Gordon Ramsay egg sandwich stacks soft folded eggs and crisped corned beef between two slices of milk bread. It makes two and takes twenty minutes, most of that on the eggs.
Cornflour is the trick, and it comes from the diners of Hong Kong. Two teaspoons slaked in water go into the beaten eggs, holding the moisture that would normally weep out. What you get is custardy rather than dry.
The eggs come off the heat still looking wet. Idiot Sandwich is firm that you cannot substitute your usual scrambled eggs here, because the technique is the sandwich rather than the filling.
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Gordon Ramsay Egg Sandwich (Hong Kong Style)
Course: BreakfastCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Medium2
sandwiches5
minutes15
minutes1100
kcal20 min
Soft cornflour-thickened eggs folded in a hot pan and stacked with crisped corned beef between buttered milk bread, toasted on the inside so it holds together.
Ingredients
- For the corned beef:
1 tbsp neutral oil
170g sliced deli corned beef (6 oz)
- For the eggs:
6 large eggs
6 tbsp evaporated milk
2 tsp sesame oil, or neutral oil
2 tsp sea salt
2 pinches ground white pepper
2 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tbsp neutral oil
- To assemble:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 slices milk bread, cut 5mm thick (¼ in)
Kewpie mayonnaise
Spicy ketchup, optional
Directions
- Crisp the corned beef: Heat the oil in a frying pan until it shimmers. Lay in the corned beef and cook about 90 seconds a side, until crisp. Lift it out, wipe the pan, and turn the heat down to medium-low.
- Toast the bread: Butter one side of each slice and toast that side only, until lightly golden. Set aside with the toasted faces ready to sit inside the sandwich.
- Mix the eggs: Whisk the eggs with the evaporated milk, sesame oil, salt and white pepper. Stir the cornflour into 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl until smooth, then whisk that through the eggs.
- Fold the first omelette: Add half the neutral oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. Pour in half the egg mixture. Push it around with a rubber spatula so the set egg builds into thin folded layers, letting the runny egg run onto the hot pan underneath.
- Finish off the heat: Turn the heat off, then flip the omelette to just set the top. It should still look wet and glossy. Repeat with the remaining oil and egg.
- Build: Spread Kewpie mayonnaise on the toasted face of a slice, pile on the eggs, then the corned beef. Spread the second slice with spicy ketchup if using, toasted side down, and close. Eat straight away.
Notes
- Milk bread is very soft, so toasting the inside faces keeps the eggs and sauces from soaking through. The book treats the egg method as non-negotiable and suggests using the sandwich as a base to experiment with sauces instead. Calories are calculated from the ingredients.
FAQs
Why put cornflour in scrambled eggs?
Two teaspoons, slaked in a couple of tablespoons of water first so it does not go lumpy, then whisked through the beaten eggs. The starch holds onto water that normally escapes as eggs cook.
That is what keeps them custardy instead of turning rubbery and weeping into the bread. It is the one thing you cannot leave out.
How is this different from Ramsay’s usual scrambled eggs?
Almost entirely. Ramsay’s scrambled eggs go into a cold pan with diced butter, never whisked, stirred on and off the heat until soft curds form.
These get whisked hard with evaporated milk and cornflour, then poured into hot shimmering oil and folded fast. Cold pan and patient stirring against hot pan and speed. Two techniques from the same chef that agree on nothing.
Why turn the heat off before flipping?
Because the eggs are meant to leave the pan looking wet. Residual heat sets the top once you flip it, and leaving the burner on takes them past that point.
Glossy and barely holding together is what you want. Compare that with the mushroom omelette, which goes under a hot grill to finish the top. Opposite answers to the same problem.
Why toast the inside of the bread?
Milk bread is soft and light, which is lovely to eat and hopeless against a wet filling. Toasting the faces that go inside puts a barrier between the bread and the eggs.
It also stops the sandwich sliding apart. The chip butty solves the same soggy-bread problem a different way, rubbing the bread in the oil left on the roasting tray.
Can you use normal milk instead of evaporated?
It changes the texture. Evaporated milk has had most of its water boiled off, so it brings richness without thinning the mixture. Moisture is the thing you are fighting here.
Six tablespoons go into six eggs. That sounds like a lot until you see how much water the cornflour is holding onto.
What is Kewpie mayonnaise?
Japanese mayonnaise made with egg yolks only and sharpened with rice vinegar, so it is richer and tangier than British mayo. Large supermarkets stock it, usually near the soy sauce.
Ordinary mayonnaise will do. Add a squeeze of lemon or a drop of rice vinegar and you get somewhere close.
Can you swap the corned beef?
The book picks corned beef but notes this style of sandwich comes in many versions. Crisped ham, luncheon meat or thick-cut bacon all sit in the same territory.
Ninety seconds a side is all the meat needs. Its job is salt and crunch against something very soft, so whatever you use should crisp rather than steam.
