Sometimes Jason is shooting a wedding for over 12 hours straight.  During that time he doesn’t really eat – I guess it is a combination of pure adrenaline and I-don’t-want-to-miss-a-single-thing-can’t-put-my-camera-down-for-a-second craziness.  To make sure he has all the energy he needs I try and make sure he has a cracking breakfast to put some good, slow-burning fuel in his tank.  (Okay – to be honest and you all know how much I love being honest – I sometimes don’t have time, or can’t be bothered, to cook and instead, he has muesli and toast but that is, to me, still a pretty good breakfast.  Anyone disagree???)

One of the things Jason asks for time and again is scrambled eggs on toast.  For you guys that know him well, you know that Jason has some ridiculous weird crazy personal issues about eating runny eggs.  He HATES them.  Why?  I have no idea – to me runny eggs are one of life’s greatest pleasures but they seem to be Jason’s kryptonite.  Woe betide anyone who gives him a runny egg – as many a waiter has tried and failed.  So scrambled eggs it is and, given that I am down a few posts this week, I thought I would share with you the painstaking way I make them.  I know, I know everyone has their own special brand of nuttiness when it comes to eggs so, if you are committed to making them how YOU like them, then please just look away or have fun scoffing from the sidelines.

Studio Sixty Scrambled Eggs

3 free range eggs

milk

butter

bread for toast

salt and pepper

tabasco

Crack three eggs into a bowl and use a fork to scramble them.  So soon into the recipe and I already have a sticking point.  I don’t think you should ever use a whisk.  It just adds way too much air into the eggs and then they have bubbles through them when you cook them.  They are called scrambled and not whisked for a reason people!!!  The point is to stir them enough so you break the yolk and they are reasonably uniform in colour.

Add the milk and stir till combined.  Be careful about how much milk you add – too much and they never set; too little and it is all egg.  I reckon about 2 tablespoons for three eggs is plenty.

Get your frypan on medium to low heat.  The heat needs to be hot enough to melt the butter and to make it sizzle just a little bit.  I never tire of cooking with gas – Gas Rocks!  I should make a tee shirt – but then again maybe not…I just realised that it could be taken another way and well, that would be, um, kind of embarrassing now wouldn’t it?

Add butter. I add quite a bit of butter and you know, sometimes I feel bad about it.  To my credit, however, I have tried everything else – olive oil, margarine, butter and oil combined – and nothing, nothing works the same as plain, old butter.  For some crazy scientific reason it just HAS to be butter.  Go figure.  But, you know, if you are eating it at the beginning of the day you have all day to burn it off so why sacrifice taste for a few calories.

Once the pan is sizzling, add the egg mixture.  At this point – DO NOT TOUCH IT.  Let the mixture form a skin on the bottom and then, in quarters, pull the skin in to the centre of the pan.  If you keep stirring it, you end up with tiny pieces of eggs that you need a spoon to eat.  This way you have good size chunks that stay on your fork and which are infinitely more satisfying.  Don’t believe me?  Try it and report back.

I should also say that for this task I use a small, flat, wooden spatula that was designed for dispensing tea.  I love this thing and would cry a river of tears if I should ever lose it.  I’m sure a wooden spoon would work just as well.

Keep waiting for the skin and drawing the eggs back till they are almost set.  About now I break it up a little and flip it a bit to fully cook it.  For those of us that aren’t frightened by a little bit of runny egg I would say take it off the heat now, before it is fully cooked.  But for all you crazy egg people out there just keep cooking it a bit longer…I understand.

Place your toast on the side, eggs in the middle and salt and pepper them to taste.  Jason adds way too much tabasco at this stage  – because he is generally addicted to all things hot and spicy.  Voila!  Scrambled eggs Studio Sixty style!

I would love to hear if anybody actually makes these – tell me what works and what doesn’t – also I would love to hear how you make scrambled eggs your own.  I mean you gotta walk your own walk when it comes to eggs really don’t you?