Thomas Haughton has an unusual egg based dish for you to fall in food-love with.

Ingredients

  • olive oil
  • 1 bunch of asparagus (24 spears)
  • 6 eggs, organic or free range
  • 100 g bread crumbs
  • 50 g flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 egg
  • milk
  • seasoned flour
  • breadcrumbs
  • for the mayonnaise:
  • 3 tblsp vinegar
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • salt and pepper
  • 150 ml sunflower oil
  • 50 ml hot water
  • truffle oil
  • sea salt

Method

For the eggs:

  1. Put a deep pot of water on to boil with a 100ml of spirit vinegar - reduce heat, swirl water with a whisk or spoon.
  2. Crack egg and drop into centre of swirl - this this will help egg white to wrap itself around the yolk and give a nice shape. It should take about 3-4 mins to cook.
  3. It must be soft or else when you cook again after bread crumbing it will be over cooked; we want the yolk to ooze out when cut.

For the asparagus:

  1. Cut the spears to equal length
  2. Cook in boiling salted water until tender, but not soft for about 4-5mins
  3. Refresh in iced water, remove from water and put to one side
  4. Have three dishes, one with breadcrumbs, the other with egg and milk mix and one with seasoned flour.
  5. Place your dried off poached egg in flour then into egg and then into crumbs, you can repeat this twice to be doubly sure it doesn't burst
  6. Heat your oil, 180°-190°C (after this temp the oil starts to burn)
  7. Cook egg for 40-60 seconds or until crisp.

For the mayonnaise:

  1. You can make your own Mayo by first mixing mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and egg yolks together, then very slowly start emulsifying this with your oil bit by bit until its nice and smooth and well emulsified.
  2. You may need to add a little drop of hot water to soften it a bit or else it may split. If this happens start again, in a clean bowl with just and egg yolk and add your split mayo whisking continuously until emulsified again.
  3. The other alternative is to use a blender, same method adding oil slowly -or open a jar of Helmans!!
  4. To crumb the eggs you can either buy some dry breadcrumbs or make your own by taking some old bread and leaving it in a low low oven 80°C-90°C.

To serve:

  1. Season asparagus with olive oil, black pepper and sea salt, place a little mayonnaise in centre, then your deep fried egg, make sure you dry off in kitchen towel and season.