Karl’s Breakfast Avocado Toast

Recently, I have been making wife Jan California Benedicts—a toasted English muffin, a slice of Canadian bacon, and a soft poached egg topped with guacamole. Jan travels and eats out more than I do and frequently on these trips she will have avocado toast for breakfast. Apparently, the way the restaurants make breakfast avocado toast is to top the toast and guacamole with the egg. Since she did not want Canadian bacon this morning, I turned my recipe for California Benedict into an avocado toast.

Karl’s Breakfast Avocado Toast

Note: This recipe is for one, so that it is easily scaled for your number of diners.

Ingredients

1 English muffin

1-2 large egg(s)

Simple guacamole

¼  Hass avocado, ripe
⅛ tsp. lime juice, fresh
small pinch black pepper
Small pinch Kosher salt

Directions

1. Slice the muffin horizontally and put it into the toaster/oven.

2. While the muffin is toasting, put all of the guacamole ingredients into a small bowl and mash and mix the avocado.

Tip: If you would like a more complex guacamole you may add cilantro, green onion, hot sauce, or any other of your favorite ingredients.

3. Bring a small sauté pan—mostly filled with water—to a boil.

Tip: If you want perfect clean eggs, you may strain out the watery parts of the egg whites with a sieve, but I find this a bit fussy. Many people add vinegar to try to set the watery part, but wife Jan complains that this makes the eggs taste sour.

Note: Professional cooks use a large pot of water to do many eggs at one time and timing in this case is critical—a loose of attention leads to “dead soldiers” or overcooked eggs. See Dead Like Me S1E8 A Cook.

4. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add your egg(s).

Tip: I poach my eggs in only enough water to cover the eggs. After three minutes, I flip the eggs, to poach the eggs “easy over.”

5. While your eggs are poaching, remove the muffin halves from the toaster/oven and set them aside.

6. Mash the avocado with the lime juice and seasonings.

Tip: The citric acid in the juice prevents the avocado from browning—oxidizing—so quickly.

7. Flip your egg(s) and simmer for another two minutes.

Tip: Take a piece of paper towel and fold it into a square. Set it down next to your egg pan.

Note: When you remove your eggs from the pan they will be wet from the poaching water. You do not want any excess water making your toast soggy. The paper towel give you a place to blot them dry before sliding them onto the toast.

8. Turn the egg(s) over a final time and continue simmering until they are done to your liking—zero to two more minutes.

Tip: You can usually tell when the whites of the egg have nearly completely set, by shaking the pan and checking for “jiggling” white at the edges of the yolk.

Note: Some people like their egg yolks runnier than others. You do not, however want runny egg whites.

9. Spread the guacamole onto the muffins and place them on a plate.

10. Remove the egg(s) from the pan, blot dry and slide the egg(s) onto the guacamole.

11. Serve immediately.

Tip: My wife likes pepper on her eggs, but this is a personal choice.

Note: My father did not like pepper on his eggs. One year when we visited my grandmother—mother’s side—every day he was met with peppered eggs for breakfast. One morning he got up early and snuck down to the kitchen to cook an egg without pepper. Part way through, he remembered he forgot something in another room and went to get it. When he returned—no more than 30 seconds later—he found that grandmother had come into the kitchen and peppered his eggs. Like chicory in coffee some people cannot tolerate it and others cannot imagine the dish without it.