The Egg Award 2013 - The Results

After four months of eggcitement it's time to bring The Egg Award 2013 to a close, and with entries from all over the world it's been a privilege and a pleasure to have been involved in this eggcellent competition. 

The success of the award this year means that next years will be bigger, better, with different categories and the inclusion of a Charity Recipe Book.






The organisers of The Egg Award would like to take this opportunity to thank the Judges for their hard work in determining the winner and runners-up, our sponsors for their generosity in donating the prizes, everyone that's been involved in Tweeting or sharing The Egg Award and of course our entrants, home cooks and professionals alike - for their imagination, effort and help in promoting fresh local eggs!




So without further ado here's the winner and runners-up of The Egg Award 2013 in reverse order.....


In Fourth Place and with a 'special mention'.....





Toronto food blogger Ann Allchin with her Duck Egg and Prosciutto Baskets.  Ann will be sent the signed print by Ulrika von Sydow.








In Third Place.....






Artisan jewellery designer and food blogger Vivienne Aldred with her Twice Baked Wild Garlic Souffle.


Vivienne will be receiving a set of Blackrock Ceramic Knives.







In Second Place.....







Scottish chef and Great British Menu contestant Tony Singh with his Dahl and Eggs

Tony will be receiving a Polyscience Smoke Gun from sousvidetools.com.









In First Place - and the Winner of the inaugural Egg Award.....





Two Michelin Star chef Dani Garcia from Spain and his Tempered Goose Egg Yolk with Goose Sobrasada, Crispy Whites and Truffles using organic eggs by Ganso Iberico.

Danny will receive the unique, hand-carved driftwood Egg Award Trophy and the print donated by Armadillo Central will be taking pride of place at Ganso Iberico.






Native Andalusian Dani Garcia of Calima restaurant in Malaga is a 2 Michelin Star chef who is also responsible for the various products developed at Ganso Iberico and a promoter of it in the Gastronomic World.  The simplicity of his recipe along with his and Ganso Iberico's ethos mirroring exactly that of The Egg Awards made it a clear winner.  Whilst the recipe is the creation of a Michelin starred chef, it's well within the capabilities of a home cook to follow.



This years Judges were.....

Rachel McCormack teaches the Catalan style of cooking In classes at Bea’s of Bloomsbury where Rachel tries to re-create the kind of meal that she has at her friends’ houses in Barcelona and other parts of Catalonia.  She's also a panelist on The Kitchen Cabinet, a Radio 4 food panel show presented by Jay Rayner.

Another great acquisition for the judging panel for the inaugural Egg Award is celebrated chef Ernst van Zyl who is currently Head Chef at the 2 AA Rosette Etrop Grange Hotel in Manchester, and has recently made some big waves in cooking circles producing some much lauded dishes which are as stunning in their presentation as they deliver on flavour.  








The Egg Award was pleased to welcome Masterchef 2012 contestant Alec Tomasso to the judging panel.  He narrowly missed out on making it through to the next round and since then has gone from strength to strength with his own food blog, The Weeping Chef, working in 1 and 2 Michelin starred kitchens and cooking up a storm as chef in The Cheese Kitchen Bistro, Bedford.

The fourth judge invited to take part in The Egg Award 2013 is rising talent Jonny Marsh from Manchester.  As a schoolboy Jonny spent every Saturday working in the kitchens of the sadly now defunct Manchester restaurant, Brasserie Blanc, despite being too young to be paid.  

The final addition to The Egg Award 2013 judging panel needed little introduction as it's Edinburgh chef and BBC 1 Great British Menu contestant Mark Greenaway! He's chef patron of  Restaurant Mark Greenaway, which is based on 69 North Castle Street, Edinburgh.  The restaurant first opened in 2011 at its original location at No 12 Picardy place, where mark soon gained a superb reputation for its imaginative, creative and modern style of cooking.

The winner of The Egg Award 2013 will be presented with a unique trophy of a hand carved driftwood egg donated by ecoYoga.

