Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: How to make an easy brunch with baked beans and chorizo

And how to poach the perfect egg

I love baked beans. When you are short on time, or just in need of a quick plate of comfort food, there is little better than beans on hot buttered toast, served with a big mug of tea. This week’s recipe is a lovely, easy brunch recipe that takes the humble baked bean and transforms it into a bit of a feast.

Served with some hot buttered sourdough toast, a gorgeous soft poached egg, some lemony whipped Greek yoghurt and crispy fried chorizo sausage, this dish is sure to make your weekend brunch a bit special.

I use regular baked beans in this recipe, along with a tin of butter beans. You could use a tin of cannellini beans instead of the baked beans if you prefer, but the baked beans work very well and make this an even simpler dish to prepare. If you would like a little heat to your beans, use one teaspoon of smoked and one teaspoon of sweet paprika.

To make this a one-pot dish you could poach your eggs in the beans, just like a shakshuka. Use a ladle to make four little wells in the beans, crack an egg into each, and cook with the lid on until the eggs are perfectly poached. However, I prefer to poach my eggs separately for this dish. There is something very lovely about a perfectly poached egg sitting to the top of a bowl of these beans. When you cut into the egg and the yolk oozes out onto the beans alongside the yoghurt and the crispy chorizo it is just heavenly.

The secret to a perfectly poached egg is to cook them one at a time. Some chefs swear by adding vinegar to the water, but I find it spoils the taste of the egg. Instead, I use a good-sized saucepan of salted water and bring it to the boil. Take a wooden spoon and use the handle to create a gentle whirlpool in the water. Crack the egg into the centre of the whirlpool, this will keep the white wrapped around the yolk and give you a beautifully shaped poached egg. 

Simmer the egg for about three minutes or until it is cooked to your taste. Remove it with a slotted spoon and either serve it up straight away, or place it in a bowl of warm, but not hot, water to keep it warm. This will stop it from overcooking as you poach the rest of your eggs. To speed things up if you are feeding a few people, you could also have two pans on the go and poach the eggs two at a time. Or if all of that is a bit too much faff for you and you do not care so much about the appearance of your poached egg, cook them all together in a good-sized pan. This recipe makes four generous portions.

Baked beans with chorizo

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

This is one of my favourite brunch dishes

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 200g chorizo sausage

• 2 onions, about 200g in total

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tsp sweet paprika

• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin

• 1 red pepper

• 1 tin tomatoes

• 400g tin butter beans

• 400g tin baked beans

• 2 tsp maple syrup

• 4 eggs

• To serve:

• 150g Greek yoghurt with a little lemon juice and honey

• Some fresh flat leaf parsley

• A few slices of toasted sourdough per person

Method

1. Peel and chop the onion, peel, and crush the garlic. Wash the red pepper, remove the stalk and seeds, and chop it into 1-2cm pieces. Slice the chorizo. Blitz the tin of tomatoes in a food processor or liquidizer until they are smooth. Drain the butter beans.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a high heat and, when it is good and hot, toss in the sliced chorizo. Turn the heat down to medium and fry the sausage, stirring it occasionally until it is turning a little crispy, about three to four minutes should do it. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chorizo from the pan and set it aside. Add the onions to the pan and fry them for five minutes until they have softened a little. Add the garlic, cumin and paprika and stir those in, fry for another two to three minutes and add the red pepper.

3. Cook for a few minutes before adding the tomatoes. Add the maple syrup, butter beans and the tin of baked beans and stir everything well. Now add about two thirds of the fried chorizo, retaining the rest until you plate up. Bring the pan to a soft boil, reduce the heat to low, pop on a lid and simmer for ten minutes.

4. While your baked beans are cooking, get a pan of water on the boil to poach your eggs. You will cook them just before you serve up.

5. Put 150g of Greek yogurt into a bowl and use a whisk to whip it for a few minutes to get it lovely and smooth, add a tablespoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of honey. Whisk those in to combine well and set aside until you are ready to serve.

6. Wash and chop a little flat leaf parsley and make some toast. Finally, poach your eggs, and when they are done, you are ready to serve up. Spoon a generous serving of the beans into a bowl. Add a poached egg to the top and some of your lemon yogurt. Scatter some of the fried chorizo on top and finish the dish with a little chopped parsley. Serve with the hot buttered sourdough toast on the side.