Cooking Delia: 1, Eggs

At the tender age of 55 I have decided to take up cookery. Why? A few reasons really. Firstly, I feel bad at having spent most of my adult life relying on others to cook for me. When I was married, my lack of cookery skills was a bit of a family joke. And when I occasionally gave it a go, I arrogantly rarely bothered with recipes and, like a typical lazy dad, made a hell of a mess.

Secondly, since I gave up drinking, I have become more interested in food, and, finding myself at home a great deal, started following Masterchef Australia, a vastly superior TV show compared to the UK version. It inspired me.

Thirdly, I have a shelf of cookery books that I never read or use. They include one of the few cookery course I have come across, or at least the first two volumes of it: Delia Smith's Cookery Course, Part One and Part Two. They are 1979 paperback editions of the books published to accompany the BBC Television series Delia Smith's Cookery Course, broadcast on BBC2 from November 1978.

I honestly cannot when or where I acquired them. I believe it was in the past four years  for a couple of quid at a car boot sale. Anyway, if I am to cook, I need to learn. There is no way I could afford to hire the Queen of Cookery Delia Smith to teach me personally, so I might as well let her do it through her books.

One thing I have noticed about modern cookery books is that most are like coffee table books, full of glossy pictures and far too large and swanky to be practical to easily used in a small kitchen. They contain recipes but don't really teach you to cook at all. They are designed to be bought, not used.

On the other hand, Delia Smith's Cookery Course is a convenient A5-or-so size, not expensively produced and leaves no stone unturned. As a systematic bloke, I took it page by page, reading the Contents, studying the Conversion tables and the Introduction, which enthused me with the line: "The whole idea is that an absolute beginner to cooking can start here." That's me!

The next chapter, Equipment, was also very useful, full of tips about saucepans, tins, casseroles, baking utensils, whisks, slices, spatulas, knives et cetera.

A perusal of my kitchen cupboards informed me that I possess quite a bit of useful kitchen equipment but would need to purchase more in due course to get anywhere near a full Delia Smith set. No matter.

On to the cooking. I decided to cook every dish in the course - in order. Every dish that is not involving a lot of booze which is most of them.

 The first cooking chapter is Eggs, starting with What's in an egg?, followed by a 1970s guide to buying eggs: "If there's one thing we can thank our membership of the EEC for, it's the compulsory date-stamp on egg-boxes. . ."

After also ploughing through Free-range eggs, Brown or white?, How fresh are they?, Storing eggs and Beating egg whites, I was grateful to get on to the practical cooking:  

1. Boiling an Egg: I have to confess I have boiled an egg before but in an inaccurate, untimed fashion. But I found Delia Smith's tips and timing produced a superior result: "Simmer for exactly one minute, then remove the saucepan from the heat, put a lid on and leave the eggs for a further five minutes (size 4) or six minutes (size 2)." Perfecto! Onward and upward.

 2. Hard-boiled Eggs: Again, I had attempted this before, but following Delia Smith's approach made for better hard-boiled eggs.

 3. Poached Eggs: I am partial to a poached egg but have never really cracked it (excuse the pun). Without Delia, I would never have thought of poaching eggs in four centimetres of barely simmering water in a small FRYING pan! Yet, it worked so much better than anything I had tried before. Now I am a convert to the Delia way of poaching eggs.

 4. Scrambled Eggs: Believe or not, although I love scrambled eggs I had never previously tried to make them. Delia Smith recommended the "Escoffier Method" - essentially cooking beaten and seasoned egg in foaming butter - and it was yum! I ate it with smoked salmon.  

5. Fried Eggs: Now, fried eggs is a dish I have made a lot over the years. But I have been doing in butter or olive oil. Delia's technique of using lard and basting the top of the egg was an improvement.
  
6. Baked Eggs (eggs en cocotte): To make this, I had to go out to buy something called "ramekins", which are little porcelain pots. I broke an egg in each, added salt and pepper and a knob of butter above each yolk. The strange thing was you then put the remekins in a meat-roasting tin, pour in enough hot water to go halfway up the sides of the pots and then cook in the oven. Who would have imagined that? Delicious! I felt quite proud of myself, having completed the basic egg-cooking tasks. But then a greater challenge. . .  

7. The Basic Omelette: I am shame-faced to admit that, although I like omelette, I cannot recall ever making one myself. I tried to follow Delia's recipe precisely but cannot have been successful because my first omelette was a bit burnt and not very tasty - the result, I suspect, of using too much butter and heat.  

8. Omelette Savoyard: This, my second omelette ever, went better. It combined the egg with cubed potatoes, chopped bacon and onion.

And I used the new technique (well, new to me) of putting the frying pan under the grill - to melt Gruyere cheese on top. My Omelette Savoyard did not look as pretty as the picture of Delia's in the book, but it was still tasty.


9. Egg and Lentil Curry: I love a curry but tend not to use recipes when making them, and I had never used eggs in one before. I followed this recipe almost to a "t" - frying onion in a pan, adding celery, carrot, peppers, and then stirring in lentils and garlic.

You then sprinkle in flour, Madras curry powder, ground ginger and turmeric. For precise details, see Delia's course or website. I then added boiling water and simmering until the lentils were soft.


Separately, I boiled the eggs, peeled and halved them, before adding to the curry with yoghurt just before serving. It went well. I used cinnamon instead of ginger, which I had forgotten to buy, and served with chopped parsley and raw onion slices. You can also serve with chutney.

It looked no oil painting but tasted good. I learnt that you should read the whole recipe before going out to buy the ingredients.

10. Poached Eggs with Cream and Watercress: I liked the sound of this one. First, I made a white sauce out of butter, flour and milk, cooking for seven minutes. I then "collapsed" - a new cooking concept for me - watercress leaves with butter in a saucepan, before adding to the sauce and stirring in grated mild Cheddar and Parmesan cheese.

You were supposed to whizz it then in a liquidiser but I don't have one, so I went crazy with a whisk. The sauce went back into the pan, cream and lemon juice were added with salt and pepper. I poached eggs in a frying pan and poured the sauce over and sprinkled on some more Parmesan. A nice dish! You were supposed to serve with rice which I put on too late.

The key to cookery is. . . . . . . . . . . timing! Below are some more images of my efforts. Enjoy!