Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 6 of 6 - James Martin

Last in to bat is girlie favourite Mister Martin, can he upset the apple cart?…..

The James Martin recipe had high ideas - it was easily the fanciest of the week. You see, the recipes have increased in complexity through the week - I don’t just throw these things together you know! Tirelessly working for a better world!

So. James Martin.. I’m not sure if I like this cook or not. Mostly I think he’s a funny-ish bloke who’s lucky to be on telly doing something he enjoys. Good for him!

This recipe was the first that mentioned presentation. I found that something of a revelation. Added to that the separate parts of the recipe, which made the whole cooking experience easy and productive. James Martin came up with a cracker, scrambled egg disguised as full English. I cooked this with my 4-year-old running round, so it wasn’t a difficult recipe.

This recipe can be found here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/print/scrambledeggswithwil_84259.shtml

So how did this rate:

Taste - 4.5 - Absolutely delicious! Taken as a whole meal, this was basically bacon and eggs, dressed up as scrambled egg. This was bloody delicious, The parsley mushrooms were fantastic, MUCH tastier than I had imagined,

Texture - 4 - I don‘t own a texture meter, but if I did I think it would have gone off the scale. As with all recipes there was no advice on how long to beat the eggs, but after a week of scrambled eggs the whisking has become standard.

Ease/Effort - 3.5 - This recipe is the most demanding, presentation-wise. But it is also one of the easiest. Anyone can fold parsley into cooked mushrooms!

Total score = 12 out of 15. The most demanding recipe of the week wins through. What won it? Well, presentation combined with a superb combination of flavours. This is, essentially, a full English, dressed up as scrambled egg. Make sure the bacon is good quality and you will not go wrong.

The full Results :

12 - James Martin

11 - Jamie Oliver

10.5 - Nigella Lawson

9.5 - Mr Breakfast

8.5 - Delia Smith

6 - Waitrose Dot Com

Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 5 of 6 - Nigella Lawson

Time for the sexiest cook on TV, with the most amazing bottom - not as if that would affect the judging…..

A seemingly complicated recipe which turned out a lot better than I’d hoped. Nigella goes for a complex version of this easy meal and comes up trumps. This is another recipe that adds extra ingredients yet doesn’t tell you how long to whisk the egg mixture for, which I would have thought is the most important part. This is a tasty meal, and you don’t have to dip your finger into the mix then lick it suggestively - unless you want to of course. For added realism I pushed a pillow down the rear of my trousers, to provide a similar bootilicious bumper to the awesome lady herself.

The complete recipe is here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/spicyscrambledeggs_87272.shtml

So how did this rate:

Taste - 4 - The recipe was not specific about the egg mixture - again - so I whisked until there was a uniform colour and consistency. I am amazed and disappointed that so many recipes for scrambled eggs do NOT tell you how long to beat the egg mixture for. The taste was a great mix, and I loved it. There were different mixes of flavours in each mouthful, the green chilli really plays its part. The tortillas - much to my surprise - worked well, and “bulked up” this recipe to make it a real meal deal.

Texture - 4 - The eggs were “fine“ using the “whisk until consistent“ method. The fried tortillas were amazingly good, and added to the dish immensely. The served meal had the usual scrambled egg with a good mixture of the chilli, tomato, and the tortillas. I didn’t think it would work, but it did.

Ease/Effort - 2.5 - The recipe seems quite arty-farty before you try it. There‘s quite a lot of effort involved, which seems daunting beforehand. In practice, de-seeding chillies and tomatoes is easier than it sounds. The result though makes the effort worthwhile. Looks complicated which may put people off, but isn’t, so a lower score for looking scary.

Total score = 10.5 out of 15. A superb contribution from TV‘s sexiest cookery expert. Thank you Nigella for this recipe, I LOVED it. See you at Green Quay next week, Wednesday, at 10. This recipe looks so much tougher than it actually is. The addition of other flavours seemed to be a bad move but turned out just great.

Results so far:

11 - Jamie Oliver

10.5 - Nigella Lawson

9.5 - Mr Breakfast

8.5 - Delia Smith

6 - Waitrose Dot Com

Tomorrow - James Martin

Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 4 of 6 - Waitrose Dot Com

A chance for a cooking website to claim their place at the top of the Scrambled League…..

I like Waitrose.com - more often than not a reliable source of culinary advice. I decided to give their Scrambled Eggs recipe a place in the Great Scrambled Egg-Fest.

You can find the link here : http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Scrambled_Eggs_with_Potted_Brown_Shrimps_on_Toast.aspx

My first problem came when “potted brown shrimps“ were mentioned. Potted shrimps? I think I’ve heard the term before but have no idea what it is. So…..I had a realisation of how the Waitrose website seems to work. In their recipes they list ingredients - fair enough - common practice! However, certain ingredients are direct links to products that you can find inside the store at Waitrose. For example, instead of say “500g new potatoes”, the Waitrose.com recipe might say “500g Waitrose Fresh South Lincolnshire New Potatoes”. Check out a few of their other recipes for confirmation.

