Chopped bacon patties with fried duck egg

This dish is a great excuse to ask your friendly butcher to mince some of their bacon trimmings with a bit of fatty pork belly. If that’s not an option, you can buy a ham, gammon or bacon joint and finely chop or blend it at home. It’s perfect for brunch.

Overview

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Serves

4

Ingredients

For the sauce:

• knob of butter

• 1 large shallot, finely chopped

• 2 tsp flour

• 2 large dill pickles or 10 small gherkins, finely chopped, plus 1 tbsp pickle juice from the jar

• 300ml beef stock

• 1 tsp redcurrant jelly

• 1 tbsp chopped parsley

For the chopped patties and eggs:

• 400g coarsely minced bacon, raw ham hock or gammon

• 200g coarsely minced pork belly

• rapeseed oil, for frying

• 4 duck eggs

Method

Step 1

For the sauce, add the butter to a large pan and gently cook the shallot for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Stir in the flour until combined.

Step 2

Mix in the pickle juice and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Add the redcurrant jelly and season generously with black pepper. Simmer gently for 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.

Step 3

Stir in the chopped pickles and parsley, then season to taste and remove from the heat.

Step 4

In a bowl, mix the minced bacon, ham hock or gammon with the pork belly. Mould the meat into 4 round, flat patties, roughly 12cm across. You can use a burger press if you have one, or a pastry ring.

Step 5

Heat 1-2 tsp of oil in a heavy frying pan and cook the patties for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

Step 6

In a separate pan, set over a medium heat, add a splash of rapeseed oil and crack in the eggs – one by one or more, depending on the size of your pan. Season and fry the eggs for 1-2 minutes, until softly set with runny yolks.

Step 7

To serve, transfer the patties to warmed serving plates, place an egg on each and spoon the reheated sauce around.