From the kitchen garden eggs
From the kitchen garden eggs
Boiled, poached or scrambled but always home laid, Francine Raymond takes a fresh look at eggsPHOTOGRAPHS SARAH BUSH
Americans buy white eggs and believe they are cleaner; we prefer brown eggs, thinking they're healthier, but all eggs, be they brown, white, beige or even blue, are exactly the same under their shells. Most Mediterranean chicken breeds of poultry - Leghorns, Minorcas and Anconas - lay white eggs; brown
layers include French Maran hens, Wei summers and Croad Langshans;while South American hens lay bluish-green ones. The rest lay a nice tinted beige egg. The color of egg yolks is determined in nature by the amount of greenery the bird consumes, and in the commercial industry by feed additives - the latest trick is adding marigold petals to the feed, resulting in lurid technicolor orange yolks - somehow even more of a travesty than the usual pale yellow blobs that stare up at you. An egg's flavor is governed by what the hen eats, but the real difference is whether the egg is fresh, and nothing beats a home-laid egg.
Obviously, cooks would be lost without eggs as ingredients, and if I'm at risk of stating the obvious and teaching grannies to suck eggs, forgive me, but I'd like to champion some of the simplest ways of cooking them - as meals in themselves. Quick, easy, nutritious and ideal for busy gardeners (who would rather spend more time outside than in the kitchen), eggs are the ultimate fast food.
Boiling an egg is a controversial topic, maybe even our first gastronomic hurdle. But those eating really fresh eggs for the first time may like to re-visit this most basic of recipes. Pop your eggs in boiling water and cook for three and a half minutes, timed from the moment the water starts to boil again. Hard-boiled eggs need 10 minutes, and should then be plunged into cold
water. Experiment with your timings.
Those with really busy lives could try coddled eggs: placed in a pan of boiling water, covered, and left off the heat for five minutes. Eaten with soldiers, or added halved to salads with a drizzle of spiced dressing made with fried chillis cumin and coriander seeds, hot and sizzling from the pan; or with a dollop of yogurty mustard mayonnaise; or popped on to kedgeree or salade nigoise; or mashed with artichoke hearts, or peas; and you have made an instant lunch.
Poached eggs take even less time. Fill a deep frying pan with water and add a tablespoon of vinegar. Leave to simmer, then carefully crack in a fresh egg, and poach for three and a half minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon straight
into a nest of drained spinach and sorrel, on to a crusty piece of buttered toast, garlicky oiled bruschetta,or a bed of grilled early asparagus.
One of my favorite lunches is to take a wholemeal roll, cut off the top and hollow out the inside - the crumbs go to my hens. Then I crack an egg inside, and cover with sliced mushrooms and Gruyere cheese. I pop it in the Rayburn with its top back on until the white has set, then out to the garden to eat in the pale spring sunshine, surrounded by my flock.
For an unexpected guest, scrambled eggs are a doddle: break four eggs into a bowl, add a little sea-salt and a few grinds of black pepper, mixing the yolks and whites with a fork. Melt an ounce of butter in a pan, pour in the eggs and gently stir with a wooden spoon for about two minutes, bringing the outside edges of the mixture to the middle, until the eggs are just set. Don't overcook
or you'II get yellow rubbery sponge. Top with grated cheese (Parmesan, Emmenthal or hard Cheddar), some snipped chives or a sprig of tarragon, home- made pesto, a few slices of smoked salmon or mackerel and lots of crusty bread.
Newly laid duck eggs make wonderful creamy scrambledeggs, pretty hard-boiledquaiI eggs look great in a salad sprinkled with cumin or celery salt, and even bantam eggs are availablein some delicatessens and supermarkets. If you keep bantam hens, you'll know you need three eggs to the standard two in most recipes. If I can't tempt you to share your garden with a few hens
or ducks, but you'd still like to experience the thrill of a really fresh egg, check out farm-gate stalls, farmers' markets, or beg from hen-keeping friends, who should have a surfeit of eggs now that spring is here. A further spur could be the knowledge that a shop-bought egg has a 'best before' date a month after the egg was laid.
Have eggs from your hens in the kitchen garden.
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