April 2007 - Coddled Eggs

While looking through issue #59 for what to make it wasn't really a difficult decision. As I thought that it was about time that I picked something that could be made for breakfast/brunch again.

I did, however, briefly consider the slow-cooked lamb shoulder with pumpkin agrodolce and wilted spinach from the feature article on the launch of the Dutch edition of delicious and Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in Amsterdam. The lamb is rubbed with a combination of fennel seeds, garlic, oil and salt and slow cooked. The pumpkin is slices of pumpkin in coated in a mixture of herbs spices, onion, garlic, vinegars and sugar and then roasted. It all sounds so full of flavour and a wonderful meal to make on a weekend when you have plenty of time. I had already decided to make a lamb dish from the previous issue though so wanted something different from this one.

There were two options that I though would work for breakfast/brunch. The first was Valli Little's Egg & Bacon Pizzas. Lovely little individual pizzas topped with sundried tomato pesto, mozzarella, eggs, bacon and cherry tomatoes. They looked really nice and I am sure they would make a nice lunch or a light dinner but I wanted a more traditional breakfast food. So I decided to go with Jamie Oliver's Coddled Eggs. I had never made coddled eggs before. I have had them but had just never made them. I really like coddled eggs but after making Jamie's recipe and then looking around at a few other recipes his seems to lack one ingredient, a drizzle of cream and to be honest, I think it really missed it. While I enjoyed it, it was not as good as ones that I have had in the past. I will admit to having over cooked slightly, however I think that the little bit of cream I found in a lot of other recipes would have helped the texture and the richness of the dish. Jamie also suggested serving with sautéed asparagus. I had ended up using the asparagus that I bought for something else so I served it with toast fingers instead.

Coddled Eggs

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 tbps finely grated parmesan
• 4 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
• grated fresh nutmeg

Method

• Preheat oven to 190 C.
  
• Grease two ramekin or oven-proof cups (I used my mini enamelled cast iron pan), then sprinkle the parmesan around the inside of the dish.
  
• Put 2 eggs & 1 yolk in each dish, being careful not to crack the yolks.
  
• Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  
• Cover dish with foil and place in a tray and pour in hot water until it reaches the same level as the eggs.
  
• Bake for 12 - 15 minuted or until the white is set but yolks are still runny.