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This comes originally from the little deli I first worked in, in Rotherhithe. It was set right by the Thames, and was a dream world of fun with fellow delistress Lulu, fantastic evenings of cooking and dancing. She taught me how to woo in an apron. These creamy eggs were a best-seller there, and are in my shop too. It’s so cherished that on a Saturday morning it’s pretty much all we make. The chilli jam surprises everyone, as the sweet spiciness works just right with the velvety eggs. I use Tracklements, but if pushed, sweet chilli sauce would do. It’s the ultimate hangover cure according to my oldest girlfriend, Doctor Helen, combined with a feisty Fentiman’s ginger beer, a macchiato, and a sparkling water, all consumed in unison by those in the know. Sometimes I make it mid-afternoon for a snack too.
6 medium free-range eggs
200ml single cream a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt
1 ciabatta loaf butter for the ciabatta
4 fine slices of prosciutto
2 tablespoons chilli jam freshly ground black pepper
Crack the eggs into a microwaveable bowl. Lightly beat them with the cream and salt, so that there are still some defined yellow and white bits. Slice the ciabatta and place under a low grill, dough side up, in order to crisp up and lightly brown. Place the eggs in the microwave for 1 minute. With a fork, scrape around the edges of the bowl and break up any firmer bits. Return it to the microwave for another minute and repeat the process. It may need a further 20 seconds. Be careful not to overcook the eggs. They should be creamy and delicious and lightly risen, which, remarkably, the microwave is perfect for. They continue cooking once they are removed from the bowl, so if in doubt, do slightly undercook them.
If you do not own or prefer not to use a microwave, making them old-school style is great too. For this, melt a little extra butter in a medium pan. Beat together the eggs, cream and salt while the butter is slowly warming. Add this to the pan, and continually stir with a flat-ended wooden spoon to keep pulling up the cooked layers of egg that are created at the bottom of the pan. When the eggs are still pretty liquid but forming enticing sunny lumps, remove from the heat to sit for a few minutes. Just as with the microwave method, the eggs will continue cooking even when removed from the heat. And so, by removing them early, this is how to get them perfectly creamy and not overdone.
Once removed from the grill, lather the ciabatta with butter, arrange on two plates with the prosciutto and chilli jam, and divide the eggs between the plates. Scrunch over a hefty dose of ground black pepper for seriously perfect eggs.
Makes 2 loaves
Soda bread is a wonderful cheat’s bread. It makes for an encouraging initiation into the world of baking, so get cracking. My mother skilfully leavened abundant firm loaves practically daily, decorated with beautiful wheatears and laden with seeds. But for me, it felt like a whole other level of kitchen excellence, slightly out of my reach. By its very nature, soda bread does not require all the leavening and kneading of a normal yeast loaf, so don’t be shy. And once you can see the texture that it needs to be, sloppy but nutty, like a moist porridge, you can be free to throw in whatever you want: poppy seeds, dried herbs, sesame seeds, olives, pumpkin seeds. And you can substitute the sugar here with good honey, for a deeper flavour. Making two loaves, you can put one in the freezer for a rainy day, but if you just want to bake one loaf, divide the quantities below in half.
Of course there’s something deeply impressive about baking your own bread, so I frequently find myself making Mum’s soda bread when I’ve got people over for dinner. It’s so easy: make the bread first (as soon as you get in the door), and while it’s in the oven you’ll have time to prepare some other knick-knacks for dinner. It’s particularly delicious with my favourite salmon and fennel pâté (see page 95) and a crunchy salad. And incidentally, it’s slightly lower in gluten due to the spelt flour.
a small knob of butter
200g wholemeal flour, plus a little more for dusting the bread tins
300g spelt flour
4 tablespoons bran
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
Maldon sea salt
1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
100g linseeds
565ml semi-skimmed milk (milk on the turn is even better)
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Butter two traditional 900g bread tins (about 19 × 11cm) and then lightly flour each one, banging it around so that the base and sides are lightly dusted. Set these aside. Measure out the flours, bran, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, sugar and seeds into a big mixing bowl. With a fork toss around to evenly distribute the flours and seeds. Then measure out the milk and gradually mix it in with the fork. It should look sloppy, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look how you imagine bread dough to be. The reason it is so wet is so that it makes for a really deep flavour, once everything has been dehydrated by the baking process.
Turn this mix out evenly between the two bread tins, which will require you to use a spatula to get all the liquidy cakey mix out. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. It should have risen by this point and be crisp and cracking on the top. Then turn the oven down to 170°C/Gas 3 and continue baking for a further hour and 10 minutes.
Once removed from the oven, turn out the loaves on to a cooling rack for an hour. If they are baked right, they should make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. These loaves are best when they have been cooled for a few hours or overnight. Eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner with unsalted butter.
Soda Bread with Tomato & Oregano
Makes 1 loaf
100g white flour
150g wholemeal flour
11/2 tablespoons bran
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 handfuls of sesame seeds
1 dessertspoon honey
1 tablespoon tomato purée
150ml full-fat milk
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Follow the directions above, adding the tomato purée to the milk to dissolve it. Then mix the milk into all the dry ingredients as normal and bake for an extra 20 minutes to dry out any excess moisture.
Rupert’s New York Eggy Bread with Bacon & Maple Syrup
For 2
In New York for a decadent long weekend, I gorged on those famed diner breakfasts and my good friend Rupert immediately leapt to the forefront of my mind. When we lived together in Edinburgh, he’d emerge from his cupboard-like room at 1 p.m., saunter down to the shop and buy his essential breakfast ingredients, and offer up this fantastic creation