Brunch favourite Duck & Waffle is renowned for its dedication to egg-based dishes, with its eponymous signature meal continuing to enthrall diners three years after it opened. Recreate the magic of the high-rise restaurant at home with three of executive head chef Dan Doherty's recipes here: Colombian eggs, duck-egg brioche and duck-egg cocotte.
1
Columbian eggs
This is a recipe I picked up in Florida, and it's now our top-selling breakfast dish. Back in March 2012, when I was working at our sister restaurant Sugarcane, in Midtown Miami, one of the Colombian chefs was making breakfast to help aid the fact he felt a little tender after quite a heavy night. He told us about a dish called perico, based on scrambled eggs, spring onions and tomatoes, which he loves to eat when hungover. I loved the lightness of it – in the UK, we tend to go heavy when in need of some TLC, but this was light, and vegetarian. I added some ripe avocado and put the whole thing on toast, and a winner was born. At the restaurant, we offer grilled chorizo sausage or smoked salmon as add-ons.
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
20g unsalted butter
2 spring onions, finely sliced on the angle
4 eggs, beaten
1 plum tomato, quartered, deseeded and cut into 1cm dice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 slices of sourdough bread
1 ripe avocado, cut into 5mm thick slices
Melt the butter in a frying pan. When it's foaming, add the spring onions and cook until soft, taking care not to let them burn.
Add the eggs and scramble lightly. Finish with the diced tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Toast the sourdough and lay the avocado on top. Spoon the eggs over, season again and serve.
Recipes are available in Duck & Waffle: Recipes and stories by Daniel Doherty, Photography by Anders Schønnemann, Published by Mitchell Beazley, £25, www.octopusbooks.co.uk
2
Duck egg brioche
In America, this is called 'toad in the hole', and in New Zealand it's 'frog in the pond', but for obvious reasons we couldn't use the first name, and the latter didn't feel right, so we created our own name: 'egg in a basket'. This is my idea of a perfect brunch dish, and it's one I regularly cook at home, too.
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices of brioche, cut 2.5cm thick
2 duck eggs
40g Gruyère cheese, grated
20g butter
3–5 truffle slices a person
6 small fresh basil leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Handful of watercress
For the sherry dressing:
50ml olive oil
50ml sherry vinegar
Preheat your oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.
Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat. Using a biscuit cutter, cut a 5cm hole in the centre of each slice of brioche. Add the brioche to the pan, and crack a duck egg into the middle of each one. Allow the eggs to start cooking on the base.
As soon as the white starts to firm up, scatter the cheese all over both brioches and add the butter to the pan. Place in the oven for approximately three to six minutes, depending how you like your eggs – the cheese should be melted and the yolk should still be runny.
Put the olive oil and sherry vinegar into a bowl and whisk together. Don't worry if it separates when you set it aside just give it a stir before you need to use it. Drizzle over the watercress.
Garnish the brioche with the truffle slices and basil leaves, season with salt and pepper and serve with the watercress on the side.
Recipes are available in Duck & Waffle: Recipes and stories by Daniel Doherty, Photography by Anders Schønnemann, Published by Mitchell Beazley, £25, www.octopusbooks.co.uk
3
Duck egg cocotte
This is one of our most luxurious breakfast dishes, perfect at the end of a hard night or as a treat on a Sunday morning. You can play about with the ingredients you use – a layer of spinach at the bottom of the dish is a good addition, as is diced smoked haddock in place of the mushrooms. It also makes a nice starter.
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Butter, for greasing
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 sprig of fresh thyme
½ a garlic clove
1 bay leaf
1 handful of wild mushrooms, roughly chopped into 2cm pieces
½ a glass of white wine
150ml double cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 duck eggs
2 slices of sourdough bread
20g Gruyère cheese, grated
3–5 truffle slices a person
Butter the insides of two 100ml ramekins or individual cocottes.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the shallots with the thyme, garlic and bay leaf until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook for five minutes more, then add the wine and simmer until reduced by three-quarters. Add the cream and continue to cook until reduced by half, then season with salt and pepper.
When ready to serve, preheat your oven to 180°/gas mark 4.
Place half the sauce in the bottom of each ramekin, removing the thyme and bay leaf, then crack a duck egg into each. Top with the rest of the sauce, and place in the oven for three minutes.
Toast the bread and cut into soldiers. When the three minutes is up, or the whites have started to form, add the cheese to the ramekins and cook for a further four to eight minutes, depending on how you like your eggs cooked.
Garnish with the truffle slices and eat straight away with the toasted soldiers.
Recipes are available in Duck & Waffle: Recipes and stories by Daniel Doherty, Photography by Anders Schønnemann, Published by Mitchell Beazley, £25, www.octopusbooks.co.uk
