Recipe 16: Fine breakfast/brunch fare, Runny Egg and Avocado on toast with a fresh Tomato Salsa + news from the old country: A must for a special brunch outing.

This is the second of what I hope to be a continuing series of posts of into the distant future. I promise to manage my time well and not sit in front of youtube watching repeats of Keith Floyd and Anthony Bourdain.

As for the recipe for today, once again this is easier than you can imagine but when done with a little care provides such a fresh, satisfying but light breakfast or brunch dish that you will return to it time after time.

Well I say you will return to it but as I have been told by a surprisingly large amoun t of friends and acquaintances recently; not everybody likes avocado. I myself could eat one for every hour of the day (as some of you may be able to tell from my glowing clear skin, glossy hair and strong nails…). I have heard it described as tasting like rancid butter by one of my good friends and so clearly it is an acquired taste. One that I certainly have acquired wholeheartedly.  For those of you who are not interested in this creamy, flavourful berry (that’s what it is apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado), substitute it for whatever else you can think of.

The pictures at the bottom of this post show a soft boiled egg, but I have lately been perfecting the art of poaching eggs and so I have decided to include that method within the description below. I was taught how to poach an egg successfully after failing for many years and always aspiring to those I had sampled at the Wolseley in Piccadilly. I have a good friend Emma Smith to thank for this technique. She shall forever be remembered as the girl who taught me to poach eggs one blissful summer in London.

Onwards! To the recipe:

Runny Egg and Avocado on toast with a fresh Tomato Salsa

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 large eggs

2 large or 4 small avocados, prepared and cut into slices

2-3 fresh tomatoes,

½ large white onion or 2 medium shallots, cut into slices

4-8 slices of toast or good quality rolls, preferably brown

Salt and pepper

A dash of olive oil

A light sprinkling or two of smoked, hot paprika

Method:

1. Prepare and slice the avocado.

2. Chop the tomatoes and add to the sliced onion with the dash of olive oil, salt and pepper and the sprinkling of paprika. Mix gentle to amalgamate the ingredients.

3. Take a shallow sauce pan or deep frying pan and fill with water to about 2-3 inches. Season this well with salt and bring to the boil. Crack the eggs into individual shallow glasses or ramekins. I use a small, old school martini style glass, but a small shallow sided ramekin should be fine also. The trick is to have the water at a depth so that the egg when gently dropped into the boiling water doesn’t fall so far that it freaks up. Gently tipping the egg from such a container ensures that it stays as together as possible. Once the egg is in the water you can try to amalgamate any bits of egg white that has detached with a spoon.

Make sure the temperature isn’t too high, and you don’t want to cook these for too long. The aim is to have runny eggs that have been carefully cooked. You can even cook for a couple of minutes and then remove the whole pan from the heat. The eggs will continue to cook in the hot water and you reduce the risk of under cooking them. If you don’t like runny eggs then git out of here…!

4. Toast the rolls or bread and lightly butter or brush with olive oil. You can always take a sliced piece of garlic and rub this over the toast if you want to add a slightly increased taste sensation.

5. Dish the toast up and lay the avocado slices on top. Spoon the salsa mixture evenly on this and carefully drained the poached eggs and transport to the plates on a slotted spoon.

6. Season with salt and as much freshly ground pepper as you can handle and another slight sprinkling of paprika.

Serve and enjoy with a nice fresh cup of coffee or some breakfast themed booze (preferably not a pint of Guinness, a champagne cocktail would be suitable…)

As I mentioned, I have been perfecting the art of the poached egg recently and find I am beginning to get the hang of things. There is no need to try those ridiculous techniques of adding vinegar to the water, or swirling it round to create some kind of vortex, which holds the egg together with a cosmic power unknowable to the tiny brains of man. Just use the Emma Smith technique!

Egg whole. Runny eggs and Avocado on Toast with fresh Tomato Salsa

Egg dispatched: Runny Egg and Avocado on Toast with fersh Tomato Salsa

As promised, in other news:

I have heard from another very good friend, Alex Latter, that he has found a locale to blow my old favourite, St.Johns, out of the water when it comes to breakfast, or brunch. Now I had heard of the Hawksmoor but had never been. Its reputation for steaks was clear, but it’s prices did seem to be rather high for my meager budget.

http://www.thehawksmoor.co.uk/pdf/HWK-Brunch-Menu-March-2010.pdf

Follow the link above to see their brunch menu. My contact in the motherland had the sharing brunch and said it was huge and well conceived, and with drinks and service came to 18 pounds a head. Anywhere that serves this many meat based products for the first meal of the day is in my sights for a Christmas visit when I return. I hope to be sitting across from Master. Latter, gazing into the platter of meat placed in front of me…

On that rather salacious note I shall sign off.

Enjoy your food, whatever it is and keep your eyes peeled for next week’s recipe.

The Epicurean Candidate

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~ by theepicureancandidate on September 21, 2010.