This isn’t usually a problem at all, when they say “use Waitrose new potatoes”, new potatoes are such a common item that you can feel confident using 500g of ANY new potatoes you want to. I’ve always done this with Waitrose recipes, simply replace their own, recommended ingredient with your own version. But potted shrimp?

I have to say I did look around four supermarkets here in King’s Lynn, seeking out the Potted Shrimp - didn’t find it. So I was forced into trying to make my own, with a little help from my very good friend Rick Stein. I did my best. Got “most” of the right things to put in it. Cooked it very, very close to Rick’s method. Chilled it in the fridge. Hey presto, next day I have “Potted Shrimp A La Numptie”. So to the scrambled eggs.

For a start, Waitrose added salt and black pepper at the very start of the recipe, meaning the egg mixture was grey-ish, not yellow. A poor start. The potted shrimps were then melted in the pan, removed when warmed through, and saved. Next we are told to return the pan to the heat for 30 seconds, until the butter foams - for such a quick reaction the pan had to be fairly hot, so I used a number 4 setting, which produced the required result in about 45 seconds. The next instruction was to add the beaten egg but keep the heat really low. Note “really low”. As I stated on Sunday, “low” would be a 3 on the hob, so I went for a 2 for “really low”. It didn’t go as advertised in the recipe - which made me wonder if it had actually been tried before being published? Because the pan had to be hot to foam the butter, it was - of course - still hot even when reduced to Electric Mark 2. The recipe states “it should take about 5-6 minutes” - it took less than 2.

To serve, the eggs were piled on the toast, and the shrimps dropped on top, along with a few chives.

So how did this rate:

Taste - 2.5 - The eggs themselves were average, not amazing, not nasty, but……average. I think if I could have got hold of “57g Tub of Morecambe Bay Brown Potted Shrimps” instead of trying to cobble together my own version it would have been better! (Probably had a lot more preservatives and E numbers to make it taste better, but don‘t tell anyone I said that).

Texture - 2 - Again, the eggs were OK. Not spectacular. The early addition of the black pepper turns the egg mixture grey, which is much less pleasing to the eye than Mr Breakfast’s bright yellow. My potted shrimps? Hmmmmm…..I’d like to try this one again with REAL potted shrimps, as I love seafood.

Ease/Effort - 1.5 - VERY easy if you‘re using ready-made potted shrimps. Flipping hard if you have to fly by the baggy seats of your pants and make your own. The easiest part was sprinkling a few chives on top before serving.

Total score = 6 out of 15. A poor score. This is influenced by the whole potted shrimps issue. But then again, maybe I’ve just exposed a major supermarket as offering a supposedly helpful cooking database, yet sneakily promoting their own products? Sorry Waitrose, hope you do better in the next taste test extravaganza. Or send me some free samples to road test.

Results so far:

11 - Jamie Oliver

9.5 - Mr Breakfast

8.5 - Delia Smith

6 - Waitrose Dot Com

Tomorrow - Nigella Lawson

Friday - James Martin

Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 3 of 6 - Jamie Oliver

How will Saint Jamie match up?….

According to Mr Oliver “This recipe is fresh and fab!” Was he right?

The instructions WERE very simple, much like Jamie Oliver himself. However there were several distinct echoes of Delia’s Way, especially the phrase “to get right into the corners”. I guess there are only so many ways to describe how to cook eggs, but if you’re going to plagiarise shouldn’t you at least change the odd word here and there? The method included - like Delia - turning off the heat to allow the final cooking to be done by the already hot pan itself, which gives you time to butter your toast (I don’t think this is a euphemism). No mention of seasoning until the very end, when you “pour” your eggs over the toast. All is good, self-explanatory, does just what it says on the tin.

However, at this point there is a massive difference from Days 1 & 2. With Jamie Oliver’s recipe you drape smoked salmon over the whole dish and serve with lemon wedges. Deeeeee-flippin-licious! I suspect that the scores may reflect Jamie’s sneaky additional ingredient……

The website for this recipe is here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish/smoked_salmon_and_scrambled_eggs

The scores on the doors:

Taste - 4 - Smoked salmon puts the taste of this offering way ahead of the others, can anybody match this, or even improve on it?

Texture - 3.5 - Not too much strict instruction on how long to whisk etc, so I just did it until the egg mixture was a uniform colour and thickness. It worked well though and the cooked egg was lovely. The moistness of the salmon helped make Jamie Oliver’s version more varied and much better than earlier competitors.

Ease/Effort - 3.5 - A short recipe which was perfectly easy to follow. Thankfully, a complete lack of typical Jamie Oliver mockney claptrap that he constantly spouts on his telly shows.

