Simple, easy to make, delicious. Hugo Weaving would be proud.
I love breakfast as long as it’s hot and makes me happy. I hope that’s true for you as well. Too often do we try to scarf down a chewy bagel or take a few bites of a cold bowl of cereal before heading out the door. However, if you have a little bit of time this one is worth making.
A breakfast favorite for millions, eggy in a basket has gained popularity around the world for almost a hundred years now and it’s easy to see why. One slice of bread, one egg. A little butter and seasoning, and that’s it.
And I don’t know why it is, but eggs and toast are okay. But an egg cooked into the toast is just so good! Evey Hammond’s reaction in “V For Vendetta” is spot on if you’ve never had it before.
So what I’ll do is just give you the ingredients, follow the video, and the directions below should be easy-peasy. I sprinkled a little bit of herbs over mine for cosmetics, otherwise a little freshly ground salt and pepper is all it needs. Oh and butter, it’s just not the same without the butter.
Also the amount of oil you need may be less than what is listed in the ingredients if you’re using something other than cast iron. So if you’re using non-stick/anodized, don’t worry you may not need much more than a drop or two of oil, if any as long as you have the butter.
Ingredients:
- 1 Large Egg 1 Slice of Bread (your choice)
- 1/4 Tablespoon Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- A few grinds of Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper
- Sprinkle of Parsley for garnish
Directions:
These directions are for an over-medium temperature. Use a slotted spatula, you’ll see why in step 5.
- Cut a large hole in the center of your slice of bread. If you want you can use the rim of a drinking glass to make a perfect circle, but I just take a knife to it I find that I can shape it better.
- Heat skillet to medium-low, then add oil and butter. Your butter should barely sizzle when it’s added. In other words if you hold the back of your hand out over your skillet, it should feel a little more than warm but not hot.
- Add your slice of bread to the skillet and move it around the surface to make sure it soaks up all that oil and butter. Let it toast for a minute or two, and if you can’t hear your bread sizzling after a minute or so you may now turn the heat up incrementally. Remember that with cast iron it is easier to increase the temperature than it is to bring it down.
- Introduce your egg into the center of the hole you made in your bread and let it cook for about a minute. Give it a few grinds of freshly ground salt and pepper, then take your slotted spatula and gently push on the sides of the bread to see if the egg moves with the bread. If it does, the egg white on the bottom should be firm enough to flip.
- Now that we’ve flipped it over our egg yolk should be facing down, and you should be looking at the egg white side up. Let it cook for about 30 seconds then remove it from the skillet. Now when you get underneath the yolk side this time and start to lift with your spatula, if your egg yolk breaks it will start to drain through the slots in your slotted spatula. If that happens don’t panic, just gently set it back down into the pan for another 10 seconds or so to seal it back up before transferring it to your plate. This is why we used a slotted spatula, because if you broke the yolk on a flat spatula you wouldn’t know it until you set it on the plate.
You’ll want to plate this egg white side up, so don’t flip it again. One reason is that the egg white side is better for presentation, especially if you’re going to garnish it with herbs like I did. Unless you cooked yours sunny side up of course, in which case you never flipped yours in the skillet to begin with.
Oh and if you’re going to cut this in half don’t do it on a cutting board or anything like that. Do it directly on your plate because if you did indeed hit a perfect over-medium temperature, it will immediately begin to leak once you break that yolk by cutting it down the middle. Besides, that beautiful egg yolk beginning to glaze the center of your plate once it is cut just looks so good for presentation. It may even impress your friends or family. Unless of course they eat their eggs fully cooked, in which case I hope you increased your cook times between flipping by at about another minute per side.
I hope you like this one it’s one of my favorite breakfast items it’s just too easy and great tasting. As always if you have anything you would change please leave a comment I’d love to read about it!
Traver Recipes 