Poached Eggs

I love poached eggs, but surprisingly few people make them. I hate those little poached egg devices that are sold: they produce a result completely different from a real poached egg, with its lovely, lacy white, surrounding a perfectly set yolk. So if you feel that you have no room for your egg poacher, take heart: there is a better alternative.

There are two requirements for flawless poached eggs: (1) plenty of salt in the water (or a tbsp of lemon or vinegar, if you prefer, although they flavour the egg quite strongly), which guarantees the white setting; (2) the water must be at a full, rolling boil before the egg is lowered into the pan. For this reason, eggs should be at ‘room temperature’, ie about 18°C (70°F). In very cold places, you may have to cook the eggs no more than two at a time.

Serves 2

2 cups seawater

4 eggs

• If the seawater isn’t very clean, use fresh water and a tsp salt. Put the water into a large saucepan and bring to a rolling boil.

• When the water is rapidly boiling, carefully break an egg into it, at one side of the pan. (If you are worried about breaking the yolks, break the egg onto a small plate first, and then slide it in.)

• Set the timer for three minutes, for a soft yolk.

• When the water comes back to a vigorous boil, add another egg. Continue in this way until all the eggs are in the pan.

• Reduce the heat and cover.

• When the timer pings, remove the eggs from the pan with a slotted spoon, in the same order as they went in.

• Serve immediately, generously seasoned with black pepper, on hot, buttered toast.

If you find that everything froths up too much, move the lid sideways, to partially cover the pan or turn off the heat as soon as you've added the final egg. Let the pan stand for 6 (soft) or 7 (firmer) minutes and then take the eggs out.

Variations:

• For Eggs Florentine, cook and drain spinach, season with pepper and serve topped with a poached egg.

• Instead of butter, spread the toast with Dijon mustard

• Sprinkle the eggs with a mild ground chilli powder, such as Kashmiri

• If you like the heat, spread the toast with chilli paste

Fried egg sandwich

I suspect that this sounds pretty revolting to my more fastidious readers, but as they happen to be a personal favourite of mine, I am including them. For perfect fried egg sandwiches, you need decent bread – preferably home made, good-quality tomato ketchup and eggs whose yolks are set, but whose whites are not frazzled.

Serves 2

8 slices bread

tomato ketchup

1 tbsp olive oil OR butter

4 eggs

pepper

Annie’s Mixed Herbs

• Toast the bread on one side only.

• Spread a thin layer of tomato ketchup on the untoasted side of each slice of bread.

• Place a frying pan on the burner. Add the olive oil or butter and before it gets hot, carefully break in the eggs so that they are spread evenly around the pan. Tilt the pan, if necessary to keep them so, or gently move them with a spatula.

• When the whites start to set and are lifting up and down, break the yolks. Then sprinkle with Annie’s Mixed Herbs and a generous grinding of pepper. Lower the heat and cover.

• Cook for several minutes until the whites are set. Watery whites are horrible in fried egg sandwiches.

• As soon as the eggs are cooked, cut the pan full of eggs into four equal portions with a knife and then lift out a piece of fried egg, placing it on the ketchup side of one piece of bread. Put another slice on top and serve at once. If you didn’t cook the yolks hard, fried egg sandwiches can be a bit drippy, so ensure that a plate and tissues are to hand.

Variations:

• A small onion can be diced and quickly stirred around before adding the fried eggs. Don’t let it cook too long, or the pan will get hot and the whites will then end up crisp.

• A full-flavoured, but mild mustard makes a pleasant alternative to tomato ketchup. Or try another type of sauce.

• Some wild garlic, if you come across some, is delicious, snipped over the eggs while they set.

Plain Omelette

These make a pleasant change at breakfast. Ideally, they should be made individually, in 150 mm (6 in) omelette pans, but most boats would not have room for such a luxury. They come out a bit on the thin side, if you make them one at a time in a larger pan, so better to make a four-egg omelette and share nicely.

Serves 2

 

4 eggs

salt and pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Annie's Mixed Herbs

 

Method:

• Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly with a fork or whisk so that the whites and yolks are combined. Add salt and grind in some pepper. 
• Heat the oil in a frying pan until it’s runny but by no means smoking. Tip in the eggs and tilt the pan so that the mixture spreads itself evenly around. You can lift up the edges of the omelette as it sets so that the liquid egg trickles underneath. 
• When the top is almost set, sprinkle on the herbs and as the last of the liquid egg firms up, fold the omelette in half with a fish slice. 
• Quickly cut it in half and then put each section onto a heated plate. Serve at once.
  

Variations:

• Of course, there are innumerable variations on the theme, but for breakfast, you probably don’t want anything too exciting. A little grated cheese would be very acceptable. Add just before you fold the omelette. 
• You might like to spoon over some jam, if you have a sweet tooth, in which case, leave out the herbs. 
• Another useful idea is to preheat any of last-night's leftovers and put those in the omelette. But the few herbs are really all most people would want, first thing in the morning, especially if you are fortunate enough to have some fresh herbs on board. 
• If you fancy something more substantial, make a Spanish omelette or a frittata (see recipe).

Perfect fried egg

For perfect fried eggs, break the eggs carefully into a frying pan with a little oil that is wam, but not yet hot.  Too high a heat makes the base crisp – which some people quite like. However, most people prefer the whites soft, but not runny.  If you like the yolk hard, just pierce it with the point of a knife and let the yolk spread out a little. 

Season with Annie's Mixed Herbs, freshly ground pepper and salt, if you like. Once the white is setting and starting to lift, lower the heat and cover the pan.  This saves you from either having to turn the egg over, or flip hot oil over it to set the eggs.

My mother always told me to use the back of the knife to crack the egg.  She was right!

Banana skin bacon

 

 This sounds like veganism gone to extremes, but is actually extraordinarily good!

Serves 2

Skins from two bananas

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp soy sauce

• Take the banana skins and cut off the stalk and the base. Scrape the white ‛pith’ off the skins so that they are almost translucent.  Cut them into strips along the ridges.
  

• In a wide bowl, or on a dished plate, lay out the skins. Spoon equal amount of smoked paprika and soy sauce over the skins mixing and turning until the skins are completely covered with the mixture. Add more if necessary.

• Leave the skins to marinade for a quarter of an hour or so.

• Add olive oil to a frying pan. Scrape in the skins with any leftover marinade and fry over a fairly high heat, turning them as necessary until they are nicely browned on both sides and turning crisp.

• Add to a traditional ‛English Breakfast’, or use in Bacon Sandwiches.

Fried bread

As well as being delicious with the 'cooked breakfast' and with eggs, this is also an acceptable substitute for toast, if you have no toaster and aren't counting calories.  Indeed, you can make passable toast in a good quality frying pan, without the oil.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 slice bread

• Heat the olive oil sizzling hot in a frying pan.

• Put in the bread, move it around to mop up the oil and then turn it over. There should still be some oil in the pan and you should mop this up, too.

• Keeping the heat high, cook the bread until it starts getting crisp and some of the oil that has been absorbed starts to run out again. Turn the bread. If it isn’t sufficiently brown, flip it back for a bit longer.

• Then cook the other side. When it’s properly cooked, it should be crisp on both sides.