“A poached egg on toast is the most perfect meal known to man,” said Vladimir Nabokov, a filigree-loving writer with plain tastes in food. The combination of crispy toast and soft eggs that sauce the bread when they’re cut into is practically self-sufficienta poached egg on toast needs only a little butter on the toast and salt and pepper on the egg to be a complete pleasure. It’s a good comfort food and the ideal nourishment for the convalescent.
Made with farm-fresh eggs and served on the levain bread crafted by the Acme Bakery next door, it’s been the signature dish of Alice Waters’ Cafe Fanny in Berkeley, Calif., for the past 20 years.
Add hollandaise sauce and Canadian bacon, and it becomes something else — hangover food. Eggs Benedict is a morning-after dish I’ll eat once year, when I crave something with a lot of fat and starch to coat my stomach, and the only thing I want to do after I eat brunch is crawl back into bed. When it comes to sprucing up plain poached eggs on toast, I prefer using acidic ingredients like capers, mustard or roasted tomatoes and good quality Prosciutto or thinly sliced smoked bacon. A drizzle of earthy porcini oil on the eggs is a nice and unexpected touch.
At the restaurant, where we’ll serve 120 poached eggs on a typical Sunday brunch, we prepoach the eggs in a hotel pan, shock them in water and re-warm them to order. If you have to poach more than a few eggs at a time, it’s not a bad way to go.
John Broening cooks at Duo Restaurant, .
Poached Eggs on Toast with Bacon, Capers, Tomatoes and Porcini Oil
You can find porcini oil at St. Kilian’s Cheese Shop, 3211 Lowell Blvd., or at Whole Foods. Serves 4 as an appetizer.
Ingredients
4 very thin slices applewood smoked bacon
4 slices levain or rusticco bread
3 tablespoons distilled vinegar
4 eggs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons soft butter
1 tablespoon capers
2 tablespoons roasted or sun-dried tomatoes, diced
4 sprigs watercress or arugula (optional)
2 teaspoons porcini or truffle oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350. Place the bacon in a small baking pan and cook until golden and slightly crisp, about 12-15 minutes. Cut each slice in half. Blot on a paper towel and keep warm.
Trim the bread into squares about 2 inches by 2 inches. Toast in a toaster oven until golden. Keep warm.
Fill a wide pan with about 2 inches of water. Add the vinegar and bring to a lively simmer. Individually break the eggs into coffee cups or ramekins and carefully slide them into the simmering water at the place where the water is bubbling. Poach 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
With a slotted spoon, remove each egg and thoroughly drain. Trim the excess whites with scissors. Salt and pepper the eggs.
Spread the soft butter on the toast slices, then distribute half the bacon, capers and tomato among the four slices. Carefully place the poached egg on top. Garnish with the remaining bacon, tomato and capers. Top with the watercress or arugula and a drizzle of porcini or truffle oil. Serve immediately.
