Dippy Egg & Soldiers

 To me, the best thing about waking up on a Sunday morning is reliving my childhood by eating dippy egg and soldiers. This is another dish that my partner didn't used to like, but my Sunday morning ritual has now converted him to the ways of dippy egg.

For me, the perfect dippy egg has a running yolk and fully cooked white. Getting it perfect used to be a problem for me, I had always cooked my dippy egg by dunking a raw egg into boiling water and setting the timer for 4.5 minutes. This resulted in all kinds of disasters from cracked shells; to a combination of an under cooked egg and two over cooked eggs.

I have since discovered a new method (courtesy of Michel Roux Jnr) to make dippy eggs perfect every single time. The trick is to place the eggs in cold water and set the timer from boiling point. I don't have a thermometer, but can still cook perfect eggs by setting the timer for 2 minutes from the rolling boil. This creates whites that are fully cooked and yolks that are runny. You can see from the yolk that their edges are starting to cook, so 3 mins would do a medium-rare egg (half hard yolk, half soft yolk), and 6 mins would do a hard boiled egg.  I've done the same for quails eggs with 2 mins in giving them a medium-rare egg perfect for Nscoise Salad.

The bread I used this time was Olive and Pumpkin Seed , which worked perfectly with the eggs. The black olives added an extra level of flavour that complimented the eggs. Luckily, both my partner and I love olives, so this worked perfectly, however if you don't like olives a good seeded loaf works well as well.

Pan-fried rainbow trout, beetroot risotto and kale

First post. How exciting!

Before I begin with the recipe, I should note I mostly cook for my partner and I after work most days of the week. I'm not precise with ingredients as I tend to cook savoury by ear, so I apologise for my ingredients list if the exact quantities are not clear. I am also not a chef and have had no cookery training, I just watch a lot of cookery shows and read a lot of recipe books.

I was really craving fish this evening, so I ordered some rainbow trout from my vegbox supplier Abel & Cole. I originally wanted a whole trout to sit under the grill with some lemon and a potato salad. But my partner isn't very keen on fish as he hates having bones in his mouth (ironic that he doesn't know how to clean fish bones given his father is a fisherman), so out went the whole trout option. Instead I went for the fillets. I still had to do some pin-boning but the whole dish only took 40 minutes to cook and prepare.

Ideally, I would have put some dry vermouth or dry white wine in, but I didn't have any this time. I don't think it made a difference on the flavour and I didn't want the risotto to overpower the star of the dish- the trout.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 Rainbow Trout fillets

1 medium raw Beetroot, cubed

1/2 cup Arborio Rice

2 Shallots

1 clove Garlic

Chicken Stock (I used 1 Kallo Organic Chicken Stock Cube as I didn't have any fresh stock pre-prepared)

handful of Kale

grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 tbsp Creme-Fraiche

Cooking Oil

Salted Butter

Thyme

Salt & Pepper

Recipe

Pin-bone fillets, dry skin with paper towel and season.

Heat stock. Heat cooking oil in pan and add beetroot, shallots, thyme and garlic.

Add rice and stir until coated. Start adding stock to cook the risotto. It usually takes me 7/8 ladles of stock to cook my risotto the way I like it.

4 ladles in, chop kale and put in heatproof dish. Poor boiling water over it. 6 ladles in, strain kale, add a bit of butter and season.

6/7 ladles in heat frying pan. Add a bit of cooking oil and place fillets skin-side down onto frying pan. Add butter to baste flesh side.

Add parmasean, creme fraiche and check seasoning of risotto.

Check fillets, skin should be crispy and should not stick to the bottom of the pan. Flip fillet and cook for 10 seconds.

Assemble dish.