Total score = 11 out of 15. An additional ingredient proved to be Oliver‘s secret weapon, and he comfortably tops the half-time table. Shame about the bits he “allegedly” borrowed from one of his rivals. I'm not a fan of Jamie's but this was the best so far by several shakes of a salmon's tail.

Results so far:

11 - Jamie Oliver

9.5 - Mr Breakfast

8.5 - Delia Smith

Tomorrow - Waitrose Dot Com Food & Drink

Thursday - Nigella Lawson

Friday - James Martin

Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 2 of 6 - Delia Smith

Cooking’s modern day Mrs Beeton steps up to the plate….

Using the same eggs, same bread etc, it was English gastronomy’s matriarch’s turn in the firing line. Delia says fresh eggs are best (no s*** Sherlock) but anything up to two weeks old is fine! The first difference was the egg-blending. Delia said “break the eggs into a bowl and use a fork to lightly blend the yolks into the whites, whisking gently”. You then add salt and black pepper. Delia’s very precise about how you swirl the melted butter around the pan before you add the eggs - 2.5 cm up the side of the pan.

When the melted butter starts to foam you add the eggs, and using a wooden fork you stir briskly, using “backwards and forwards” movements, all through the liquid egg. Delia’s very insistent that you keep the heat constant, and then when three-quarters of the mixture is solid you remove the pan from the heat. You then add more butter and keep stirring until all the egg is solid, then serve.

Check it out for yourself here: http://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-school/how-to/how-to-scramble-eggs,9,AR.html

Very easy. So to the scoring:

Taste - 3.5 - the pepper added a little extra something compared to yesterday‘s version.

Texture - 2.5 - this was more liquid than Mr Breakfast, which I generally would prefer. However, the advice to “lightly blend” and “whisk gently” meant that the solid egg was nowhere near as voluminous, which was a shame. I’d like slightly moister scrambled egg like this, but much fluffier - is that possible? This version also looked slightly less appetising too.

Ease/Effort - 2.5 - Fairly easy to follow the recipe, BUT the mixing instructions were very vague. Had there been more specific directions at this point then this recipe would have scored higher. A good effort by England’s Big Momma Cook.

Total score = 8.5 out of 15. Texture was better, but the amount of scrambled egg produced by the same number of eggs seemed less - shame. A solid attempt from the Gourmet Godmother.

Results so far:

9.5 - Mr Breakfast

8.5 - Delia Smith

Tomorrow - Jamie Oliver

Scrambled Egg Challenge - Part 1 of 6 - Mister Breakfast

So, up early on a Sunday morning, and feeling hungry, what should I have for breakfast? Three eggs left in the fridge - scrambled egg! I’ve been making scrambled egg for donkey’s years, always the same way, so I decided to road test a few different versions, for your own use and information. I’m good like that. Every morning this week my breakfast will be scrambled egg, following - exactly - different recipes.

I’ll award points out of 5 for Taste, Texture, Ease/Effort. My breakfast will be the scrambled egg on two slices of toasted bread, unless specifically instructed otherwise by the recipe.

I intend to look for recipes by established celeb cooks/chefs, but for the first attempt I decided to type “perfect scrambled eggs” into Google, and go for the first method.

So stand up Mr Breakfast, and the weblink http://www.mrbreakfast.com/article.asp?articleid=17

I followed this recipe to the letter, and I have to say it will be a tough act to beat. I’ve decided to use 3 eggs each day, which will be the Tesco Value ones (we had some left after me and Sam made cakes last week) - just to make it fair all the eggs will be of the same quality. This recipe was for two people so I halved everything. The three eggs were joined by 1 teaspoon of milk per egg, plus one “dash” of salt for every two eggs (so, one and a half pinches). I whisked the mixture for exactly 2 minutes as per instructions, then poured it into the pan.

A word on heat settings. If a recipe says “high heat” I will use setting 5 on my hob, “medium heat” will be setting 4, “low heat” will be 3.

So, to the method. As instructed I pushed “set” egg mixture into the middle of the pan with a wooden spoon, allowing the still runny mixture to be swirled around the outside. When there was very little “runny” left I broke it up into large pieces, then flipped the whole lot and cooked for another 30 seconds. It turned out perfectly. So to the scores:

Taste - 3 - nice but slightly bland. Could be down to the quality of the eggs, we shall see as the week goes on.

Texture - 3.5 - delightfully fluffy, but my own personal taste is for slightly runnier scrambled eggs. If you like fluffy, use this recipe!

Ease/Effort - 3 - Very clear instructions, and easy to follow. Whisking the eggs by hand for a full 2 minutes was hard work but worthwhile.

Total score = 9.5 out of 15. Will we find a better way of making scrambled eggs? Who knows - check back tomorrow!

Tomorrow - the Delia Smith method.

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