FLOWER POT KITCHEN: SMOKED HADDOCK MORNAY TOPPED WITH A POACHED EGG

23 Jun 2020

SMOKED HADDOCK MORNAY TOPPED WITH A POACHED EGG

A decedent breakfast for that special weekend morning, Sunday’s are always something special in our home, a go slow day, time spent with the family cooking a sumptuous breakfast brunch then down the farm to feed the gang of pigs, goats and sheep, then depending on the time of the year out to a national trust garden and picnic or back home to hunker down for a lazy day with more good go slow let the oven do all the work cooking.

Cooking and prep time 30 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4)

6 new potatoes

3 tbsp butter

1 glug olive oil

400g natural smoked haddock

200ml double cream

50ml milk

200g spinach

1 clove garlic finely chopped

100g + cheddar grated

25g emmental grated

25g gyuere grated

25g parmesan grated

1 glug white wine vinegar

4 eggs cracked into individual ramekins
Himalayan sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Pre heat the grill. Boil the new potatoes for around 20 minutes until tender, drain and slice chunky. Heat a skillet and fry the sliced potatoes in 1 tbsp of the butter and a glug of olive oil until crispy brown on both sides.

Meanwhile bring the cream and milk to a almost simmer, add the smoked haddock and poach for 5 minutes until the fish is just holding together and ready to flake in big chunks. Remove the haddock from the poaching liquid and reserve to one side.

Add all the cheese to the warm poaching liquid and gently whisk on a low heat until combined, taste and season with pepper and salt if needed.

Bring a saucepan of water to a gently just simmer, no bubbles, add the white wine vinegar, gently slip in the eggs from their ramekins and leave to poach for around 3 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.

Heat another tablespoon of butter with the garlic, add the spinach and wilt for 30 seconds then take off the heat immediately.

Now assemble the dish, first rub the remaining butter in your large ramekins and season with salt and pepper, share the spinach equally between each ramekin, next divide and layer the potato between the ramekins, top with a couple of spoonfuls of the mornay sauce next layer the fish equally over the potato and again add a couple of spoonfuls of sauce. Place under the grill/broiler for 3-5 minutes until gently bubbling and lightly browning, remove, top with your poached egg and enjoy immediately.

The Perfect Poached Egg

The Secret is in the Method

I have tried so many times to make the prefect poached egg, I whisked the vinegar water, cracked in the egg and more than often ended up with an egg white octopus and sometimes separate yolk all swirling around the pan! After watching a cooking program I saw that I was not using a bowl to slip the egg in the simmering water, I was cracking the egg in directly, it also turns out that a the secret is not to create a vortex this is what causes the octopus strands, by gently slipping the egg in to the only just simmering water from a bowl your guaranteed a successful beautiful presentable encased poached egg...so simple when you know how.

Now I do know a commercial trick for producing perfect poached eggs by the hundreds during service and that is to wrap the cracked eggs into oiled cling film, then poach in the cling film, guaranteed success every time.

Prep Time 5 minutes / Cooking Time 3-5 minutes

Ingredients

(one egg)

1 fresh egg cracked into a bowl

1 deep pan of simmering water

50 ml white wine vinegar

Bring the pan of water to a gentle simmer, add the vinegar and gently whisk to create a vortex in the centre and then pour in the egg from the bowl, the egg will swirl around gently with the vortex allowing the egg white to swirl around the yolk to create a perfect poached egg. Cook gently for around 3-5 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolk,

You can check the egg by removing with a slotted spoon and gently prodding to see how wobbly the egg is, the firmer the bounce back the more cooked the egg is. Remember the poached egg will continue to cook for a minute once it is taken from the water and served.

Get Ahead Eggs

You can poach your eggs ahead of time, once cooked, plunge the poached eggs in to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process, when your ready to serve gently place the eggs back into a pan of just simmering water for one minute to warm back through.

That's it Perfect...

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.