Make | Naturally Dyed Eggs

When you use natural dyes, you might be surprised by the end result. Part of creating is not always knowing quite how things will turn out, so give yourself permission to go with the flow. You can use these for an Easter egg hunt or to decorate a spring table.

You will need:

Eggs (we used brown and white)

Materials for dyeing, such as red cabbage, blueberries, turmeric, onion skins, avocado stones, nettles or hibiscus flowers/teabags

White vinegar

Containers (large enough to hold the eggs in the fridge overnight)

To make:

1 Start by hard boiling the eggs for around 6-8 mins. Then remove from the pan and set aside.

2 For each colour, add your dyeing material to a full pan of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 mins, or longer, until the liquid is deeply coloured.

3 Remove the material from the pan and stir in a teaspoon of white vinegar.

4 Place the eggs and the dye in a container and leave in the fridge overnight. Don’t crowd the container or the eggs will not dye evenly.

5 The next day, remove the eggs from the container and allow them to dry. You can discard the dye or

use it to make another batch of eggs.

Maker’s note: The eggs will fade over the coming days and hard boiled eggs should be disposed of after a week.

This mini project is just one of the ideas from our regular feature, Kitchen Therapy, which this month also includes recipes for Egg Mayo Tartine with Spring Herbs, Cavatelli pasta, Pistachio Pesto, Artichoke Hearts with Ricotta & Salsa Verde and a White Chocolate Cheesecake. The recipes are by Lottie Storey and the photography by Kym Grimshaw.

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More ways to enjoy eggs…

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Breakfast Rules | How To Do a Full English

Photography by Alamy

Where breakfast is concerned, we think if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly. Before you switch on the gas under your frying pan, read our ‘Full English Breakfast Rules’, which, if not actually enshrined in law, are certainly on the side of right.

1. Lard not butter for cooking sausages, please. It has a higher smoke point than butter so it achieves a crispier sausage without burning. It’s also high in Vitamin D. Who knew? Practically a health food. Vegetarians and vegans are permitted to use vegetable oil. 

2. A word about food-pairing: mushrooms should be eaten with sausages; bacon should be eaten with grilled tomato. Don’t ask us why; it’s just the rules. 

3. Hash browns have no place in a Full English (ignore the photo above!). Save them for your American breakfasts of pancakes that are a bit too thick and mis-monikered jams. If you need a bit of beige crunch it can be achieved by the addition of fried bread, the English Hash Brown. Fried potatoes are permitted if they are already cooked and left over from last night’s dinner. 

4. Beans should be served in a separate ramekin. It’s not about being fancy, it’s just about not mixing your yolk and your bean juice (or frantically chasing your beans round the plate with your fork until 11am).

5. Brown sauce is the best sauce. Tomato is acceptable. Anything else really belongs with another meal. 

6. You should include one, and no more than one, fancy extra. Black pudding for meat eaters perhaps? Grilled halloumi for vegetarians? But don’t stray too far from the original or before you know it you’ll be chopping smoked salmon and chives into your eggs, and then where will we be? 

7. Speaking of eggs… Obviously fried is best, sunny side up, with a yolk that spills all over the plate as you cut into it. Other types of eggs are available, but fried is really where it’s at.

8. Stay trad with your drinks. Orange juice or a good strong cup of tea, please. Absolutely no fancy milky coffees - we are not here for smashed avocado on sourdough type breakfasts. 

9. Toast should be served in a toast rack alongside your Full English (yes, as well as fried bread) to enable you to move seamlessly into toast and marmalade for ‘breakfast pudding’ from the same plate. Use your first piece of toast to mop up egg yolk and bacon fat as a sort of palate and plate cleanser before moving on to the marmalade or jam toast course. Toast plates are for wimps anyway. And you’ll save on the washing up. 

10. Finish with a(nother) cup of tea and the crossword if possible.

In our February issue, we look at the history of breakfast from cereals and grapefruit to fry-ups and fancier fare. Turn to page 84 to read more.

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More from our February issue…

More breakfast discussion…

Recipe: Goose egg lemon curd

In general, weather conditions allowing, geese lay from about the middle of February until mid-May. What a joy it is to find that first egg, pure white in colour, just like goose feathers.

It’s a sign that spring is arriving. One goose egg is equivalent to three chicken eggs, but the proportion of yolk to white is higher, adding richness when used in baking. Lemon curd made with goose eggs is in a class of its own. The neon-yellow shines through the jar. Try to find the freshest possible eggs – your local farmers’ market is probably the best bet.