At ecoYoga they run courses and retreats throughout the year and they invite you to find out more about these on the yoga page.  When courses are not running you can stay with them on a self-catering holiday and enjoy the facilities of their wonderful Yoga studio in your own time, have a hot tub, sauna or enjoy a wild river hot bath. 

Those lovely people at Blackrock Ceramic Knives have donated a set of their outstandingly sharp knives!

We're delighted to have them as a prize as BlackRock® ceramic knives are a market leader in high quality ceramic knives, with their origins in the Far East it's amazing that these knives have been kept a secret in Europe for so long. Once the reserve of professional chefs and now available to all.

Another addition to our list of prizes is this fine art print 'Two Steps Forward One Step Back' by Juliet Kepes (1919-1999) - painter, illustrator, sculptor and children’s book author, born in London in 1919.  The print has been donated by Armadillo Central who publish original writing alongside fine art and photography.

The lovely people at sousvidetools.com have donated a PolyScience® Smoking Gun

They're the UK's leading supplier of sous vide and vacuum packing equipment. Based in the North West of England they are a family run business that distributes all over the UK, Ireland and Europe to aspirational chefs and foodies who enjoy cooking, who strive for consistency and accuracy whilst always looking to further refine their cooking skills. At sousvidetools.com their portfolio of products offers everything you would need for sous vide cooking commercially or domestically, from sous vide water baths, thermal circulators, vacuum sealers, vacuum packing machines and vacuum pouches.

The fourth addition to our prize list is another fine art print of 'Fruits and an Egg', signed by the artist Ulrika von Sydow.  She's a Scandanavian artist mixing realistic portrayals with experimental art using mixed materials.   

Sticky Toffee Pudding

This entry for The Egg Award 2013 is by maker of traybakes and sweet treats, using the freshest of eggs - Dottie Hen (Katie Gibson) from Newcastle upon Tyne.


You can find out details on how to enter your own dish by clicking on this link

Dotty Hen's motto is - Happy Hens = Happy Eggs = Happy Cakes = Happy People so we'll let her take up the story of her entry.....

We are delighted to be entering the Egg Awards 2013. It is everything that we stand for.

We are Dottie Hen and our Ethos is simple. Happy Hens = Happy Eggs= Happy Cakes= Happy People! Our cakes are made with the freshest of eggs from our own hens, Dottie and her friends.

Their names (Yes we went to the trouble of naming them haha) are: Dottie, Vicky, Tracy, Christine, Sal, Jane, Janey, Maureen, Bruce & Keith. (Yes we know Bruce and Keith are boy names but our kids named the last two hens so what can you do!).

It is just as much about the hens as it is the cakes for us. They love nothing better than chomping on kale, cabbage leaves, blackcurrants, pea pods and corn at the moment! Whatever they can get their little beaks on really. Our hens are free to roam when we are there to keep an eye on them from Mr Fox but also have a nice run and a 8x6ft hen house to sleep in. That is a lot of space for the hens to “bok bok” in. Even though they have all this space, when we go to collect the eggs in the evening (which is a family event that never fails to excite our 2 boys), the eggs are all found in the same corner of the nesting shelf, all nestled together. There is definitely a sense of happiness and team work amongst them!

And what utterly fabulous, sweet sunset yolks they are! This, we believe is our daily reward for keeping them happy and paying each individual hen the attention they need and deserve. They each have their own personality and distinctive bok boking sounds! We (and i mean all of us, even my husband although he would never admit to it..oops) chat to the hens everyday while cleaning them out and we get lots of 'bok boking' back! I am sure they understand us! :-)

The ultimate recipe to put these lovely eggs of gorgeousness in has to be Sticky Toffee Pudding! I came across this recipe in a magazine some time ago before we had hens. The recipe was still nice but now it is made with our own eggs that are literally hours old when they go into this sticky batter..it really does take it up to the next level. No fancy picture of the finished dessert just an honest image of how it usually looks after Sunday lunch and after it has been partly demolished. I don’t think you would ever see a picture of a whole one. Big wedge missing.. But that is how it is in our house...straight out of the oven and dive in to this homemade treat! Delicious! You will not regret making this!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ingredients

