I am going to try and convince you of the excellent versatility of eggs. They’re a common occurrence these days – be it in your kitchen, or in the form of some avocado-related concoction in a hip-and-happening cafe. Yet one rarely encounters an egg cooked in any form other than fried, boiled, scrambled, and so on.
We need to be adventurous with eggs. I am by no means snubbing the scrambled, poached or fried fantasies that usually appear when one contemplates eggs, but nonetheless I am calling for some new additions to the ‘egg canon.’ Some ways to spice up your egg repertoire may simply be to add a new twist on an old classic. Take Japanese omurice, for instance: an omelette on top of fried rice, glazed with curry sauce. This omelette is no ordinary omelette. It’s a melt-in-your mouth, tastes-like-a-cloud type of omelette; it’s perfectly cooked and then slit neatly with a cool knife, so that the sides of the omelette come apart and spill over the rice with an oozing, dribbling action. Alternatively, if omurice sounds too ambitious, Asia offers another delight: the Chinese tea-stained egg. Simply hard-boil an egg, crack the shell, and leave it to marinade in a mixture of soy sauce, tea and spices. You can experiment with any type of tea as well – maybe it’s a way to enjoy your morning cuppa and breakfast in one.
An egg doesn’t really have to be in a typical ‘egg form’ at all. That sounds inaccessible, but it’s actually my next idea: spaghetti carbonara, with a lazy and healthy twist. Blend an egg yolk with half of a mashed avocado, lemon juice, garlic and a tablespoon of cream to create a rich sauce. Pour this concoction over some spaghetti and stir in some olive oil, salt, black pepper and parmesan. Tear up some parma ham or prosciutto to garnish, if you wish. Dinner is served. And for breakfast you can have the leftover egg white in the form of an omelette with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, or maybe as meringues for dessert. I call that an eggcellent meal.
