FREE RANGE EGG
Free range eggs are a tremendously nutritious food, full of protein, and can be used in a variety of ways to create tasty dishes. It all starts with one free range egg, and then who knows where you could end up!
Here are a few examples:
Eggs Royale Recipe
(serves 2)
4 Nith Valley Free Range Eggs
2 tsp white wine vinegar
200g hollandaise sauce
2 English muffins
150g fresh smoked salmon, thinly sliced
Salt to season
Fill a frying pan with water, vinegar and salt and bring to the boil.
Turn down the heat slightly so the water is still boiling, crack one free range egg into a cup and add to the water.
Repeat the process with the remaining eggs, working quickly and making sure to remember which order you put them in. Cook for 3-5 minutes depending on how you like your eggs.
Meanwhile toast the muffin and top with the sliced smoked salmon.
Remove the eggs from the pan with a slotted spoon, drain excess water and add to the salmon topped muffins.
Spoon over the hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle over a pinch of cracked black pepper to serve.
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Salad Nicoise
3 Nith Valley Eggs
300g New potatoes
100g finely trimmed green beans
2 Baby Gem lettuce
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200g halved cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Small handful of basil leaves
325g fresh tuna chunks
Juice of half a lemon
Olive dressing to accompany;
50g Nicoise black olives
1 garlic clove
4 tbsp olive oil
Juice half a lemon
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
First make the dressing, Add the olives and the garlic into a pestle and mortar, mash and mix together. Transfer to a larger bowl and stir in the lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar. Leave this to the side to come back to.
Cook the potatoes for 15 minutes until tender. When cooked halve the potatoes and set aside. Cook the green beans for 4-5 minutes under tender. Set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the halved potatoes with the cut-side down in the pan and sizzle for about 4 mins until golden and crisp.
Brown the potatoes on all sides, then turn up the heat and add the tomatoes.
Fry the tomatoes for about 1 min until just starting to blister, then season.
Add in 1 tbsp of the balsamic vinegar, turn off the heat and scatter over the basil.
Finish by adding the lemon juice, remaining olive oil and vinegar together and whisk.
To serve arrange the baby gem lettuce in a dish, top with the potatoes, tomatoes and finally the green beans. Scatter over the tuna chunks. Halve your free range egg and position on the top.
Finally drizzle over the dressing made at the start.
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Spanish Tortilla with Chorizo
6 Nith Valley Eggs
100 ml Olive oil
Sprig of rosemary
400g new potatoes
2 red onions
Salt and pepper to season
200g skinned and chopped chorizo (2mm slices)
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tbsp finely chopped flat parsley leaves
Heat two thirds of the olive oil in a frying pan. When hot enough add the potatoes and cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add the chorizo, garlic and parsley to the frying pan. Avoid crushing the potatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add everything to a plate and set aside to cool.
Lightly beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Heat what is left of the olive oil in a frying pan. Carefully mix in the eggs to the potato mixture.
Cooking over a medium heat stir gently as if making an omelette
Turn down the heat when the eggs are half cooked and stop stirring. Cook over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes until the tortilla is almost cooked. Slide onto a plate and turn over to cook the other side for another 2 minutes, until both sides are cooked and the middle remains soft.
Transfer to a plate and serve either whole or cut into wedges. Serve either hot or warm with an accompanying salad.
Want to know more about the nutritional in a Free Range Egg? Check out the Our Eggs page to find out more.
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Breakfast in Mehico!
(serves 4)
Mexican farmers would traditionally have a small breakfast at the crack of dawn followed by a large mid morning feast. Rancher’s Egg or, more traditionally named, Huevos Rancheros consists of fried eggs on a bed of corn tortillas accompanied by refried beans, tomato-chilli salsa topped with slices of avocado or guacamole. Talk about a breakfast feast!
Ingredients:
8 free range eggs uk
Finely chopped -3 kale leaves
1 onion
1 red and green pepper
1 courgette
1 bird’s eye chilli
1 garlic clove
150ml passata
1 tbsp olive oil
Sliced avocado or guacamole
Butter
Salt and pepper
Mix together the kale, onion, peppers, chilli, courgette, garlic and passata in a bowl to make the salsa. Season with salt and pepper.
