particularly unhelpful in this instance so I went further afield and discovered www.BakingMad.com.  They have one or two recipes for soda bread (and some wicked cupcake making ideas, plus a great section on baking tips so I'll be back there for more), some with flavourings, some without - and one recipe which seemed particularly user-friendly in that it combined white flour with wholemeal, which suited me just fine.  I was a little concerned that 100% wholemeal might wind up like a brick, as opposed to a loaf, you see.

An exciting aside, is that the making of this loaf of soda bread enabled me to - ceremonially, you understand - use my new Mason Cash mixing bowl that I'd received as a gift at Christmas.  My Mum always (or it felt like always) had a Mason Cash mixing bowl and you'll have seen them gracing the worktops during programmes like The Great British Bake Off.  For as long as I could remember, I've wanted a genuine Mason Cash mixing bowl.  Mine is now one of my kitchen children, such is its status in my eyes.

You can only imagine the frisson of excitement in my heart as I sifted in that first instalment of flour.  A Mason Cash bowl - and I'm using it to make bread.  My cup runneth over.

The recipe itself is really ludicrously easy.  Of course, it's not essential to have a Mason Cash bowl for the production of soda bread - any old bowl that'll handle the quantity of its contents will do.

The bonus as regards soda bread in comparison with any other kind of bread, is that without the use of yeast - it uses bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar to rise - there is no need to go through the laborious and labour intensive kneading/proving routine.  My loaf was put together in around 20 minutes and was on the cooling rack following 35 minutes in the oven!

As such, I can see that whenever - in future - we'll be requiring "crusty bread" to accompany a main course soup dish, it'll be a fairly easy matter to quickly knock up some soda bread rolls.  How lovely!

I had no problem sourcing buttermilk for the recipe either.  Our local Asda very obligingly had plenty in stock - although it is possible to use plain yoghurt and a dash of lemon juice which apparently will do the trick perfectly, if all else fails.

The loaf came out of the oven looking like the archetypal "Rustic Loaf".  We managed to keep our paws off of it for as long as it took for it to cool - although I will admit that it was still a little warm when we cut that first slice and reached for the butter.  The flavour is surprising, when you consider that there is no yeast there to help the flavour along.  You could taste the nuttiness of the wholemeal flour but the bread has a flavour all its own.  I can see that this loaf stands every chance of becoming a favourite.

SODA BREAD  (makes 1 loaf)  Recipe taken from www.BakingMad.com

Ingredients :

250g wholemeal plain flour
250g plain white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp cream of tartar
25g butter
335ml buttermilk
60ml warm water.


Method :


1.  Preheat your oven to 200deg C/fan 180deg C/400deg F/Gas 6.


2.  Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large bowl.  You will probably find that the bran is left behind in the sieve, so just make sure there are no large lumps of flour hiding under it and tip it into the bowl.


3.  Lightly rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.


4.  Stir in the buttermilk and sufficient water to bring everything together into a non sticky dough.

5.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly, then shape into a 20cm round and place on a baking sheet.


6.  Using a sharp, floured knife, cut a large X into the top of the dough.


7.  Bake the loaf for 30-35 minutes or until risen and golden brown.


8.  Cool on a wire rack.


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