Scrambled eggs

The best eggs I have ever had came from Tiggy and Jay Greenwood's chickens, which pecked around in grass with clover growing in it.  Absolutely fresh and a bright golden orange, they were very special.

My advice is to buy the best eggs you possibly can.  I believe it is one place where spending money is a good idea - particularly if you are going to eat them simply scrambled like this.  Ultimately scrambled eggs is a cheap meal.  Sitting here today I actually wouldn't know where to advise you to go for a quality scrambled eggs breakfast in London... change from a twenty seems unlikely in any event.

I have recently (August 2012) started using the Duchy Organic eggs in Waitrose and I think they are excellent.

Here is how to go about cooking them.  The garlic technique, and seiving advice are both taken from Jane Grigson's Good Things.  A small, heavy and non-stick saucepan helps with the washing up.

Scrambled Eggs

2 eggs per person.  Preferably at room temperature
Generous amount of butter (~15g per person)
Generous amount of salt - depending on whether butter is unsalted
White pepper
Dash of double cream
1 garlic clove (optional)

Season the eggs in a bowl.  Gently bruise the garlic clove and peel it.  Stick it onto the end of a fork and use this as a whisk to whisk the eggs in a bowl for 3-5 minutes (depending on how many eggs you are doing).  Or use a simple whisk instead. 

Over a gentle heat, melt the butter in a pan, then seive the eggs into the pan to remove any thready bits and fragments of shell.

Cook over a low to moderate heat, scraping the base of the pan as eggs thicken on it, and moving the pan off then back onto the heat as required.  You must not overcook them.  You are looking for light folds held in suspension.  The trick is to remove the pan from the heat when they are not yet done to finish cooking in the residual heat.  Continue to scrape once removed, and the thicker the base of the pan the earlier you should remove it.

Finish with a dash of double cream that will halt the cooking process.  Serve perhaps on thick buttered granary toast, with perhaps black pepper ground on top, some streaky bacon and a grilled tomato?  Or Jane says to add flakes of cooked or uncooked kippers while scrambling the eggs, and "if serving cold as an hors d'oeuvre, it's best to scramble the eggs on their own, and lay strips of kipper across them just before serving".

 

Finished with creme fraiche and served with black pudding (non-Greenwood eggs here though)