When it comes to weekend breakfasts, there’s something very nice about having eggs of one sort or another. I was a bit bored with scrambled eggs and boiled eggs didn’t quite seem to hit the spot and what about fried eggs? Well, you needed bacon to go with fried eggs. What if you didn’t have bacon? What could you do then?
I liked the idea of baked or coddled eggs, where eggs are cooked in a little pot, usually in a bain marie in the oven. Thing about that was, first of all, I didn’t possess an egg coddler and secondly, even if I did, I didn’t want to be standing around in the kitchen waiting for the water to gently simmer round my little pots. I like breakfasts to be good and tasty I know… but I don’t want to spend hours trying to do it.
Normally I use the microwave only rarely – to reheat vegetables say or defrost something – but I wanted to work something out. Eggs and microwaves can be tricky with the yolk going rubbery and the white staying runny. Not an appetising start to anyone’s day.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of times I tried this. You wouldn’t believe the variable results I have had from this… but now I can finally share with you one of our favourite Sunday breakfasts. A breakfast that can be made in just about ten minutes and then taken back to bed to eat while you read the papers and enjoy the fact that it is Sunday.
And what do you need?
See that bread? That’s No Knead Bread, that is. Brilliant for using with Eggies because the bread has a great strong texture that holds the eggs well. And that butter? Well, I made that too!
In my many experiments I realised that while eggs can go in the microwave, they need some kind of insulation in the pot to stop the dreaded rock hard yolk scenario which clashes so badly with the gloopily wet white.
So, first of all, slice some bread
Then scrape some butter over the slices… this sort of waterproofs the bread
(The butter was straight from the fridge so it was hard, but really these are thin scrapes of butter)
Then, using a small pot with a lid, roughly line the inside with the bread
The aim is to get a layer of bread round the outside of the pot so the eggs can drop into the middle. If you have any cream, just put a spoonful in the bottom with a pinch of salt
Then, crack in a couple of lovely eggs….
See how the eggs are kept in the middle of the pot? Protected by the bread?
You can put another teaspoon of cream on the top and then… well then you scrape the tiniest anount of butter over the rest of the slices of bread, sprinkle with salt and lightly put the bits of bread on top – no pressing down! You are making a little lid for your bread liner
Then, lid on and then put one at a time in the microwave.
First of all – ONE minute on medium and then 30- 40 seconds on high. Take out the pot and do the other one…..
They will still cook a little bit in the residual heat. Lift the little bread lid and look…
You can see the white is cooked… but what about the yolk?
Well, The Bear, being devoted to tomato sauce insists on his egg being squirted with it and then he shoves his spoon in….
PERFECT! Breakfast in less than ten minutes…
Benefits? You have sort of baked/coddled Eggies; with no messy frying, or boiling, or poaching; using the timer so you can lean against the bench while your cup of tea brews…. and the Eggies are cooked in the pot you eat them from, saving you washing up later!
It’s not the most elegant of breakfasts but it is fast and tasty and oh so comforting. The kind of breakfast a person might need if they had had a lively night and needed something restorative…….. some of you may know the feeling……