Over a medium heat, heat the oil in a frying pan and add around a quarter of the salsa.
Make a hole in the middle of the salsa.
Place the butter in the well of the salsa and crack two eggs into the space.
Cover with a lid and cook for 3-4 minutes. They dish is ready to serve when the eggs whites are firm and cooked into the salsa.
Slide onto a bed corn tortillas and top with the avocado slices or guacamole.
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Eggs Benedict
(serves 2)
Northbound now to the big apple of the U S of A, New York City. First created as a hangover cure by Lemuel Benedict concocting the dish as an attempt to rid himself of his hangover, The Waldorf Hotel were so impressed with his creation they put the dish on the menu and the rest is history. Many variations of the dish have followed however the basic principles remain the same.
You will need:
4 large free range eggs uk
2 english muffins
White wine vinegar (if poaching eggs using the ‘swirling method’)
Hollandaise sauce
Parma Ham or bacon (your preference)
Poach the eggs using your preferred method
Toast the muffins
Place the bacon or parma ham on top of the toasted muffin halves
Top with the poached eggs
Cover with a generous helping of Hollandaise sauce.
Sprinkle with ground black pepper to serve
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Bacon and Egg Pie
A hearty breakfast fit for a labourer! Not to be confused with a quiche (as there is no milk and cheese), this pie is a great breakfast favoured by the sheep shearers and farmers of Australia and New Zealand to set them up for a hard day’s work.
What goes in the pie:
9 free range eggs uk(good job you can get trays of 15 from our vending machines)
Sunflower oil
8-10 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
4 tbsp whole milk
The pastry:
300g plain flour
75g diced chilled butter
1 free range egg
Pre heat oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees
Cut the bacon rashers in half and fry in a pan. Place to the side to cool after cooking.
Mix the flour, butter and salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Whisk the egg with a tbsp of cold water and pour over the flour mixture. Blend again until it forms a ball
Lightly dust a work surface and quickly knead the pastry into ball
Cut in half and roll out one half to 0.5cm thickness. Place over a greased 23cm pie plate with excess overlapping the edge
Place the bacon rashers evenly spaced onto the pastry
Break 6 eggs in between the bacon rashers. Beat the remaining eggs with the milk and season with salt and pepper
Carefully pour the beaten eggs into the pastry case, leaving a little left to glaze the top!
Roll out the rest of the pastry to make the lid and carefully place on top.
Seal the edges and glaze with the remaining egg mix
Place on a baking tray in the oven and cook for 45-55 minutes until cooked through. Leave to stand for 15 minutes before serving
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Breakfast Fried Rice – (‘first or morning rice’)
Rice in many Asian regions plays a major part in breakfast! Here’s a tasty Japanese inspired breakfast dish combining rice and free range eggs UK
For this dish:
2 free range eggs uk
5 slices of bacon
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 green onions thinly sliced
3 cups of pre cooked rice at room temperature
80ml low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp unsalted butter
- Cook the bacon until crispy in a heavy bottomed pan
- Set aside to cool
- Warm the sesame oil until shimmering and cook 2 of the green onions for 2-3minutes
- Stir in the rice
- Add the soy sauce, bacon, rice vinegar, crushed red pepper and the toasted sesame seeds
- Add the butter to a non stick pan over a medium heat
- Crack the eggs into the pan and immediately cover with a lid
- Cook for approx 5 minutes until the egg white is cooked through and the yolk is barely set
- Place a fried egg on top of each bowl of breakfast fried rice and crack the yolk to act as a sauce.
Recipe Credit – William Pottinger – Head Chef at The Buccleuch Queensberry Arms Hotel
Full Circle home to the Full English Breakfast
Travelling the world definitely works up an appetite. We’ve been to Asia, America, South America and now back home to a hearty Full English or Scottish breakfast with the addition of Haggis and Black Pudding.
Keep it simple like The BQA Hotel and fry all chosen preferred Breakfast components including Nith Valley free range eggs uk with a generous amount of oil for added flavour!