Anne Morgan Delia Smith’s scrambled eggs and smoked salmon recipe is a brunch for 2 people, served in toasted brioche buns. You soak chopped smoked salmon in cream, then stir it into the eggs when they are half set. The soaking takes 30 minutes, but the eggs cook in about 5 minutes.
Delia’s smoked salmon scrambled eggs are in Book One of How to Cook, in her opening chapter on eggs. An older version for one person is in One is Fun, and her website now serves the same eggs on bagels.
The recipe asks for smoked salmon trimmings, so it is not an expensive dish. Trimmings also suit her smoked salmon pâté recipe.
For supper, her pasta with smoked salmon uses the same fish and is also for 2 people.
Delia Smith’s Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon
Course: BreakfastCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
servings35
minutes10
minutes520
kcalSoft eggs with cream-soaked salmon, spooned into hollowed brioche buns and topped with dill.
Ingredients
- For the scrambled eggs:
4 large eggs
125g (4½oz) traditional smoked salmon trimmings
4 tablespoons single cream
2 all-butter brioche buns
10g (½oz) butter
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- To garnish:
a little dill
Directions
- Soak: Chop the smoked salmon fairly small, or snip it with scissors. Put it in a small bowl, pour in the cream and stir well. Cover the bowl and leave it for 30 minutes.
- Grill: Heat the grill to its highest setting.
- Brioche: Slice the top off each brioche bun. Scoop out half the bread from inside and discard it. Then toast each bun and its lid lightly on both sides.
- Butter: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a very gentle heat. While it melts, beat the eggs lightly with a fork and season them.
- Eggs: When the butter starts to foam, swirl it round the edges of the pan and pour in the eggs. Turn the heat up slightly. Stir all the time with a wooden fork or a pointed wooden spoon, right into the corners.
- Salmon: After about 1 minute the eggs begin to set. When about half is solid, quickly add the salmon and cream.
- Finish: Keep stirring hard for 3 to 4 minutes, until almost all the liquid has gone. Then lift the pan off the hob and stir until the eggs are a soft, creamy mass.
- Serve: Taste and season. Spoon the eggs into the brioche buns, top with a little dill, put the lids on and serve at once.
Notes
- Toast the brioche before the eggs go in the pan, because the eggs cannot wait.
- Season the eggs lightly at first, my own tip, as the salmon brings its own salt.
FAQs
What goes well with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs?
Toasted bread with some crunch. On her website, Delia now spoons these eggs onto crisp toasted bagels, with a little cayenne on top.
In One is Fun she gives four more choices. They are triangles of fried bread, buttered wholemeal toast, sesame toast or brown bread and butter.
What do chefs put in scrambled eggs to make them fluffy?
Butter, in Delia’s kitchen. She learned scrambled eggs from a recipe by the French chef Auguste Escoffier, and she still thinks his version is the best.
Her one rule is a gentle heat, because a high heat makes the eggs flaky and dry. She also stops cooking while some egg is still liquid, so it finishes on the way to the table.
A little double cream or crème fraîche can go in at the end as well, she says.
Do I stir the salmon into the eggs or put it on top?
Stir it in. Delia says some restaurants lay slices of smoked salmon over the eggs, and her words for that are “what a waste”.
Her way is to soak strips of salmon in cream and mix them through the eggs. She thinks the result is far better.
Is there a lighter version?
Yes. Her website version allows milk in place of the single cream, and in One is Fun she soaks the salmon in milk too.
For people cutting down on fat, the same page of How to Cook has her Slimmers’ Scrambled Eggs for one. It uses 2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon of milk and a heaped dessertspoon of Quark or cottage cheese. Snipped chives go in too, but no butter and no salmon.
How do I make smoked salmon scrambled eggs for one, on toast?
Use her One is Fun recipe. You need 2 large eggs, 50g of smoked salmon, 2 tablespoons of milk and 25g of butter.
Chop the salmon, stir it into the milk in a mug and leave it for about 20 minutes. Then melt half the butter in a small heavy saucepan, pour in the beaten, seasoned eggs and stir all the time. Add the salmon when the eggs are half set.
When the eggs are nearly set, move the pan away from the heat and stir in the rest of the butter. Serve it straight away on buttered wholemeal toast.
