CHEESY BAKED EGGS

While researching the flavours for a special meat pie filling to celebrate the upcoming Coronation of King Charles, I read that one of Charles’s favourite ingredients is eggs. In May 2020, during the first lockdown in the UK, to promote English cheeses King Charles shared one of his favourite recipes on his then Instagram account @clarencehouse, Cheesy Baked Eggs. It makes a great lunch dish, served with bread or salad. His recipe used double cream, which I think is a bit rich, so in this version I used a white sauce. You can make your own or use the canned one, which is actually pretty good. You can also use whatever cheese you like.

Equipment: all you need is an oven or oven toaster, small oven proof dish, small saucepan and if making your white sauce, a whisk.

Ingredients:

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven or oven toaster to 180℃.
2. First wilt the spinach in a small saucepan with a little vegetable oil on a low heat. Squeeze out the water from the spinach. If using shop bought spinach, defrost and squeeze out excess water. Set aside.
3. If making your own, make the white sauce. In the small saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the flour, keep stirring for a minute or so over a low heat. Add the milk and keep stirring until the sauce has thickened. Season with salt and pepper, and nutmeg if you like.
4. Put the spinach in the bottom of your small oven-proof dish.
5. Place the halved tomatoes on top.
6. Dot pieces of the soft cheese and meat (if using) around the tomatoes and add the torn basil leaves.
7. Carefully crack the eggs and place them on the top, being careful to not break the yolks.
8. Using a spoon, carefully cover everything with the white sauce.
9. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
10. Bake for 10 minutes. Finish under a hot grill if the cheese has not browned.

PICKLED QUAIL EGGS

Pickled eggs have been a favourite bar snack in British pubs for hundreds of years, although now with the choice of packaged snacks available, you rarely see them available. While I do like a pickled egg, they are a bit of a crowd divider. You can adjust the pickling spice however you like, using the spices you like or maybe just the ones you have available. There are no hard rules when it comes to pickling.

10 quail eggs go nicely into a recycled Swan & Lion chutney jar, which is about 200ml volume.

Ingredients:

Method:

1. First sterilise your jar(s). Wash the jar(s) thoroughly in hot water and soap, place in a 130℃ oven for 10 minutes.
2. Now cook your eggs. Put the quail eggs in a small saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes.
3. While the eggs are cooking, put cold water in a bowl. Add the eggs to the water and allow to cool.
4. Peel the eggs and place them in the hot jar.
5. Now make your pickling liquid. Put all the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and gently bring to almost boiling.
6. Pour the liquid into the jar(s) until the eggs are fully covered.
7. Allow the jars to cool and then keep in the fridge.

Scrambled Eggs Cooked In The Microwave

One of the first things I learnt to make when my family bought our first microwave oven back in the 1980s was scrambled eggs. It is super quick and the eggs turn out so light and fluffy. You just need to watch them closely as they can go from perfect to not perfect in a matter of seconds. This is still my go-to way to make scrambled eggs.

Method:

1. In a small bowl add 2 eggs, 2 TBS of milk, a small knob of butter and season with salt and pepper. Mix a bit with a fork.
2. Cook in the microwave at 1000W for 30 seconds.
3. Stir well with the fork.
4. Cook again at 1000W for 30 seconds.
5. Stir again with the fork, breaking up any large pieces of cooked egg.
6. They may be ready now, it depends how you like your eggs cooked.
7. If you want to cook more, now you go slowly, at 10 seconds at a time. They will keep cooking a bit after you take them out of the microwave so be careful not to cook them too much.

I like my scrambled eggs quite loose and runny, so mine this time were for 30 seconds twice and one more 10 seconds. It is different every time though!