An egg by any other name, is but a meal!
Tags: Lifestyle, Foodies, Cooking, Vegetarian, Food

I can cook really complicated recipes, but it takes a real talent to do the perfect egg.

Chrissy Teigen

So how do you fry or scramble the perfect egg? As chef owner (patron) of a restaurant group I have hired my fair share of chefs over the past 30 odd years. Our food was considered high end, I prefer to call it a decent bistro offer. I consult now, but I stood at stoves for at least 25 of those 30-odd years. I’ve honed the practical side of my chef interview process down to this:

cook me your signature dish; Make me some mayonnaise from scratch; and Either fry or scramble me 2 eggs with one slice of toast.

I tell them I don’t mind what bread you use, but I’m judging it; I want soft eggs if fried, and I don’t care what you put in the scrambled, but it’s the eggs I’m judging, not the added ingredients. Oh, and by the way – don’t do point 1, until you’ve satisfied me with points 2 & 3.

Some of these chefs have been cheffing for many years. My restaurants were in Africa; Europe and America. I use the same interview test for all units and the results are universally similar. Few chefs cook eggs well and many of the chefs don’t get to do point 1.

Watching a person cook eggs will teach you all you need to know about that individuals temperament and cooking ability. And why choose an egg as the test ingredient? Cooked well, an egg is a thing of great beauty, but it’s equally very easy to botch. Attention to detail is a hallmark of a great chef and his kitchen. There is no point having the best ingredients cooked to perfection but served on a chipped plate. You may as well use lousy ingredients. Leaving feathers on a chicken; sinew in some beef; leaving pin bones in a fish fillet; uncovered garlic in the fridge. All these little error examples impact a well run kitchen and it’s always about attention to detail, which you need to apply to cook the perfect egg along with timing – so what better ingredient to test our chef with. I don’t expect perfection, but I do note the process; the timing and mostly the attention to detail.

Great chefs have impeccable culinary timing. Take the best ingredients and time the execution wrong and you’ve got mediocrity. Equally take cheap ingredients – (a beef shin), and time the cooking process well, and you’ve got perfection.

The egg is a humble ingredient, yet magical. Take it away from food and you’re struggling. Add it to cakes; any baking; sauces; rich ingredients; stocks; simple or complex ingredients; meat; fish; mains; dessert; starters; drinks; vegetarian etc. and you elevate the dish. It’s a synergistic ingredient, it always adds value! If a vegan is going to cheat – it’ll be an egg that causes the slip.

Picasso says the egg is the essence … when searching for pure form, you arrive at the egg. I agree. The egg requires no skill to cook it, and much skill to cook it well.

Always fresh eggs, obviously. Crack them open firmly, I prefer two hands – that way you can smell and see the egg before adding it to other eggs, or to other ingredients. The ability to crack an egg with one hand shows us what? Absolutely nothing. Like revving a motorcar – it doesn’t mean the vehicle will arrive at a destination – only that it can make noise. I don’t like noise in a kitchen. Unnecessary movement is clutter to the eyes!

Fried:

Select a pan – for home cooks, Teflon is good. If you can, the pan should not be too big – you don’t want the egg white spreading everywhere, you end up with a thin white ‘canvas’ to hold the yolk. If you’ve only got a large pan, when you add the eggs, tip the pan so the egg collects in one place and then gently lower the tilt of the pan watching while the white begins to cook and firm up. That way you maximise the whites thickness. Don’t use an egg ring either, it produces rubber. The ring gets too hot and cooks the white edges to a hard rubbery yuck – awful! Equally, no microwave if possible … surely our lives are not in that much of a hurry!

Two schools of thought on the white of an egg – ‘hard fry’ it and get a slightly crisp, brown edge to the egg. OR gently “poach/fry” and end up with a soft product. I am definitely in the soft delicate school of thought. If you want crispy – eat crisps! However I will not ‘judge’ the other option if prepared well. But I think the egg is delicate and should be cooked as such.

For me, it’s never oil, of any sort, only butter. Oil provides a harsh heat – good for fries. Unsalted butter is best. So medium to hot pan, grind black pepper into the pan and let it toast slightly. 2 cracked eggs waiting in a small bowl – I check to see they’re good eggs. I’ve seen what a bad egg does to the human stomach! I can smell the pepper toasting, time to add the butter, it can sizzle to start but mustn’t stay sizzling. Completely melt it, but it mustn’t be bubbling or get too hot. Let the toasted cracked pepper infuse into the butter. You’re hearing a symphony in your head. Take you’re time – a fried egg takes less than 5 minutes. Who hasn’t got 5 minutes for perfection!

Add the eggs, ensure the white is thick, not spread all over the bottom of the pan. The eggs are separated, cooked individually in the same pan at the same time. Just as nobody likes sibling twins joined at the hip, so eggs don’t like being joined! A slice of thick ciabatta or similar bread into the toaster, push the plunger down. You want the thickness of the toast so it absorbs the velvet richness of the yolk. Put a lid on the eggs. I want a soft yolk with a pale cloudy film over it. I don’t want wobbly albumen. But I must have a soft white with a runny yolk. It’s a dance. Open the lid and only now grind sea salt and more ground pepper. Salt toughens the albumen – and adding it early does nothing for the taste. You want to imagine layers of flavour – the seasoning, egg, butter, toast.

