It's the height of the Real Bread campaign this week, Mark of Mark's bread was giving a class at work this week and some sort of national baking week has been announced. Have I managed to celebrate this week with some baking? Not quite, no. But I did make it to a quiet Harts Bakery today at around noon as the bakery wound to a close. It's a beautiful place, where Laura Hart produces sourdough, baguettes, hand rolled croissants and danish pastries (which almost no one does), bicycle shaped biscuits and recently some truly fabulous jams. If you live in Bristol and can get to Cotham before 1ish, pop in and try to leave without buying something. I dare you. I'd also point you to the excellent article written by Slivana de Soissons for The Foodie Bugle, which says anything I'd like to say on the subject of Laura and her lovely business. Luckily for me it was a quiet tuesday and I had a choice of breads and pastries. Baguette and Gruyere and ham danish for me, plus an inviting jar of homemade apricot and vanilla jam.
As I hikked up Whiteladies road munching on my danish I was wondering what to do with my 'French stick', when I remembered the previous sunday's late breakfast with Card House Theatre. Went to bed (to the soundtrack of miscellaneous metal, a party was still in full swing) convinced there were both eggs and bacon in the kitchen. Woke to find eggs and a large baguette still safe and a pan smelling of bacon fat on the hob. I had a vague memory of a Tamasin Day-Lewis recipe for tumbled eggs in french bread as a brunch recipe, which we threw together over strong coffee. It was pretty good, with a little spread on the bread, eggs spooned in with grated cheese and a little hot sauce then bunged in a medium oven to heat through. It was just the thing to set the day off and so here is a slightly ponced up version for your delectation. Perfect for brunch with coffee or bucks fizz or as a very easy dinner after work.
Serves 2:
4-6 eggs (depends on your appetite) in my case from Source
small handful of chopped parsley
big handful any hard cheese, grated (I used Gorwydd Caerphilly from Trethowan's Dairy)
about 12" french stick
good quality butter
Preheat your oven to about 160/150 fan/ gas mark 4 and stick in a baking sheet. Cut your bread to roughly 6" each (no jokes, please) and break open down the middle, preferably with fingers and thumbs. Butter liberally and leave to one side while you cook the eggs.
Beat the eggs while you melt more butter in a frying pan (nobody said this was a healthy dish). When the butter is foaming add the eggs and scramble with a wooden spoon slowly to make big, creamy curds of scrambled egg. After about a minute add the parsley, sprinkling so as to avoid clumps of herb in the egg. Cook the eggs to your taste; I like them barely cooked, creamy, with great big curds. Season with salt and pepper (it really is better to season the eggs after cooking rather than before) and spoon into the bread. Add the cheese and stich in the oven for 5-7 minutes till the bread has warmed through and the cheese has melted.
Then the only thing to do is serve and eat:
Yes I made it look fancy with a bit of salad, but honestly the best way to have this is with a really hot cup of coffee, sitting on the kitchen top with someone who'll pretend not to notice all the egg spilling on the floor.
