Although I've been living the in the UK for over five years now, I have not had many close encounters with the traditional fry-up. Well, that's only partially true - I have had many people consume it in my presence (not sure if this is a great English tradition in itself or particular to agencies, where the days are hard, but the nights even harder...), where many a hang-over has been cured by administering bacon, sausages, eggs and baked beans in quite unhealthy quantities. Especially unhealthy when it comes from the sarnie shop just across the street from our offices in Camden - I have lost count of the number of occasions where I've taken some food poisoning home and I wonder why their sandwich bags don't contain an Aqua Seltzer by default ... but there aren't any alternatives, at least not in terms of proximity.
But eating a traditional English breakfast myself is a different matter, though I remember making an attempt at it on a Sunday morning - it must have been shortly after moving to this country, because we always used to go for a brunch on Sundays back home, and I must still have been completely unprejudiced. What I encountered were some slimey beans, the rest (mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon) dripping with fat - even the slices of sandwich were not toasted, but fried! It has to be said that I enjoy rich food eaten with moderation, foie gras, pork belly, creamy sauces... I am not a health freak by any measure, but this breakfast was inedible, I am not kidding.
This morning, jogging all these memories in my brain, I thought to myself that a traditional Britsh breakfast, if boiled down to its essences, need not be taking off five years of your life expectancy, if only the ingredients were handled with care and prepared in a way that is digestible even for a London city dweller who does not engage in any manual work. Or any other work, to be frank.
I am still not convinced about the baked beans (I love Mexican frijoles, but am suspicious of the sweet and slimey sauce Heinz's beans swim in), but the rest of this morning's breakfast was delicious - individual English breakfasts in the form of muffins, a soft-baked egg enveloped in pancetta, studded with tomatoes and thyme-flavoured mushrooms served with some decent toast. Really easy to make too, so if ever you did not get enough sleep the night before, this is the thing to prepare. It doesn't contain any of the salt and fat that your usual hang-over cure does, but at least you don't need to go on a radical diet for the rest of your week!!!
PS: Chris insisted on having the washing machine going and me wearing an apron, slippers and some curlers in my hair - supposedly bringing back memories of travelling through Scotland and Ireland, where this set-up belongs intrinsically to the traditional experience at any given bed & breakfast (am I being too innocent/naive here?)
PPS: Don't know where that just came from, I don't even possess an apron, let alone curlers... but talk about it we did!
Full English breakfast in a muffin
(serves 6)
6 eggs
12 thin slices pancetta
3 mushrooms (cleaned an quartered)
1 knob butter
2 sprigs thyme
6 - 12 cherry tomatoes
baked beans (to serve with)
toast (to serve with)
Heat the butter in a pan, add the mushrooms and sauté until nicely coloured. Turn off the heat, then season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Line 6 muffin tins with the pancetta strips (no extra oil needed), add some mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, then break an egg into each of them.
Place in the pre-heated oven (200 C) and bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove the muffins from their tins, season with salt, freshly ground pepper and some fresh thyme leaves and serve with some baked beans and toast on the side.
I can also see this work as little canapés, with the tomatoes and mushrooms chopped and quail's eggs instead of your regular hen's eggs.
ok, quite a few people believe that i am missing the point here - a full English breakfast HAS to be unhealthy, that's a conditio sine qua non. Well, i certainly did not mean to upset, and i can see the controversy, heresy, even, but feel quite heroic being heretic ;-)... i beg to differ, and that's that.
Posted by: johanna | Nov 08, 2004 at 09:50 PM