Lekker Brekker Monday: Avocado and bacon on toast with a caper surprise

The recipe starts with adding a small amount of capers to butter in a hot pan, before frying your bacon. The rashers take on nuances of capers. Just don’t use too many of the latter as their flavour is strong.

This way of cooking bacon is a step in my little foray into ways to add a little something to bacon when frying it. A few months back I wrote this piece about different ways to approach the cooking of bacon. 

So, the avocado obviously adds a certain freshness to this breakfast recipe, despite it featuring fried bacon, and you could add to that freshness with a scattering of chopped spring onions when serving. I didn’t.

I thought about adding a poached egg on top of the avocado, but decided not to because I wanted to show off the green stuff in my photograph. But add one if you like (to each slice of bacon-topped toast), with a lovely runny yolk to ooze out.

Tony’s avocado and bacon on toast with a caper surprise

(Per 2 servings)

Ingredients

2 ripe, but not overripe, avocados

Lemon juice

8 rashers of back bacon

4 Tbsp butter

8 capers

2 spring onions, chopped (optional)

4 slices of ciabatta or other bread, toasted

Butter for buttering the toast

Salt and black pepper

Method

Slice the avocados in half, top to bottom, and prise out the stone.

Place the avo halves on their flat sides on a work surface and slice through several times from just below the narrow end, to make a fanned pear shape. I use a sharp paring knife for this. Squeeze a little lemon juice over to keep them from discolouring.

Chop the capers vigorously so that they seem mashed. Toast 4 slices of ciabatta or other bread of your choice.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a frying pan and add the capers on a low heat. Stir to spread the capers around and meld with the butter. Spoon most of the caper butter into a container such as a ramekin, and add the bacon rashers to the pan. Fry them the way you like them.

When the bacon has been removed from the pan, add the remaining 2 Tbsp butter and the reserved caper butter, stir, and keep to one side while you assemble the open toasted sandwiches, two per plate.

Butter the toast and place bacon rashers on top.

Using a cake lift or spatula, lift the fanned avocado halves on top of the bacon.

Spoon the capers and their butter over, and season with salt and black pepper. If adding spring onions, scatter them on top. 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.