Goose egg lemon curd

MAKES 4 X 225G JARS
finely grated zest and juice of 8 large unwaxed lemons
400g granulated sugar
200g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 goose eggs, lightly beaten

1 Put the grated lemon zest and juice, sugar and unsalted butter into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the base of the bowl does not come into contact with the water.
2 Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has
melted. The mixture should be nice and warm, but not hot or the eggs will curdle.
3 Strain the beaten eggs through a sieve into the bowl.
4 Using a balloon whisk, whisk the curd gently for about 15 mins, until it thickens to a custard-like consistency and feels heavy on the whisk.
5 Remove the bowl from the heat and leave to cool, stirring occasionally. Pour the curd into sterilised jars and seal.
6 Store in the fridge and use within 28 days.

From Fern Verrow: A Year Of Recipes From A Farm And Its Kitchen by Jane Scotter and Harry Astley. Photographs by Tessa Traeger (Quadrille)

This recipe was originally published in The Simple Things Issue 45, which you can order from our online store. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

From our March issue…

More spring recipes…

Eggs: scrambled, not stirred

Why scrambled eggs were nearly the undoing of James Bond but are still the best breakfast

It was Fay Weldon who originally advised us all to 'Go To Work on an Egg’ for the Egg Marketing Board in the 1950s. And it seems James Bond took her at her word.

If you expected Bond’s favourite dish to be something a little sexier, think again; Britain’s most famous spy liked nothing more than a plate of scrambled eggs and was regularly depicted getting stuck into a plate of them, with bacon, or kidneys… always with a fancy tipple. In fact, there are only three of the Ian Fleming books in which they don't appear (if you’re interested, they are From Russia With Love, The Man with the Golden Gun and You Only Live Twice). It must be pointed out that 007 does eat eggs in all those books, too, just not scrambled. 

They made so many appearances in Live and Let Die that a proof reader pointed out to him that Bond’s scrambled egg habit was so impressive it may be his undoing; for any enemy on his tail would only have to nip into a restaurant and ask if an Englishman eating scrambled eggs had been in. He eventually edited a few instances of scrambled eggs out of the second draft, but Bond’s penchant for his favourite breakfast was, in general, unswerving.

In his short story 007 in New York, Fleming included a recipe for ‘Scrambled Eggs James Bond’, which you might like to try for brunch this weekend. It serves four.

Scrambled Eggs James Bond

12 fresh eggs
Salt and pepper
5-6 oz. of fresh butter

Break the eggs into a bowl. Beat thoroughly with a fork and season well. In a small copper (or heavy bottomed saucepan) melt 4oz of the butter. When melted, pour in the eggs and cook over a very low heat, whisking continuously with a small egg whisk.

While the eggs are slightly more moist than you would wish for eating, remove the pan from heat, add rest of butter and continue whisking for half a minute, adding the while finely chopped chives or fines herbes. Serve on hot buttered toast in individual copper dishes (for appearance only) with pink champagne (Taittinger) and low music.

It’s a certainly a classic recipe, but if you’re looking for something a little different, don’t miss our feature on second breakfasts on page 34 of our August issue. It includes a recipe for the Indian Scrambled Eggs with Naan (above), as well as homemade beans on toast, bay-roasted grapes and ricotta on toast and a delicious frittata, all taken from Home Bird: Simple Low-Waste Recipes for the Family and Friends by Megan Davies (Ryland Peters and Small) with photography by Clare Winfield.

Reader offer

Readers can buy a copy of Home Bird for the special price of £12 To order go to rylandpeters.com and use code HOMEBIRD12 at checkout. Offer valid until August 31 2020.

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More from our August issue…

Eggstra inspiration for you…

Make: Easter origami

Go to work on an egg cup... On page 60 of April's The Simple Things, Frances Ambler meets the arty couple on an egg cup making challenge.  

Alex Brady is a printmaker and illustrator. Her partner Dave Briggs is a filmmaker and artist. The 12 Dozen Eggcups project evolved from a creative couple's desire to try out a new skill together. Their blog about their plan to make 144 different egg cups is at www.12dozeneggcups.com.   

As it's Easter Sunday, we've found an easy origami egg holder that you can fashion in no time. Just get hold of some paper, watch this YouTube tutorial, and start making.

Or try your hand at an origami chicken:

How about a warren of festive rabbits?

If you've mastered those, you could give these 3D origami eggs a go. Not for the faint-hearted...

This blog was originally published in our April 2015 issue. Our current April issue is on sale now, in shops and though our website.

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More from our April issue…

More spring things…

Recipe | Samphire frittata with warm lemony courgette salad

A quick veggie supper after a day by the sea; marsh samphire can be foraged or bought locally in summer.

It grows on muddy, sandy flats often on estuaries or creeks. Simply pinch out or snip off the tops to leave the rest of the plant to grow. Samphire is usually served with fish but also goes beautifully with eggs.

