Eggs, Haddock and Bacon – The Perfect Breakfast

The French have a dish called Oeuf Sur Le Plat, which translates as Eggs on the Plate. However, this dish is not simply an egg put on a plate, but a baked delight often mixed with other ingredients such as bacon, cheese, tomatoes and so on.

I remember this being served in round glass dishes on the ferry when we travelled to France from Newhaven to Dieppe many, many years ago, and again on a train in France when I was small. This is easy to cook, and even easier to eat.

Here I have made it with Haddock and Bacon.

For just one person you will need a metal or glass dish about 15cm in diameter. I used an Indian curry dish, which was just about perfect.

Ingredients

Take a large slice of unsalted butter and grease the dish leaving the remainder of the slice in the middle.

Layer into the dish 3 slices of good smoked bacon and about 150gm of smoked haddock cut into strips. Bake this in a medium hot oven till the bacon is only just cooked (not going brown.)

Remove from the oven and very carefully crack two eggs into the middle – you have to be careful as the eggs will easily break and once they have you cant get them out again! It is often easier to break them into a small dish first and then pour them onto the bacon.

Give a good grind of black pepper and a sprinkling of parsley and put back into the oven. Don't salt; it really doesn't need it.

Bake for about 10 minutes until the eggs are cooked to your liking. It is best if the yokes are still soft.

Remove and serve, warning the diner to be careful of the hot dish! This is a very simple, one dish breakfast or lunch which you can vary as much as you like, really – as long as you keep the eggs, of course.