by Eileen Wiggins

Created on: January 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

Cooking a full English breakfast needs time and the right ingredients. Bacon must be dry cure and not this wet bacon you get in plastic packets. My local butcher has wonderful bacon that he cuts himself and you can have it cut to the thickness that you like. He also makes his own award winning pork sausages that are delicious.

So the first thing to do is to buy the bacon and sausage from a good source. You then need free range eggs, if at all possible from a local farm, so that you get the quality and taste with bright yellow yolks. Mushrooms of the highest quality and tomatoes from a supplier that prefers taste to shape; so you might need a farm shop for these.

Buy crusty bread to dip in the eggs. This should be from a local baker where the smell invades the air as you wait to be served.

Using a non-stick frying pan spray with a little low calory oil and fry the sausages slowly until cooked in the middle. Turn up the heat so that the sausages will brown a little more and at the same time fry the bacon. When crisped to your liking put to one side and keep warm.

Add the mushrooms and tomatoes to the bacon / sausage fat in the frying pan and fry to fit in with your preferred taste. Add these to the warming dish. Break one or two eggs into the frying pan (if necessary add a little more vegetables oil) until the egg is crispy underneath and just cooked on the top. If the egg needs it flip a little of the fat over the egg to seal the top with the spatula you are using for frying.

Serve on a warmed plate accompanied with home made apricot chutney, crusty bread to dip in the egg and a pot of freshly made coffee.

This all should take place on a day when you are not going out and you can take the necessary time to cook, eat and then relax with the morning papers or a good book.

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