Serves 4
FOR THE COURGETTE SALAD
150g runner beans, sliced on the diagonal
3 tbsp olive oil
Shallots, sliced
Yellow courgettes (or green if you can’t find them), halved and cut into chunky slices
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 small vine-ripened tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
2 rounded tbsp chopped oregano leaves
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon

FOR THE FRITTATA
250g new potatoes, sliced
2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 large eggs, beaten
50g samphire
Handful of tarragon, leaves finely shredded
100g soft goats’ cheese

1 To make the courgette salad, steam the runner beans for 5 mins or until tender. Refresh the beans under cold running water and put to one side.
2 Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the shallots for 5 mins until softened. Add the courgettes and garlic, and fry for 3 mins. Stir in the tomatoes, half the oregano and the lemon juice, then reduce the heat slightly and cook
for 5 mins or until the courgettes are just tender but retain a little bite, and the tomatoes have started to break down.
3 Stir in the runner beans, add the remaining olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, then warm through. Keep the salad warm while you make the frittata.
4 Put the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Cook for 15 mins or until tender, then drain in a colander.
5 Heat the sunflower oil in an ovenproof frying pan. Add the drained potatoes, and the
beaten eggs, most of the samphire and the tarragon. Lay the remaining samphire elegantly on the top. Crumble over the goats’ cheese and season with salt and pepper (remembering the salty flavour of the samphire, so you won’t need much salt).
6 Preheat your grill. Cook the frittata for 7–10 mins on the hob over a medium heat, enough to set the bottom, then finish under the grill until just set all the way through. Add the remaining oregano leaves to the salad and serve it warm with the frittata.

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View the sampler here.

More from the June issue:

More summer recipes:

Recipe: Eggs en cocotte with sorrel

Eggs are a symbol of new life and, eaten with handfuls of bright green sorrel, bring a little colour and sustenance to early spring days

Sharp and lemony sorrel is plentiful now, and it is wonderful in egg dishes. Try it in Lia Leendertz's Eggs en cocotte recipe.

Serves 2
butter, for greasing
75g crème fraîche
4 sorrel leaves, washed and finely sliced across
2 large eggs
salt and pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F.
2 Lightly butter four ramekins, then put a spoonful of crème fraîche in the bottom of each, with a pinch of salt and pepper and the sorrel, making a ‘nest’ to hold the egg.
3 Crack an egg into each ramekin, then place another spoonful of crème fraîche in, and add another sprinkling of salt and pepper.
4 Place the ramekins into a deep baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come about half way up their sides. Bake for about 15 mins. 
5 Serve with toasted soldiers for dipping.

Read more:

From the March issue

Seed to Stove recipes

More egg posts

Plenty more delicious recipes in the March issue of The Simple Things, out now - buy, download or subscribe

Staple foods: 1. Eggs

Baked, boiled, poached, fried or scrambled, this healthy favourite is an everyday treasure, as sure as eggs is eggs

Words: LAURA ROWE 

The humble hen’s egg is one of the most readily available, cheap and endlessly versatile food stuffs around, but did you know that it is also one of the most ancient? Us humans have been eating all things ovoid since the Neolithic period, chomping our way through varieties of fowl egg from chickens, geese, quail, pheasant, plovers and guinea fowl, to ostriches, emu, pelican, pigeon and gull (the latter is without a fishy taste, apparently, contrary to rumour).

It’s little wonder, really. The egg is nature’s perfectly packaged hand-held, bite- size snack. It’s packed with vitamins (A, B, D and E) minerals (iodine, phosphorous, selenium, zinc and iron) and it’s a ‘complete’ protein, meaning that it has all of the essential amino acids that our bodies need. Eggs are also a cook’s friend – delicious in sweet or savoury dishes, whole or separated, on their own or as a component ingredient to bind, set, leaven, thicken, enrich, emulsify, glaze or clarify.

They can be boiled (older eggs are best here, as they are easier to peel), scrambled with butter (slow and low), poached (whisk the water to create a vortex before you crack in a fresh egg) or fried (butter and oil are good but bacon fat is better). They can also be baked (see page 43), or ‘shirred’, as the Americans call it, with cream and topped with cheese and breadcrumbs.

Whatever you do to them, they are best approached at room temperature, particularly in baking. You can check just how fresh they are, too, by placing them carefully in a glass of water. If they sink to the bottom they are good to go, while a floater can be discarded, that is unless you’re in China. Thousand-year-eggs are a delicacy here. Preserved in a combination of salt, lime and ashes, the egg is left for 45 to 100 days, whereupon the white turns yellow, firm and raw, presumably eaten with noses firmly pinched thanks to the strong smell of ammonia.

That’s far from the most unusual way to eat eggs, though. Head to South East Asia, specifically the Philippines or Vietnam, and you might stumble across a balut – a boiled, fertilised 17-20 day-old duck egg.

Read more:

From the March issue

Taste infographics

Recipe: Goose egg lemon curd

Plenty more delicious recipes in the March issue of The Simple Things, out now - buy, download or subscribe

Extract from Taste: The Infographic Book of Food by Laura Rowe, illustrations by Vicki Turner by Aurum Press, £20. Buy your copy here.