Ham bagels with the creamiest scrambled eggs

Making eggs seems to be quite a simple task, but people's tastes and preferences vary so greatly that it is not easy to get them just right. What's the perfect egg to one, is a perfect egg disaster to another.
My first experiences cooking eggs date back to a summer job I had at a 4-star hotel in my hometown - although working at reception for most of the time where my language skills came in handy, the breakfast rush in the morning always needed an extra pair of hands. Keeping the buffet tidy and regularly filling up the plates and bowls as well as serving hot beverages was easy enough, but I remember almost breaking out in a sweat every time somebody wanted an egg.
In my family, a soft-boiled egg cooks 6 minutes (and over the years - especially when I lived in Mexico City - I've come to learn that apart from the number of eggs in your pot, altitude is the biggest variable in the cooking time vs softness equation) to ensure that the whites are properly cooked through and the yolks still runny. I got my first proper shouting-at in the breakfast room of afore-mentioned hotel when one guest (= customer = King) ordered a soft-boiled egg and was expecting the whites to be much runnier than I'd ever eaten them... making an omelette was torture, a fried egg (sunny side up) an impossible mission given that our equipment consisted of a portable electric (!) stove and the cheapest pans imaginable. Teflon was a four-letter word in that place...
But I digress. In reality, there is not such thing as the perfect egg, be it soft-boiled, scrambled or en cocotte, it's simply a matter of personal preference. Over years of enjoying a hearty weekend breakfast with the family gathered around the kitchen table, I have found MY perfect eggs - I still like my soft-boiled eggs 5-6 minutes, my oeufs cocotte 12 minutes, my omelette just with the addition of water and finished off in the oven to emerge beautifully puffed up, and my scrambled eggs very creamy indeed. The latter I am still experimenting with - one time just using eggs, another time adding cream or mascarpone, sometimes water... I have tried making them in every one of the vast array of pans I possess. Then I read some celebrity chef makes them in a bowl over water - it didn't say whether plastic, metal or glass (I can say for sure that using glass is a nightmare) and a few weeks/months back, Gordon Ramsay made his way into our living room by means of a CD ROM that came free with some magazine or another to share with me his five best secrets. I was drooling over the keyboard less over the dishes he prepared, but over his 1-million-pound kitchen... but then he got my attention again with the last secret, which was how to make the perfect scrambled eggs.
I didn't have much choice but to try it out immediately. Here, you break the eggs straight into the pan without beating them up before, and you don't add anything to them, except ice-cold butter cut in cubes. The will slowly melt, also making sure that the egg mixture doesn't get overly hot, thus cooking the eggs very slowly indeed. He then performed the most amazing choreography while he was chanting to take the pan "off the heat, then on again, off the heat, then on again, off the heat..." stirring throughout the process. I must say that despite 12 years of ballet training, my legwork was appalling in the circumstances, but then I wasn't performing for a TV crew and I did it for free, so no complaints!

Ham bagels with the creamiest scrambled eggs
(serves 2)

4 medium eggs
1 tbsp butter (ice-cold and cut into 1cm cubes)
salt, pepper
1 bagel
4 wafer-thin slices (Brunswick) ham
1 tbsp freshly snipped chives
1 expensive, heavy-based, non-stick pan*

Heat the pan over medium heat, break the eggs into the pan, add the butter cubes and stir slowly until the eggs are starting to set. Turn off the heat and continue to stir until the eggs reach the consistency you desire. Season.
While you're busy stirring, ask someone kindly to half the bagel and toast it lightly and top with the ham slices. Divide the eggs between the two portions and sprinkle with the chives.

*(I am the proud owner of a Le Creuset Trivita with Excalibur non-stick coating)

Comments

[Andrew]

I remember watching some TV cook once (probably Delia) doing scrambled eggs and was appalled (actually disgusted) when her eggs where POURED out of the span. slop and so runny - awful. As you say personal preference.

[Paz]

Yum! Given a choice, I like scrambled eggs the best. I have to try this recipe.

I just heard of a way to make the perfect boiled egg.... I guess there's always a perfect way to do everything.

Congratulations on your new kitchen appliance. ;-)

Paz

[johanna]

oh paz, please share your secret with us! i've heard the one where you place the egg in cold water to start with, but not sure for how long. let's hear what tricks you have in store!

[celiaK]

That's the first time I've heard of that technique. I must try that next time.

As for the hardboiled eggs, what I do is boil it in a pan of cold water. Once water boils put heat to low and let simmer, from this point on start timing. For us, 9 minutes is tops for hardboiled.

[celiaK]

Sorry not *cold* water actually but tap water.

[Meenakshi]

Hi!

I would like to invite you to participate in "I Like 'em Spicy!", a fortnightly food event, where all participants have to come up with a spicy recipe using the Star Ingredient (which is different every fortnight)!

The rules are simple:

1. The recipe has to use the Star Ingredient as the base of the dish
2. It has to be SPICY!!
3. Dishes can be of any form you can imagine, appetizers, mains, desserts, drinks...whatever you can come up with!

On the 1st and 15th of every month, I will the post the Star Ingredient and you are expected to email your entries to [email protected] by the next two weeks.

At the end of the two weeks, I will post all the recipes on a special blog built especially for "I Like 'em Spicy!" so you can all view the fabulous entries!

For further details do drop in "Hooked on Heat", at www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com and join in on the fun!

- Meena
(www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com)

[Paz]

Hi!

About the hardboild egg: It's really not my secret. ;-) I was watching the Food Network channel and this is what the Chef, Sarah Moulton said:

1- Put eggs in cold water.
2- Bring water to a boil.
3- Take pot off the heat and cover the pot.
4- Leave the eggs in the pot for 17 minutes (I'm pretty sure she said 17 minutes).
5- Then throw the eggs in an ice bath.
6- Let the eggs cool off completely.
7- Peel the eggs under cold running water.

I tried it a few days ago, for the first time. Had no problems...

Paz ;-)

[Meenakshi]

Hi!

Thanks for visiting my blog and I love your enthusiam in participating in "I Like 'em Spicy!".

I just want to give you a heads up that I have pushed up the date for the 1st submission to the 1st Oct, 2005 instead of the 15th.

So let's get cooking! Can't wait for get your entry.

Take care!

-Meena

[Christoph]

It's with eggs as it's with all the secrets in kitchen work: the obvioulsly easisest things demand the highest level of "know how" or - at least - experience.
My personal favourite - if not having this waxy-white 6-minutes-boiled-egg embracing the still runny yolk "The Perfect Omlette". The receipot is this simple, but the experience preparing it thus important: just mix up 3-4 eggs and some salt and (white) pepper with a fork in a bowl, heat up olive oil with butter, put in the mixtuer when the butter starts to frozh, reduce heat and wait until the upper side is becoming "unliquid" (whilst the side down i snot burning but becoming light brown). Fold the omlette to a half and wait and watch how it's develleopping (growing up). C'est tout! And tastes as pure as it is great. Feel free to add before cooking a splash of milk, creme or sparkling mineral water or add some herbs - the basic w3ay of preparation is just as good as it is.