A good breakfast

Every day needs a good start. Christmas is no different.

If there was one dish out of 2010 that made me swoon and say inappropriate things in a public place it was the egg dish at Momofuku Ko. It’s onions cooked so slowly and softly that they’re a sweet waifish puddle. It’s eggs, cooked for exactly 5 minutes and 10 seconds and soaked overnight in a mixture of water and liquid smoke. It’s a little dark splay of caviar for salt. And then just to make it a little ghetto fabulous there are some potato chips.

You shmear the runny yolks onto the chips. You pop the fish beads on the roof of your mouth. And then you remark frequently how good it is.

If you’re us and you try and replicate the dish for Christmas breakfast then you try and cook the eggs the night before, after a few festive ales.

When David Chang says to boil the eggs for 5 minutes and 10 seconds so you get set whites and runny yolks, he means it. If you half heartedly boil them for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and collective opinion says ‘sure, that’s kind of five minutes and 10 seconds’, then you try and crack the shells off, you’re in for a world of pain. And a some wasted eggs.

If you’re like us and try looking for liquid smoke in London, good luck. Thank goodness for visiting Americans. And other guests with access to the test kitchen at Fat Duck. 

If you’re like us you’ll also feel that it’s not really Christmas morning without some ham involved, or some  croutons of toast. But nothing really says Christmas like a champagne cocktail at 9 am.

Breakfast in Milan cocktails….

So this is what we sat down to on Christmas morning. It was good enough to tide us over until lunch- which didn’t make it to the table until 4pm. By which time we were hungry again.

Momofuku ko egg breafast (with ham and toast)
For the full Momofuku ko egg recipe see here 

Serves 5

Shopping/foraging
1 or 2 eggs per person
1 teaspoon caviar per person
Half an onion per person
Handful of good quality salted potato chips per person
3 croutons of toast per person
1/4 cup of butter
Piece of roasted ham per person
2 tablespoons of liquid smoke

Here’s how we roll

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes and 10 seconds. Plunge the eggs straight into a bowl of iced water. Gently crack the eggs all over and remove the shells.
2. Place the eggs in a tupperwear of 3 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of liquid smoke overnight.
3. Make the onion soubise. Cut the onions into thin half moons. Melt the butter in a saucepan and very slowly and softly cook the onions with half a cup of butter for 45 minutes. Don’t let the onions colour, just wilt into submission.
4. To serve warm the eggs and the water again in a saucepan over a very gentle simmer for 4 minutes.

 

5. Put two tablespoons of the onion mixture, a hunk of legg ham, the potato chips and toasts on each plate. Nestle the eggs on the onion. Split the centre so the yolk runs out and put a teaspoon of caviar in the centre of the split.

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