Even with only two or three chickens laying an egg a day, if you have a busy few days or are away for a time the eggs soon build up and you can end up with more than it is feasible to use.
Friends, family and neighbours are usually very welcoming of half a dozen eggs. I found recently that some large pet stores sell packs of plain cardboard egg boxes, Pets at Home in Otford for instance. Also if you ask the recipients to retain their egg boxes or return them to you this also keeps the cost down.
However, if you do want to use up some eggs yourself, here are a few eggy ideas:
3 egg omelette:
3 eggs, salt, pepper + cheese, ham, fried mushrooms or whatever you like to put in.
Whisk three eggs well together in a bowl, add salt and pepper. Put a little oil (vegetable oil or rapeseed works very well as it has a high frying point) in a large non-stick frying pan. Get the pan very hot so that steam comes off the oil. Pour in the egg mixture and quickly scrape the edges in towards the middle (I use a plastic fish slice for this), let any runny egg run around the edges and repeat. After about thirty seconds get the slice under the omelette loosening it from the pan (it should come away easily) and flip it over. Then add your cheese, ham, cooked mushrooms or other ingredients, cook for a few more seconds, fold in half and serve.
Perfect poached eggs
I've managed three or four at once in a small frying pan - if you need to do more use a larger pan or do them in two goes with fresh water for the second batch. This method only usually works with very fresh eggs, so use the ones laid by your hens in the last week for the best results.
Boil the kettle and almost fill a small frying pan with water. Allow it to come to a nice even rolling boil. A bit of salt seems to help, and I usually turn the heat down slightly once it has come back to the boil. Crack the eggs into the pan - as close to the water as you can get without burning yourself, rather than dropping them from a great height. I use a knife to crack the eggs rather than breaking them on the edge of a pan, seems more reliable for not getting pieces of shell in there. If you aren't confident about cracking the eggs straight into the pan, crack them into a ramekin or small bowl first which gives you the opportunity to pick out bits of shell!
Make sure the pan stays bubbling gently, enough to cook the eggs but not enough to move them around too much. As a guide the medium sized eggs my hens lay take 2.5 minutes but I like a nice runny yolk, so adjust to taste and size of the egg. I use a stopwatch type timer with an alarm as 20 seconds more or less does make a difference. Conveniently they take about as long as the toaster takes to do two pieces of toast. Fish them out with a slotted spoon onto a piece of kitchen roll as this gets off any excess water. Serve straight away with toast or also goes very well with fish, and a traditional English breakfast of course.
Spanish style omelette/tortilla:
4 tbsp vegetable or olive oil, 6 eggs, 4 spring onions, chopped, 5 rashers streaky bacon (or you could use pieces of chorizo, or courgette and other green veg for a non-meat version), 300g new potatoes, sliced, 50g cheddar, 50g Manchego grated (or just 100g cheddar in total)
Heat up the oil in a small frying pan- you don't want the oil to be as hot as for the 3 egg omelette. Add the potatoes and fry for about 8 minutes. Add the onions and bacon or chorizo and fry for 2-3 minutes. At the same time, beat the eggs in a bowl and season well then add the cheese. Add the egg/cheese mixture to the pan then cook gently for another 8/9 minutes until the underneath is firm.
Remove the tortilla onto a plate, then return to the pan uncooked side down for a further 5 minutes or so. Eat hot or let it cool and put in the fridge for later.
Lemon curd muffins
If you want to use up even more eggs, you could make your own lemon curd first. Here is Nigel Slater's recipe which uses 4 eggs in itself:
The muffins are, however, very quick and easy to make with shop-bought lemon curd. You might want to stir the lemon curd in a bowl first to make it easier to use, rather than using it straight from the bowl. The recipe will make about 10/12 muffins depending on how big you make them/how much any little helpers help themselves to the mixture before you can get it into the cases!
About 1/2 jar lemon curd (save some for icing), 200g icing sugar, jelly lemon cake decorations (optional) 300g self raising flour, 1 lemon - juice and zest, 175 softened butter, 175g caster sugar, 5 tbsp milk, 3 eggs, beaten, muffin cases and two muffin tins.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C for a fan oven. Put the cases into the muffin tins. Mix the flour, butter, eggs, milk, caster sugar, lemon juice and zest together for 2/3 minutes in a food mixer/processor until light and fluffy.
Half fill each muffin case with the mixture, put in a blob of lemon curd and some more cake mixture on top - each case should be at least 2/3 full.
Bake for about 30 minutes until lightly brown. Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Mix the icing sugar with a few drops of hot water and a few teaspoonfuls of lemon curd, so it turns a slightly yellowy colour and slightly runny. Drizzle over the muffins as neatly, or not as you like then place a lemon half moon jelly shape on the centre of each. They keep about three days in a sealed container...but no cakes stay around that long in this house!
Aï
oli/Garlic mayonnaise4 egg yolks, 4 crushed garlic cloves, 2tsp French or Dijon mustard, 600mls olive oil, good squeeze of lemon juice. (This makes loads so reduce quantities if you won't need as much)
Put the eggs, garlic, and mustard into a blender then add the olive oil in a gradual, steady stream. Stir in the lemon juice when the olive oil is completely incorporated and looks 'mayonnaisey' - that's the technical term :).
If you still have lots of eggs left after all that, see these guidelines for selling surplus eggs:
Or perhaps sell a few chickens if you regularly have too many eggs to cope with!
