Over the course of the World Cup Gareth and I compiled a selection of dishes in honour of the England football team. The star of the menu, for me, was my invention of Eggs Alexander-Arnold: two free-range poached eggs atop an English muffin, layered with peppered pastrami and sauce crème de moutarde. As atonement for the horrible pilafi I made last week, I made this dish for Sunday brunch, and am happy to report that it was as delicious as I expected.
I have long been fascinated by the breakfast experience of eggs on a plate. It's worth taking a quick tour around the gloriousness of the main muffiny poached egg dishes.
The classic: Eggs Benedict. Served with ham and hollandaise sauce. But why stop there? You could use prosciutto di Parma, jamón serrano, jambon de Bayonne, or smoked streaky bacon. Would chorizo take you too far from the concept of Benedict? I don't see why it should. Always serve eggs Benedict with slightly too much hollandaise.
Eggs Florentine: served with spinach in place of ham. On the face of it this sounds terribly dull. Why should vegetarians suffer for lack of ham, particularly when they are better than I at preserving the planet? I think a little salty garlic fried into the just-wilted spinach wouldn't go amiss, and probably some sliced toasted almonds.
Eggs Royale: smoked salmon topped with hollandaise. No need to overcomplicate this one.
The fun thing about these dishes is that they are almost infinitely versatile. You could create a slightly different and more delicious plate each time with the additional of grilled asparagus, lemon zest, cayenne pepper or smoky paprika, saffron, parmesan, peppery rocket, watercress, capers, chives, dill, fennel, parsley, crabmeat, crayfish, lobster, or any number of exciting ingredients. (If you really want to eat steak-and-eggs Benedict I wouldn't judge you but I prefer my steaks less adulterated.) What about a cheeky little toasted crumpet, buttered and Marmite-ed, topped with an egg and light sprinkling of grated cheddar? I'd love to taste an eggs Benedict served with a few fresh and fragrant green peppercorns; the kind you get on top of stirfries or crab in Cambodia.
Back to brunchable eggs. Here is my recipe for eggs Alexander-Arnold.
Ingredients:
(As I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't tend to state quantities. It's not how I cook. You'll have to work those out for yourself.)
Add as much or as little of each sauce ingredient as you like.
Method:
Serve the muffins cut in half equatorially and toasted and buttered. Layer on top in no particular order the rocket, pastrami, poached egg*, sauce, and black pepper.
*My egg poaching was not executed with much delicacy or finesse. Please use someone else's recipe for these, like this one.
Bon appétit!
 |
| Eggs Alexander-Arnold |
The classic: Eggs Benedict. Served with ham and hollandaise sauce. But why stop there? You could use prosciutto di Parma, jamón serrano, jambon de Bayonne, or smoked streaky bacon. Would chorizo take you too far from the concept of Benedict? I don't see why it should. Always serve eggs Benedict with slightly too much hollandaise.
Eggs Florentine: served with spinach in place of ham. On the face of it this sounds terribly dull. Why should vegetarians suffer for lack of ham, particularly when they are better than I at preserving the planet? I think a little salty garlic fried into the just-wilted spinach wouldn't go amiss, and probably some sliced toasted almonds.
Eggs Royale: smoked salmon topped with hollandaise. No need to overcomplicate this one.
The fun thing about these dishes is that they are almost infinitely versatile. You could create a slightly different and more delicious plate each time with the additional of grilled asparagus, lemon zest, cayenne pepper or smoky paprika, saffron, parmesan, peppery rocket, watercress, capers, chives, dill, fennel, parsley, crabmeat, crayfish, lobster, or any number of exciting ingredients. (If you really want to eat steak-and-eggs Benedict I wouldn't judge you but I prefer my steaks less adulterated.) What about a cheeky little toasted crumpet, buttered and Marmite-ed, topped with an egg and light sprinkling of grated cheddar? I'd love to taste an eggs Benedict served with a few fresh and fragrant green peppercorns; the kind you get on top of stirfries or crab in Cambodia.
 |
| Cambodian Kampot pepper crab: note the fresh green peppercorn vines. Photo by Black Palm via Wikicommons |
Ingredients:
 |
| Sauce crème de moutarde |
- Muffins, English. I used cheesy muffins, because cheese.
- Pastrami, the queen of charcuterie
- Rocket (although I think watercress would be delicious in this dish too)
- Free-range happy eggs
- Crème fraîche (you could also use sour cream, or thick Turkish/Greek yoghurt)
- Mustard (the type is up to you. I used smooth Dijon mustard which imparted a pleasant golden colour to the sauce. Wholegrain would also be tasty.)
- A dash of lemon juice
- Pepper
Add as much or as little of each sauce ingredient as you like.
Method:
Serve the muffins cut in half equatorially and toasted and buttered. Layer on top in no particular order the rocket, pastrami, poached egg*, sauce, and black pepper.
*My egg poaching was not executed with much delicacy or finesse. Please use someone else's recipe for these, like this one.
Bon appétit!
______
If you enjoyed this post, you can follow me to receive new posts by email. Thank you for reading!
Or see more posts here: Get in the tuktuk, no time to explain
Comments
Post a Comment