Up pops the toast, nicely browned, the eggs are perfectly fried. Never shocked by the heat of the pan, always caressed. You smear salted butter on the toast – liberally, the toast is hot enough to melt the butter and create alchemy. Butter and egg together is heavens gift to your taste buds. Gently lift the first egg and place it off centre on the toast. The second egg sits on the warmed plate. Never on the toast – make two pieces of toast if that’s your thing! You’ve toasted the bread for a reason, you’ve cut it thick (at least 2 centimetres) for a reason you want a slightly crisp toasted outer, unctuous from the smeared butter, and a pillow soft middle to your toast, if you put both eggs on one slice of toast, the yolk drowns the fibre of the toast. The egg should be speckled with a fine dusting of ground black pepper, no extra salt. I slide my knife across the plump yolk as if I’m buttering the egg and thus distribute the yolk across the white evenly so you eat both simultaneously with every bite. That’s why you place it off centre - push the yolk across the bulk of the toast. The second egg provides the yolk sauce for toast, which you’ve cut into bite sized pieces. My wife cuts her toast crusts off and dunks them into the yolk and eats that first. I don’t think there is a better product, packaging or meal than the humble egg.

Fried egg variations:

When you grind pepper in the pan, after it’s toasted, add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and let it caramelise, then add the butter and eggs as above. OR

Buy toasted onion flakes (or make your own) and follow the process for the main recipe, but sprinkle toasted onion flakes into the uncooked albumen and let it incorporate into the cooking of the white. Adds a crunch that sautéed onions cannot. Smoked onion chips kick it up a notch too. OR

After the pepper toasting, slice the stem end of a ripe tomato about an inch thick and push it onto the dried pan whilst on the heat, let the tomato juices release and splutter but keep pushing the piece of tomato against the bottom of the pan and move it around the entire pan – until the juice begins to caramelise. Add a 1/2 clove finely diced garlic and the butter. Once, and only once the garlic is cooked, and incorporated into the butter, add the eggs and follow as above. Finish with finely diced chives.

Let me know your egg secrets.

Scrambled:

I follow Joel Robuchon and his mashed potato theory, when cooking scrambled eggs. I am not an old world classic French chef. I steer clear of cream, butter and such ingredients WHERE POSSIBLE – I tend to cook in a more Mediterranean style, but scrambled eggs are one of my exceptions. Joel says when you’ve added what you think is enough butter to mashed potato – add more butter! I say the same for scrambled eggs. And I never, ever add milk. Why would you? Always ask this simple question – by adding a particular ingredient, what does it add to the dish! I think people add milk because they’re lazy and the milk softens the ‘scramble’. But if you cook them properly, they’re perfectly soft without the milk.

I use salted butter into a cold pan (Teflon or similar non stick is best for a home cook) please don’t add ‘cook and spray’ or similar. One good Teflon pan is cheaper to buy than a years supply of ‘spray and cook’ or similar product, and the pan lasts a lifetime if cared for.

While the butter is warming slowly, (you can obviously do the pepper thing from the fried option above), crack your eggs into a decent sized bowl. You want to incorporate some air so not a bowl that barely fits the eggs. I find a sturdy glass option is best. Now with a balloon whisk give the eggs a solid whisk to totally incorporate the yolk into the albumen and add some air. It should finish frothy, one colour, with no albumen lumps.

The butter should be hot but not sizzling. Add a piece of cold butter, and the egg mixture simultaneously to the pan and let it cook. Do not touch or scramble yet. Add a little more pepper, but no salt at this point. Add 1/2 teaspoon parsley … dried is fine. Just use less. (If I’ve got celery leaves, I chop them very fine and add that instead, I love the slightly peppery flavour of the leaves). Now the bottom on the egg mix is starting to firm up, add a piece of butter and gently move the whisk through the base of the eggs to break the base up, but just to incorporate, don’t whisk vigorously, turn the cooked bottom egg over so the runny top egg touches the pan bottom. Lightly salt the egg with sea salt. Cook a bit longer and switch off the pan. Add a lid and leave to rest for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir the egg with a spatula and serve, it should have light individual lumps of soft scrambled egg, not a slurry of cooked sick!

If you’re going to add ingredients like peppers and onions, make sure they’re beautifully caramelised and cool, before adding to the egg mix. All too often I eat scrambled egg with added ingredients and all I taste are the added ingredients, not the egg. By adding it cold and giving the egg time to cook alone, you’ll get the full flavour of egg plus the additives.

If you’re eating salmon with the eggs, use decent salmon – Not those slightly grey offcuts that taste like the mud at an English seaside resort at low tide.

Add a pinch of curry powder or a few drops of Tabasco to your egg mix and cook.

If you are adding flavour to scrambled egg, unlike fried, add it to the whisked raw mixture so it incorporates flavour while cooking. Just remember that egg is a delicate flavour so doesn’t need huge amounts of added flavour ingredients – if you cannot taste the egg, it’s not correct.

As I sit looking at the debris of 2020, I think a lot of people are deciding to reboot. Maybe cook more, eat healthier, I truly hope this is one of the positive side effects of Corona. Home cooked food is so simple and one of life’s true pleasures. The egg is one of the humble pleasures I can hold onto. It’s my ultimate comfort food. I’m guessing a lot of people forced into lockdown, who can’t or don’t cook, and with restaurants closed and supermarkets a nightmare to engage with, are eating more eggs because they don’t have many other options. Literally anybody can cook an egg into a meal and onto a plate. And it’s so versatile. The egg is a packaged food source that takes minutes and delivers every time.

Enjoy.

B