You’ll fall in love with Debora’s cheddar and chive soufflé
PHOTOGRAPH: INDIA WHILEY-MORTON. FOOD STYLING: POLLYANNA COUPLAND
When I’m doing the mealtime death stare into the fridge or pantry because I’ve left it until about halfpast-hungry to decide what I want to eat and suddenly nothing in that big shop I did only yesterday looks like anything I’d ever want, there’s one stalwart I can always rely on. Enter, the egg.
Eggs are the miracle ingredient. Relatively inexpensive and always available, they’re often the answer even when you’re not really sure what the question is. A boiled egg is perfect on its own as a snack, or chopped into the god-tier sandwich that is, of course, the peerless egg and cress – or watercress if you’re feeling fancy – on white bread. My go-to fast-food dinner is often some kind of omelette or frittata, conjured from odds and ends from the fridge that need using up, the end result always greater than the sum of its parts. My husband, I’m fairly certain, fell in love with my scrambled eggs before he fell in love with me. My mother, who almost never cooks, somehow makes perfect poached eggs, which always impressed my father as much as if she’d just done a double pike vault right off the kitchen table. Admiration of egg magic runs deep in our family.