Monday, January 25, 2010

Poached Egg with Bacon & Tomato Tea Salad


I made this for my breakfast today was pretty, good what I liked most was the croutons. You should give it a try, and yes it doesn't look good with that square plate, I couldn't find me a deep circle bowl, woulda been sexy if it had it and also celery cress :(

EDIT: looks like I found myself a nice bowl :D looks so much better than the square one i had.

Ingredients:

Tomato Tea-

3 - Whole tomatoes (keep the stalk for the tea)
1/2 - Red onion
1 - Garlic clove
1 tsp - Tabasco
1 Tbsp - Worcestershire sauce
A handful of Basil leaves

Poached Egg & Salad-

3 slices of Pane Di Casa bread
3 slices of shortcut bacon
1 - Egg
2 stalks of thyme (pinch of leaves for garnish)
2 cups - Canola/Vegetable oil
1 - Tomato

Method:


To make the tomato tea, first pull the tomatoes off its stalk and rinse, then core the tomatoes and cut them into quarters and put them in a blender. Slice the garlic and the red onion, then combine them with the tomatoes. Pick off the basil leaves and thoroughly rinse with cold water and place them in the blender along with the tomatoes, add in the Worcestershire sauce and a few drops of Tabasco for the kick. Blend for about 30 seconds or until fine, use a very fine cloth and place it above a strainer with a bowl underneath, tear the stalks into small parts and put them onto the strainer and pour the mixture, sieve it until you get a very fine liquid. Spoon out any impurities. Your tomato tea should turn out clear and a tinge of red, leave it aside.

For the salad, first you need to shred the bacon and dice them finely, cook over a hot pan with a dash of olive oil with abit of garlic and a whole thyme for about 4minutes or until just browning, once cooked place them onto a place with grease proof paper. Fill up a pot with water and let it simmer, core the tomato and slit a cross underneath, blanch the tomatoes until the skin is just about ripped, and place them into a bowl of cold water, peel off the skin, seed the tomato and cut them into batons. Cut the bread into slices and take off any crusts, make them into a finger sized baton 1cm wide and a finger length long. Place a pan with the oil and thyme, then let it heat up, once it's very hot, place in the croutons until it is golden brown (be careful that you do not over cook these, because this should be a flash fry, in and out), once cooked place them onto a grease proof paper.

To poach the egg, grab a cling and use a decent length, place a ramekin underneath and push your hand in so it will have a pocket for the egg, drizzle olive oil and spread it with your finger. Crack the egg into the pocket and carefully lift up the edges of the cling and create a shape, then try to expel any air and twist, then tie a knot, but when you tie the knot, push it down wards so it locks in. place the egg under boiling water in a saucepan for about 4-5minutes, (BE CAREFUL that you do not melt the cling onto the saucepan, it will make a hole and the egg will go through)
once done, carefully cut the knot and unwrap the cling from the egg.

To Assemble, place a few pieces of tomato batons on the bottom, and around it creat a pentagon stacking one another with the croutons. Place pieces of tomato batons along the edges and inwards to make a bed for the poached egg. Carefully place the egg onto the nest of salad and place a spoonful of bacon. Flood the plate with the tomato tea and let the croutons soak it up, drizzle abit of olive oil into the tea and place a few celery cress onto the tea and poached egg salad (yea I know I used Thyme :P )

.rEy.

Recipe from Masterchef.