- Serves 1 person per 2 eggs - Ready in 25 minutes -
Gather together…
2 eggs per person, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE.
1 kettle of boiling water.
Serve with…
1 small handful of hand-shredded ham (per person) - leftovers (fresh / frozen and defrosted) from Recipe 49 are ideal.
Baby spinach leaves (a few leaves for each slice of toast).
1 tbsp mayonnaise, per person, (for mock "Hollandaise" sauce).
1 tsp whole-grain mustard, per person, (for mock "Hollandaise").
2 slices of thickly cut, buttered toast (per person) - using freshly baked (in a bread-maker from a packet-mix) sourdough or rustic wholemeal make this delicious.
Get cooking…
1. Boil a full kettle of water.
2. Use a big, shallow, lidded saucepan - half fill it with boiling water from the kettle.
3. Heat the pan of water on a MEDIUM-LOW heat (very important it is not too hot) for 10 minutes. You should eventually see tiny bubbles forming on the base.
4. After the 10 minutes has passed, turn the heat down to LOW.
5. Carefully break the eggs - enough for two per person - into the hot water, start the timer as you break the first egg in.
6. Time 1 minute exactly for the eggs to be heated in the pan, on the LOW heat, WITHOUT the lid on.
7. After exactly 1 minute, REMOVE the pan from heat, put a lid on the pan and leave the eggs to sit in the hot-but-cooling water for 10 minutes exactly, WITH the lid ON, no longer on a heat source.
8. Meanwhile prepare the other components, i.e. shred the ham, wash and dry the salad leaves, mix up the mock "Hollandaise" sauce by combining the mayonnaise (1 tbsp per person) and wholegrain mustard (1 tsp per person) and, last of all, toast the bread (2 slices per person) and butter it.
9. After exactly 10 minutes, remove each egg with a slotted spoon (if the white seems too runny, put the egg back in for 1 minute more - but do check each egg as the first one that was put in will be ready). Place the eggs on a side plate to drain.
10. Assemble at once; the buttered toast is the base, next lay the ham on, add a few baby spinach leaves, place the poached egg on top and dollop on the "Hollandaise" sauce (direct the sauce with the spoon so it doesn't slide off!). Serve immediately.