Ohai! We’re in Cornwall.
Camping.
It’s raining today.
British Summer. Typical!
So in an attempt to brighten up the day, we figured some comfort food was required. Involving bacon. Always involving bacon.
It didn’t help that we watched SORTEDfood’s Bacon 3-ways video that morning… so it’s all we could think about. So taking inspiration from their Bacon, Egg & Asparagus Brunch we knew we wanted poached eggs too.
With that in mind, we headed to Chyreen Fruit Farm down the round from our campsite to get some fresh local produce. We came back with punnets of berries (which will feature in a future sweet recipe post 😉 !), potatoes, and veg… ready to make some sort of veggie mash hash. We really don’t know what to call it, but that seems to fit. And it was gooooood.
Firstly, we sliced up the veg…
…boiled the potatoes…
…then once the outside of the potatoes had softened (but the insides still firm) we added the cabbage to boil. Once cooked, we mashed (with two forks – when camping…) and left it on the side.
Then we fried some bacon till crispy and beautiful… and kept that on the side too. I dare you not to eat this before serving. We failed.
With the bacony frying pan, we sautéd some of the kale till it was wilted. Kept that aside too. I hope you have a lot of table space.
In another frying pan, we softened the onions, garlic, leek and kale with the butter and the splash of oil. We used Rodda’s classic churred butter (when in Cornwall…) and OMG it’s the shiz! Sooooo salty and delicious! But any salted butter will do!
We then added the cabbage mash to the veg and flattened in the pan to let the bottom brown and crisp up. Then we broke it up with a fork to let the other bits of potato brown.
In a saucepan of boiling water, we poached the eggs one at a time. The eggs should really be fresh so the egg whites hold tighter together, as the older the egg the runnier the whites become.
Per person, we plated a generous helping of the veggie mash hash(?), decorated with the sautéed kale and crispy bacon, and crowned it with the runny poached egg. Oh, and seasoned with pepper. Loads of pepper – Ang style.
- 500g potatoes
- 1 medium leek
- ¼ white cabbage
- a handful of curly kale
- 2 gloves of garlic
- 1 knob of butter
- splash of oil
- 6 rashers of smoked bacon
- large FRESH egg, per person
- salt and pepper to taste
- Slice the cabbage, onions, leek and some kale, and keep separate.
- Boil the potatoes in salted boiling water.
- After approximately 10 mins (when the potatoes are parboiled) add the cabbage and cook till soft. Drain and mash, then keep aside.
- Chop the bacon into small pieces and fry till crispy. Allow to drain on a piece of kitchen towel.
- Take another handful of kale and sauté in the bacon fat, till slightly wilted.
- In another frying pan, soften the onions, garlic , leek and kale with the butter. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the cabbage mash and mix through, then flatten to slightly brown and get crisp.
- Crumble with a fork to brown and crisp throughout. The charred bits are the best! Mmmm.
- In a saucepan of salted water, poach the eggs separately.
- Pile the vegetable mash hash on a plate, top with the wilted kale and the crispy bacon bits, and finish with a poached egg.
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