5:41pm Tuesday 9th September 2008
A chef has proved he has the eggs factor after getting through to the national final of a cooking competition.
Gary Parsons, 37 from Wallington, delivered his signature dish of poached egg, panchetta and cockles with hollandaise sauce on buttered spinach and a toasted muffin in the regional finals in Brighton last week.
The dish was presented to a panel which included the inventor of the banoffi pie, Ian Dowding.
Five hundred entries were narrowed down to 12 finalists in each region. Finalists were asked to poach the perfect egg before creating their signature egg-based dish.
Gary, the head chef at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster said: “The secret to poaching the perfect egg is simple. Boil the water with white wine vinegar, turn it down so the bubbles have gone, then use a whisk to create a whirlpool in the middle of a deep pan – not a frying pan as Gordon Ramsay says, because that makes the egg flat. Crack your egg into a cup and drop it into the whirlpool.
“I was totally shocked to win. When they called out Gary, I was looking around for another person to stand up, it was quite funny actually.
“The signature dish is an adaptation of what is called a ‘Welsh breakfast’. I went camping in Swansea a few years ago and had a breakfast of poached eggs, cockles, bacon, fried bread and lava bread – a Welsh delicacy made from the seaweed laver. I wanted to change the seaweed for spinach as it’s a bit more politically correct and I think the texture and taste complimented the dish better.”
Gary will now compete against regional winners from across the UK in the Eggs Factor final in London on 6 October. Michelin-starred celebrity chef Paul Merrett will be drawing on his expertise to decide just who will be crowned the “Face of Eggs 2008”.
Gary’s recipe for poached egg, smoked bacon and cockles with hollandaise sauce on buttered spinach and a toasted muffin x 4
Ingredients:
Egg x 4
Water
White wine vinegar
Smoked streaky bacon (lardons) 150g
Fresh cockles (cooked) 200g
Spinach 200g
Unsalted butter 15g
English muffins (toasted and buttered) x 2
Hollandaise sauce ingredients:
Unsalted butter 100g
Egg yolk x 1
Half tablespoon warm water
Squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1. To make the hollandaise sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan, leave it to cool slightly and then the butter will have separated, only use the clear butter oil, not the buttermilk at the bottom. Add the egg yolk to the water in a bowl and whisk over a pan of hot water until lighter in colour and thickened. Take off the heat and slowly add the clear butter oil until thick and all the butter has gone. Add the lemon juice and season. Keep warm.
2. Heat a frying pan until smoking, add the smoked bacon and cook until golden then add the cooked cockles. Keep warm.
3. Wash and pick the stalks off the spinach. Heat a pan on the stove, then add the butter, then the spinach and cook until it has wilted. Season.
4. Fill a saucepan with two-thirds water and a third vinegar, bring to the boil and stir to make a whirl pool using a whisk, drop the egg in and cook for three to three-and-a-half minutes.
5. While the egg is cooking take a warm plate and place the toasted muffin in the centre, then place the spinach on top, add some of the hollandaise to the bacon and cockle mix and stir in, then spoon some of the mix on to the spinach. Remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon, drain on to a clean towel and place on top of the cockles and bacon. Then spoon some of the hollandaise sauce around the plate.
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