When a food stylist writes a book, you can be guaranteed it will be a thing of beauty, and Linda Tubby's homage to the humble egg, Cracked: Creative and Easy Ways to Cook with Eggs, is no exception.
Tubby, who has worked on books by Darina and Rachel Allen, draws inspiration for her books – this is her sixth – from the international travel that was a part of her life as a fashion designer.
In her hands, a box of eggs become exotic and interesting. The egg bhurji from Pakistan and the pickled quail eggs Thai-style reproduced here are typical examples. But there are lots of classics too, such as her blueberry and white chocolate baked cheesecake, an American staple.
Recipes for breakfast, brunch, suppers and sweet things are the bones of the book, but there is a very useful introductory chapter where you’ll learn how to tell if your eggs are very fresh, slightly older, or need to be used up (and the best dishes to use them for at each of those stages); how to store eggs properly, and why you shouldn’t wash them – the shells are porous – or keep them in the door of the fridge – too much movement and temperature changes.
Cooking techniques, from boiling, poaching and scrambling, through to preparations including custards, meringues, pasta, batters and sponges, are explained in detail. Omelettes, as you’d expect, get a lot of attention, and there are instructions on how to prepare them in the French, Spanish and Italian manner.
“Over 1,000 eggs were cracked in the making of this book,” the author tells us. Most of the recipes use easily available hen, duck and quail eggs , but you’ll also discover what to do with gull, ostrich and emu eggs, should you ever encounter them.
Cracked: Creative and Easy Ways to Cook with Eggs, by Linda Tubby, with photographs by Ali Allen, is published by Kyle Books, £16.99
Thai-style pickled quail eggs
Ingredients (Makes enough for 4-6)
12-24 quail eggs
150ml white balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1 lemongrass stem, thinly sliced diagonally
100ml water
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 long thin red chilli, sliced into rings
2 purple Thai or pink shallots, sliced into rounds
Use a gentle white balsamic vinegar for the pickle rather than a harsh-tasting cheap one. These are ready to eat after just 24 hours but you can eat them from the fridge for up to three days.
Serve them with cashews, stir-fried in a hot wok until evenly golden then scattered with sea salt crystals and chopped red chilli. Eat with a long glass of Chang beer and be transported to a beach in Thailand.
Fill a pan with boiling water and lower the heat before gently putting four or six eggs at a time into the water (this avoids cracking the shell). Turn up the heat to a simmer for three minutes.
Lift the eggs into a bowl of cold water and continue cooking the rest. Straight away, crack and peel the cooked eggs from the rounded end (it’s easier this way).
Put half the white balsamic vinegar in a small pan with the sugar and lemon grass. Dissolve the sugar over a low heat. Turn off the heat and add the rest of the vinegar and water, kaffir shreds, chilli and shallots.
Put half the eggs in a clean jar, add some of the vinegar mixture and the other ingredients, then continue to layer up and finish with a covering of vinegar. Cover with a lid and leave to cool completely. Chill and keep for up to three days.
Egg bhurji
Ingredients (Makes enough for 4)
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons full-fat milk
2 tablespoons ghee
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 fat green chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
2cm piece of ginger, scraped and finely grated
Half-teaspoon turmeric powder
Quarter-teaspoon chilli powder
350g tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
15g coriander, leaves removed and half chopped, the rest left whole for serving
1 lime, halved
Sea salt crystals and freshly
Ground black pepper
A great spicy scrambled-egg-style dish from Pakistan, served with lots of coriander leaves. I like to add freshly squeezed lime juice, which is not as acidic as lemon. Take to the table in its cooking pan along with hot flatbreads for scooping.
Try adding a little white crabmeat or cooked smoked haddock to warm through for a more substantial meal.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, then mix in the milk and some salt and pepper with a fork.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onions, chillies and ginger and cook over a medium heat for about five minutes until soft. Stir in the turmeric and chilli powder, add the tomatoes, cover and fry gently for about five minutes until thick.
Increase the heat a little, pour in the egg mixture and stir, scraping it from around the edges as it sets. Continue to stir into curds for about four minutes until the mixture is no longer loose and it can only just stand in a mound.
Stir in the chopped coriander, squeeze in the lime juice and check the seasoning. Serve right away with the whole coriander leaves scattered over.
Blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake
Ingredients (Makes enough for 8-10)
Butter, for greasing
4 large eggs
200g crunchy amaretti
2 tablespoons plain flour
350g Belgian white chocolate
250ml double cream
300g mascarpone
75g caster sugar
300g blueberries
Sifted icing sugar, for dusting
I love a baked cheesecake and this luscious dessert is one everyone gets excited about. I always have some crunchy amaretti tucked away in a tin left from Christmas, and they inspired this recipe, as blueberries marry so well with amaretti.
Make this a day ahead so it sets firm in the fridge.
Grease a deep-sided 24cm round springform tin and line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius/gas mark three and put a baking sheet on the middle shelf to heat up.
Crack three of the eggs into a bowl and separate the fourth egg, putting the white in a small bowl and adding the yolk to the other whole eggs. Put the amaretti and flour into a processor and whizz to a fine crumb. Add the egg white and whizz again to mix, then tip into the tin, pressing it evenly over the base. Chill in the fridge.
Break the chocolate into squares and put in a medium pan with the cream. Heat gently to melt the chocolate, stirring every few minutes so it doesn’t stick to the base of the pan. When the chocolate has melted completely, cool the quick way by putting the base of the pan in a larger basin of cold water.
Whisk the mascarpone and sugar together and add the eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth, then stir in the cooled chocolate mixture. Pour one-third of the mixture over the amaretti base and scatter over 100g of the blueberries. Pour over another third of the mixture, scatter with another 100g of blueberries and pour over the rest of the mixture.
Put the tin on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for about one hour 10 minutes – it should still have a slight wobble, but the top will be tinged pale golden. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven for 30 minutes. Put the tin on a wire rack to cool for one hour. Gently remove the sides of the tin and put the cheesecake in the fridge overnight. To serve, scatter over the rest of the blueberries and sift over a little icing sugar.
