When I was a little girl, my brother and I would be sent to stay with my paternal grandmother who seemed to like to have us overnight. Quite why, I don't know, because she only lived down the road, and could easily have given us back, but she seemed to enjoy our company without our parents on occasion!
Unlike my mother, my grandmother had a gas cooker - town gas, in those long-ago days before North Sea Gas was discovered - and therefore felt freer to run her oven more than my mother did, and baked eggs frequently featured on her breakfast menu. My mother never cooked them, so it was a treat for when we stayed with my grandmother. Except when we were packed off to spend the night the night before we went on holiday. When she learnt that we were concerned about the quasi-inevitable car-sickness that would probably ensue on the journey, she gave us a breakfast she said was served at the Lord Warden in Dover before a Channel crossing, and nobody could possibly feel sick if they ate that. It was only plain bread-and-butter and ham, but I seem to remember it did the trick! (And I rather suspect that at the Lord Warden champagne was served, rather than the weak tea or milk we had!).
Anyway, baked eggs:
Per person:
1 egg
½ slice ham
½ a tomato or 3 cherry tomatoes, sliced or halved as appropriate (optional)
1 tbs milk
Seasoning, as liked
Put the ham and tomatoes into the bottom of a greased ramekin. Top with the egg, left whole, and add the milk and seasoning. Bake in a moderate oven (gas 4, 180 C) for 15-20 minutes. Eat out of the ramekin with a teaspoon, accompanied by bread, or toast, and butter.
What a fun, rustic, and nostalgic recipe. I've never heard of baked eggs but will be giving this a try. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you. You can, of course, customise them to your own taste - use bacon instead of ham, add a bit of cheese, mushrooms.... whatever. I do, sometimes, especially if I am cooking them in the microwave (which makes the eggs rubbery, but hey), but baked eggs like that are a memory from over 50 years ago!
DeleteOk. I'm a bit thick. I'm also from the era of gas ovens.
ReplyDeleteYou do mean 'break' the egg into the ramekin which I don't have!
Yes, I do mean break it into it, but leave it whole - don't whisk it or anything. Any small ovenproof container of about the right size will do - it doesn't have to be a ramekin, necessarily.
DeleteBaked eggs in ramekins are a fondly-remembered treat from my 70s childhood, but the recipe seems to have been entirely different...
ReplyDeleteI don't recall ham or tomato being involved, and they were seasoned with vinegar.