Currabinny cooks: How to make a classic club sandwich that's better than any hotel
The ultimate club sandwich must include a crispy fried egg. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan
In the last few weeks and months we have been getting regular gifts of lovely little eggs from James’s parents. They have a chicken coop in a clearing to the back of their house. James’s father built the whole operation from scratch around a year and a half ago. They got chickens and one cockerel from a nearby organic farmer. The chicken enclosure is nice and big, allowing the chickens to roam freely, they are in effect free-range chickens laying organic eggs.
There is much confusion over what all this terminology actually means. When buying eggs there will be three determining pieces of information you need to look out for.
* The first is class, with ‘class A’ simply meaning that they are suitable for human consumption, therefore you will never see ‘class B’ eggs for sale in a supermarket as these types of eggs just go to non-human use in industries.
* The second is size which is determined by weight.
* And the third and most important is how the hens who laid the eggs were reared. The terms free-range and organic are two ones that responsible consumers should look out for. For various reasons, these two terms cannot both be displayed on a box of eggs, even though organic eggs are almost always also free-range. Free-range eggs are not usually organic as the organic label is usually more sought after. You will often see eggs labelled as organic, laid by ‘free to roam’ hens.
Labelling on food can often be misleading or confusing, so doing a little research on what different terms mean is important when making decisions on what food you buy.
If you have the resources and space to ethically raise your own organic hens, I am both jealous and supportive. You don’t need acres of land or live in the countryside to raise chickens but you do of course need enough backyard space to accommodate a spacious chicken pen.
To have a happy healthy organic chicken flock the ideal space is about 1.2m2 per chicken if they have some outdoor space to scratch around in. If they don’t have any outdoor scratching space, then you will need closer to 10m2. Source chickens or chicks from a good reputable source: there are specific types ideally suited to egg-laying. When you have your chickens then you will need to brush up on how to keep the chicken healthy, happy and safe from predators.
With this sudden inundation of beautiful eggs we have been coming up with some delicious ways of incorporating them into our meals.
Perfect carbonara with pancetta
Carbonara might not seem like an egg dish but it absolutely is. Some recipes use eggs and cream, some recipes use eggs and butter and some recipes just use eggs. In any case, they are the essential ingredient for a proper carbonara.
Servings
4Preparation Time
5 minsCooking Time
15 minsTotal Time
20 minsCourse
MainIngredients
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
100g pancetta, cubed
300g dried linguine
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
60g Parmesan, grated
Freshly cracked black pepper
50g butter
Olive oil
Method
Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook until fragrant and just about starting to turn golden. Remove the garlic from the pan with a slotted spoon and discard. Add the pancetta to the pan and cook until nice and crispy.
While you are making the sauce, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, but keep a good sized cup of the pasta water.
Mix together the eggs and extra yolk in a medium sized bowl along with most of the grated parmesan (reserve a little for scattering over at the end) and plenty of freshly-cracked black pepper. Tip the drained pasta into the frying pan with the crispy pancetta and garlicky oil. Toss it all around so that the pasta is covered in oil.
Take the pan off the heat and pour in the egg mixture, tossing everything together vigorously. Pour in enough pasta water to loosen up the sauce, while you continue to toss the pasta.
Divide into serving bowls and scatter the remaining grated Parmesan over it. Serve and eat immediately.
Picture: Bríd O'Donovan
The ultimate club sandwich
James is a club sandwich fanatic who has spent considerable time and money trying to find Ireland's absolute best club sandwich. There are quite a few club sandwich musts, but king amongst them is the inclusion of a perfectly crispy fried egg.
Servings
1Preparation Time
5 minsCooking Time
10 minsTotal Time
15 minsCourse
MainIngredients
3 pieces of good quality batch loaf, thinly sliced
2 good rashers
3-4 cherry tomatoes, sliced
Handful of butterhead lettuce leaves
1 organic chicken breast
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 organic egg
Sea salt
Black pepper
Vegetable oil
Method
Mix together the mayonnaise and lemon juice in a small bowl.
Cook the bacon under the grill under nice and crispy. Place the chicken in a freezer bag and pound it with a rolling pin until thin. Season generously with sea salt and black pepper.
Fry in a large frying pan on medium high with a little oil until golden, turning crispy and cooked all the way through, remove from pan to a chopping board and cut into nice sized slices. Wipe out the frying pan, add a little more oil and fry the egg until crispy at the bottom but still with a runny yolk.
Toast the slices of bread and spread the lemon mayonnaise on top of two slices and on the bottom of the remaining. Assemble the chicken at the bottom slice with the crispy egg on top and a few leaves of lettuce seasoned with a small pinch of sea salt. Place the middle piece of bread on top and add the bacon, sliced tomatoes and a little more lettuce.
Top with the remaining slice of bread and serve, preferably with good chips.
Picture: Bríd O'Donovan
Kedgeree
This is a great dish to make when you have some leftover rice in your kitchen.
Servings
4Preparation Time
10 minsCooking Time
30 minsTotal Time
40 minsCourse
MainIngredients
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
300g smoked haddock, cut into chunks
200g hake, cut into chunks
1 small dried chilli
8 dried curry leaves
4 cardamom pods, split
1 cinnamon stick
300g basmati rice
½ teaspoon turmeric
100g butter
4 eggs
Handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Sea salt
Vegetable oil
milk
Method
Place both types of fish as well as the dried chilli in a small saucepan of milk, just enough to cover the fish pieces. Simmer over medium heat for around 4 minutes and then remove from the heat, leaving the fish resting in the hot milk for another 10 minutes to gently cook through.
Heat a little oil in a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat and add the onion along with a pinch of salt. After a minute or two, add the curry leaves, split cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Fry until the onion is soft and turning golden.
Remove fish pieces from milk and place on a warm plate.
Make the milk up to 600ml/1pt with water. Rinse the rice in warm water in a colander, drain, then stir it into the onion. Keep stirring for 1 min so the rice is coated. Pour in the milk/water and stir in the turmeric. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 mins, covered, lowering the heat if it starts to stick on the bottom.
When the rice is tender, remove from the heat, drop the butter on top so it melts in. lay the pieces of fish on the rice. Cover and leave for the flavours to mingle.
Meanwhile, put the eggs in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil, then boil for 6 mins (for jammy). Remove from the heat and plunge into cold water, cracking the shells against the side of the pan. Peel off the shells and quarter the eggs. throw the chopped coriander into the pan and stir gently to mix without breaking up the fish, adding the eggs at the end. Season well — remember to discard the cinnamon stick — and serve.
Picture: Bríd O'Donovan