225g Ready-to-eat stoned dates

85g   Butter, softened

150g Dark Muscovado Sugar

2 Eggs

175g Plain flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

For the Sauce

300ml Double Cream

200g Dark Muscovado Sugar

60g Unsalted Butter

Method

       Preheat oven to 170C,Gas Mark 3, 150C Fan

       Grease 1 litre pudding basin and line the base with a circle of grease-proof paper

      

     Put the dates in a small saucepan with 200ml of boiling water from the kettle and simmer for 5mins, stirring occasionally until the dates are soft, leave to cool.

      

     Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together until very soft. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift over the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and then gently fold into the mixture. Stir in the date mixture until just mixed.

      Spoon into the pudding basin, and level the surface with the back of the spoon. bake for about 1 hour 20 mins until just firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in to the centre comes out clean. Check after an hour as it can be fully cooked at this time.

      When the pudding is reaching the end of it's cooking time, make the sauce. Put the cream, sugar and butter in a pan. bring to the boil, stirring and simmering gently for 2 minutes until the sauce is smooth and thickened.

      Turn out the pudding and remove the paper. Pour over some half the sauce, and put the rest in a jug and serve separately. serve with custard, cream or ice cream the choice is yours!

Shakshouka

This entry of Shakshouka for The Egg Award 2013 is by Rachel Leoning

You can find details on how to enter The Egg Award 2013 by clicking on this link

My first experience of eating a fresh egg was a memorable one. I was Ten years old and was visiting a nomadic Bedouin family in their hot black tent. The simple fried egg with its orange yolk in the dusty environment was the tastiest egg I had ever eaten!

It took me almost 30 years to recreate this, but on the west coast of Scotland, when my husband and I bought an outdoor centre and converted it into a sustainable off grid yoga retreat in 2010  www.ecoyoga.org. Building a chicken coop was one of our first projects and we have been enjoying the daily fresh eggs ever since.

As recycling is a strong ethos of our centre as a whole, I also like the idea of recycling our food scraps. Just as we recycle the energy of the sun to produce hot water to fill our river baths and use the energy of the river to produce electricity. We turn (mainly organic) waste food into fresh eggs.  As my father in-law says: In nature there is no such thing as recycling, only cycling; there is no waste.

Our hens are free range and friendly each with its own personality and name. They love eating grass and insects (which helps keep the slugs at bay) and give us beautiful tasty eggs daily.

Shakshouka is a dish of Libyan origin; pouched eggs in a rich tomato sauce. Best served with hot pita breads for dipping into the soft egg yolk and fresh mint lemonade. The kids love it too!

Shakshouka

Ingredients

4 medium onions- diced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp roast (or normal) paprika

2 tsp cumin powder

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp coriander seeds- crushed with pestle and mortar

3 cloves of garlic- finely chopped

2 red Bell peppers (optional)- cut long strips

5 large very ripe tomatoes- diced

5 organic free range eggs

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley- finely chopped for garnish

Method

Fry the onions in a deep frying pan until golden brown. Add the tomato paste, paprika, cumin, coriander seeds and fry for one minute while stirring on a medium flame as the oil gets infused with a rich colour from these spices. 

Stir in the garlic and red pepper (if you are going to use peppers), fry briefly then add the chopped tomatoes (I don't bother peeling the tomatoes or separating the seeds) bring to the boil and simmer on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the tomatoes have cooked down use your wooden spoon to make 'wells' in the mixture and break an egg into it. Repeat this with the rest of the eggs spacing them out evenly in the pan. Don't linger as the first egg will over cook. 

Place a lid on the pan and cover for 3 or 4 minutes- I prefer the egg yolk to stay soft. 

Garnish with parsley and white pepper if you like and serve immediately. Enjoy!