TGIFood

#5: A breakfast fry-up with a difference

16 Dec 2024

It looks just like your average bacon and eggs breakfast, but the devil is in the detail.

Did you know that cumin is a splendid match for fried bacon? And that adding a touch of fresh thyme to butter before frying your eggs for breakfast gives them a delightful little herby flourish? It’s touches like these that can make the difference between an ordinary old breakfast and something special.

Scatter a scant teaspoon of cumin seeds in a dry pan and toast them for a minute or two, and just when they start to smoke, add butter, give the pan a swirl, and then cook your bacon rashers the way you like them. A bit of magic happens between the bacon and the cumin.

For thyme-butter eggs, melt butter with freshly picked thyme on a low heat. When melted, let the flavour of the thyme infuse into the butter on a very gentle heat for a few minutes. Remove the thyme, turn the heat up a bit, and fry your eggs.

Alternatively, if you’re feeling flush, add a drop or two of real truffle oil to butter before frying your eggs. Be sure that it’s oil made with real truffle; there are a lot of fakes out there.

Add a few fresh sage leaves to butter to fry your tomatoes in. Add virtually any herb to butter when frying mushrooms. Caramelised onions also love thyme, but a spice such as cumin or caraway is great with fried onions too.

Tony Jackman’s weekly newsletter is packed with bright food ideas and delicious stories about food and life. Sign up to Tony’s weekly newsletter here. It’s free, and in your inbox every Friday afternoon. If it goes to promotions or spam at first, please drag it into your inbox.

For this breakfast fry-up, I cooked bacon with cumin, as described above, fried the eggs in thyme butter, used thyme in butter again for the mushrooms, and picked some fresh sage leaves for the tomatoes.

Oh and that’s another thing: do grow your own herbs, especially if, like me, you are in the habit of cooking with a lot of fresh herbs. There’s no need to spend on punnets of herbs, with most of it going off in the crisper and being thrown away.

I always have a plastic bakkie near the stove when frying up a breakfast. The bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes can go in there while the eggs are frying. Anything that’s cooled too much can quickly be chucked in the pan again before serving.

Tony’s breakfast fry-up with a difference

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

6 rashers of back or streaky bacon

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 Tbsp butter

4 extra large eggs

1 tsp picked thyme leaves

4 Tbsp butter

12 baby roma tomatoes, halved

6 sage leaves

Yes, more butter

12-16 button mushrooms

3 or 4 thyme sprigs

Yes yes yes, more butter

Salt and black pepper to taste, for each element

Method

Toast cumin seeds in a dry pan on a moderate heat. Keep an eye on them and take it off the heat as soon as any smoke rises, and before they darken too much. Add butter, melt it, and fry your bacon on both sides. Remove to the side dish.

Melt butter with thyme in a small pot and add the mushrooms. Season with a little salt and black pepper. Cook them down on a brisk heat until they have released their juices and turned nutty brown. They’ll smell wonderful when they’re at their peak.

Rinse the bacon pan under very hot water, wipe it out with kitchen paper and add fresh butter. When hot, add the halved roma tomatoes and sage leaves and cook gently until the tomatoes are succulent and delicious. Season with black pepper and a dusting of salt.

In a clean, small frying pan, melt butter and thyme and infuse as described above. Reheat the thyme butter and fry your eggs the way you like them. Season on the plate.

Serve and dive in. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.

Categories:

TGIFood

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

TGIFood