Sunday Brunch

There were days when Sundays were spent recovering from a night out, with all the magazines, in pjs, watching Sunday TV for hours on end and food was at the centre of it. Sundays might be a bit more hectic nowadays but food is still at the centre of them and I have a firm favourite: poached eggs on rye. This one’s got tomatoes for that added sweetness and contrast but you can just as easily leave them out.

Ingredients:

Two fresh eggs

Oven cooked tomatoes (find my all-time favourite recipe here)

1 avocado

Rocket

Rye bread

Fresh lemon

Dried chilli flakes

*Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature so you really taste all the flavours.

How to:

1. Cook the tomatoes (see link in ingredients). 
2. Half, stone, scoop and smash the avocado with a fork. Add a squeeze of the fresh lemon, stir through and put aside. Tip: don’t do it too soon or it will discolour. If you’re only using half of the avocado, put it in the fridge in a tupperware with the stone and it should slow down any discolouration. 
3. Toast the rye bread.
4. Assemble first half (this is key to making sure you don't let the eggs sit too long once they're ready):  spread the avocado on the toast, add a handful of rocket, a squeeze of the fresh lemon and pile a spoonful of the tomatoes on top.
5. Poach the eggs. There are so many methods and I can’t say I’ve perfected them but I tend to stick to Delia Smith’s tips when it comes to poaching eggs.
6. Finish assembling: add the poached eggs and top with a sprinkling dried chilli flakes.

Rye bread might sound like a bit of a trendy faff but, I promise you, it’s worth it and the thing that pulls it all together is the tomatoes so, even if you only try them once (and, if you do, I doubt it will be the once), it’s worth it. I batch cook them and put the leftovers in bolognese (it raises the bar) or use to make bruschetta.