How do you like your eggs?
Anglesey Eggs Recipe
There was a fantastic skit in the stage production of Nigel Slater’s Toast when I saw it a few years ago, where he (the character of the young Nigel) shares his loathing for eggs, and the cast recreates the “Go to work on an egg!” 1960s-style adverts that starred Tony Hancock. The young Nigel pokes at the fried egg on his plate, retching at the thought of eating it. But not liking eggs is something that I just can’t fathom – not that I go to work on an egg every morning – but I can think of few occasions where adding a fried egg to a dish doesn’t elevate it to divine heights.
I’ve talked before about how simple foods are often the most satisfying, and to misquote the song, “Boiled or fried, I’m satisfied as long as I get my egg”. If you’ve got an egg and a bit of bread, in my book, you’ve got a meal. And not just any meal, one that is nutritious, sustaining and scrumptious. For me, the far bigger issue is how to rank my favourite ways to prepare eggs.
I love creamy scrambled eggs on toast with a splash of tangy Worcestershire sauce, as much as I crave a perfectly poached number sitting atop a smoked salmon-piled bakestone roll and drizzled generously with thick Hollandaise. Then there is fried, which goes with pretty much anything. It’s essential for a full cooked breakfast with sausages, bacon and baked beans, ideal for dipping and eating with the Glamorgan sausages I featured the other week, to top Welsh rarebit and make it buck rarebit, with thick gammon ham for a midweek tea, or to make a Spanish classic: huevos rotos (broken eggs) where layers of potatoes and chorizo are topped with the fried egg before being sliced and mixed, so with each glorious mouthful you get the crunchy, fried potato, pimentón-laced, oily chorizo and the sticky sunshine yolk of the egg.
Thinking of in Spain, eggs there are rather lauded. In many restaurants and tascas, you’ll find revueltos (posh scrambled eggs) are often one of the pricier dishes on the menu, and the thought of a fried egg with all the browned, crispy edges is considered a guilty pleasure – not that I believe food should ever make you feel guilty. Then of course, you have the famous tortilla española (Spanish omelette), one of my utmost favourite things to cook and eat at any time of day, with its heavenly mix of potatoes, onions and slightly gooey egg in the middle when it’s cut open.
“You’re missing one, Ross!”, I hear you cry. And it’s true, we haven’t even mentioned the joys of a boiled egg yet. I like mine so the yolk is not runny but not yet solid, sliced and sandwiched between two rounds of toasted white bread slathered with Marmite (apologies to any non-Brits reading, who this is probably going to flummox – or any Marmite loathers). There are many more versions we could mention – we haven’t even spoken about dippy eggs with soldiers, for instance – but this already becoming yet another love letter to an ingredient and, as it’s Easter, I have to go an tuck into my eggs of the chocolate variety.
The Recipe
Anglesey Eggs
There is an entry in the Llanfairynghornwy School Log Book of 1915 kept by People’s Collection Wales that talks about the North Wales rural tradition (particularly on Anglesey) of “clapping for eggs” (clepian wyau) at Easter. It says that the school was closed on the Monday before Easter because of what is known as “Clapping Day”. Children would go from house to house begging for eggs. They’d do this by waving a wooden egg-clapper and chanting “Clap, clap, gofyn wŷ, i hogia' bach ar y plwy” (Clap, clap, ask for an egg for little children in the parish). According to accounts of the custom, children could collect more than 150 eggs each, which they displayed on the Welsh dresser in their homes throughout the Easter period.
This recipe is for Anglesey eggs – and was perhaps a way of using up all the eggs collected, although Bobby Freeman in her First Catch Your Peacock suggests it is not likely a very old Welsh recipe.
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 large free-range eggs
500g potatoes (about 2 large), peeled and quartered
2 small leeks, chopped
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 tsp mustard powder (optional)
400ml milk
125g strong Welsh cheddar, grated (you could use Caerphilly)
Method
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F.
Boil the eggs for 10 minutes in a pan of water, drain and leave to cool before shelling and cutting into quarters lengthways.
Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender (around 15 minutes), adding the chopped leeks to the pan for the last 5 minutes. Drain well and then mash together with a drop of milk and plenty of ground black pepper, and set aside.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over a medium-high heat until just fizzing and tip in the flour and mustard powder. Beat together and cook for a minute or two while stirring.
Add the milk bit-by-bit stirring well after each addition to make a smooth sauce. The heat should thicken it up. Stir in 75g of the grated cheese until it’s melted and you’re left with a thick, glossy sauce. Remove from the heat.
In a shallow ovenproof dish (or four small ones), spoon the potato and leek mash around the sides. Place the chopped eggs into the centre and then pour over the sauce. Finish each with a helping of the remaining grated cheese.
Cook in the hot oven for around 20 minutes until the top is browned and bubbling.
You can serve this as an accompaniment to ham or bacon, as part of a larger brunch, or on its own as a comforting midweek meal with well-buttered toast.
If you try the recipe out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen.
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
This week we have a new release from Nia Wyn with her fantastic bluesy jazz tone, and a piece from the Dolgellau indie rock group, Sŵnami. But first, a little Easter song from Côr Y Boro | Borough Welsh Choir, O Nefol Addfwyn Oen.
Come Home To You by Nia Wyn
Dihoeni by Sŵnami
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl.
Mercado 44
Regular readers will have noticed by now that as well as Welsh cuisine, I have a love of Spanish food and culture, which is why I’m delighted that one of my favourite Wales-based Spanish restaurants has launched its own online shop. The Bar 44 group started with a single restaurant in Cowbridge (sadly a recent casualty of Covid) but now has two restaurants in Cardiff, one in Penarth and one in Bristol. Their food and wine offerings are spectacular, and I am so delighted to see their sherry alioli among the items available for home delivery, as well as their own-label manzanilla sherry (when it’s back in stock).