Читать книгу Enjoy: New veg with dash - Nadine Abensur - Страница 12

Of course, you could serve this on thick slabs of sourdough bread, butter and all, but I wanted to include a good recipe for rösti that you can use on other occasions, and this quintessential brunch is a good place to do it. If truth be known, though, I rarely like to start the day loaded with carbs, so I’m more likely to eat just the egg, on top of a huge pile of spinach – a whole bag of it, gently wilted – hence the leeway in the spinach quantity below. The recipe includes the still not universally known way to poach an egg, so we can all turn them out in perfect bistro fashion.

SERVES 4

4–8 large, very fresh eggs

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2–4 bags of baby spinach

a knob of butter

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the rösti:

3 large, all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

60g butter, melted

light olive oil for shallow-frying

For the hollandaise sauce:

180g unsalted butter

4 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon ground lemon myrtle (or 1½ tablespoons lemon juice)

a pinch of salt

ground white pepper (optional)

First make the potato rösti. Parboil the potatoes in lightly salted water for 5 minutes, then drain and leave to cool slightly. Grate them into a bowl and mix in the butter and some salt and pepper (you can, at this stage, add other things if you like, such as fried onion, toasted flaked almonds, goat’s cheese, snipped chives and other herbs). Heat a film of olive oil in a blini pan, then fill it two-thirds full with the potato mixture. Fry until golden and crisp on both sides and tender on the inside. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make 4 rösti altogether. Keep them warm in a low oven while you prepare the eggs, sauce and spinach.

First poach the eggs. Have a small pan of lightly salted simmering water at the ready, or a deep frying pan, with at least 10cm of water in it. Crack an egg into a saucer. Add the white wine vinegar to the simmering water and stir it furiously to create a little whirlpool in the centre of the pan. Drop the egg into the middle of the cyclone and watch as the egg white spins and arranges itself around the yolk. After 3–4 minutes, remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon and place on sheets of absorbent kitchen paper. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Just before you are ready to serve, you can lower the eggs back into the water a couple at a time, sitting on a spider (a flat, wire-meshed sieve), just to warm them through – a minute will do. Trim off any straggly tendrils of egg white, drain again and serve.

To make the hollandaise sauce, gently melt the butter in a pan. Whiz the egg yolks in a blender for 30 seconds or simply whisk well by hand. Transfer them to a bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Add the lemon myrtle – I sift it in through a tea strainer to stop it going lumpy – or lemon juice and mix well, then slowly drizzle the butter into the eggs a little at a time, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk. When the butter is all incorporated, you should have a bowl of thick, creamy hollandaise. Add a little salt to taste and a touch of white pepper if you wish.

Put the spinach in a pan with the knob of butter, cover and leave over a gentle heat until wilted. Season with the nutmeg and some sea salt and black pepper. Serve the rösti topped with an egg or two, plus a mound of spinach and a coating of Hollandaise.