Fresh peas with crispy pancetta, poached eggs and hollandaise
Perfect for brunch, Matt Tebbutt’s poached eggs are drenched in homemade hollandaise and served with crispy sourdough, pancetta and peas.
Ingredients
- 100g/3½oz smoked pancetta, diced
- 1 thick slice sourdough, cubed
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and ground
- 25g/1oz unsalted butter
- 200g/7oz fresh young peas (podded weight)
- 2 soft poached free-range eggs (cooked for 3 minutes, then blanched in ice water)
For the hollandaise
- 25ml/1fl oz white wine vinegar
- 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
- 1 piece blade mace
- few black peppercorns
- ½ tsp chopped fresh thyme
- 3 free-range egg yolks
- 250g/9oz unsalted butter, melted
- 1 lemon, juice only
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the peas and pancetta, place the pancetta in a frying pan over a low-medium heat and fry for around 5 minutes until crisp. Remove from the heat, drain the pancetta on kitchen paper and reserve the fat.
Heat the pancetta fat in a frying pan over a medium heat and toast the bread cubes with the garlic until crisp. Add the fennel seeds and set aside.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add the butter and peas. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the peas are cooked.
To make the hollandaise, place the vinegar in a small saucepan over a high heat and boil until reduced by half.
Place the shallots and aromatics in a bowl then pour over the vinegar and allow to cool slightly. Whisk in the yolks to ribbon stage. Slowly add the butter to emulsify. Taste, season with salt and pepper and add some lemon juice.
To serve, reheat the eggs in boiling water for 1 minute. Pile the peas and pancetta into 2 dishes. Stir through the toasted bread, top with the eggs and spoon over the hollandaise.
