Prairie Breakfast

Not just a fried egg and bacon - enclose your egg in a round of yellow pepper - tasty and practical

Prairie Breakfast

At the other side of the world, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, looking over the sound to Vancouver Island, is the arty little town of Lund. The Lund Seaside Inn perches on an island in the harbour. You can sit on the rocks, the Pacific breathing slow and deep around you, watching seals, herons, gulls, even a whale if you’re lucky. The owners, Gord and MaryAnne, are the perfect hosts, and boy, can they cook!  They used to run educational expeditions for youngsters in central Canada and have all sorts of practical tips for cooking great meals under canvas. This recipe moved with them from camping to inn-keeping. Gord’s cooked breakfast is one of the most satisfying culinary experiences I have had in a lifetime of pursuing fabulous food around the world; I learned a lot and would love to go back and follow him around learning even more.

This is Gord’s recipe for a Prairie Breakfast by which he means easy to prepare when camping with a group. You can cook the potatoes the night before and then everything is done in one pan, quite quickly. He used a slice of Canadian smoked salmon instead of bacon or black pudding – use whatever you like. Canadian salmon is hot smoked, rather than transparently cold-smoked as we are used to, and it is sweet glazed, so using maple-cured bacon gives a similar sweet taste which complements the peppers.

Serves 4 – Timing 10 minutes if you are using cooked potatoes.

• 4 eggs
• 8 rashers sweet cured bacon, or smoked streaky if you can’t get sweet cured
• 4 slices of black pudding
• Red or yellow pepper
• 400g cooked potatoes

Slice the pepper into thin rounds, removing the seeds and membranes but keeping the rounds intact. You need as many rounds as you are cooking eggs.

Fry the potatoes in a large frying pan in some bacon fat for a few minutes until crispy and golden, with the bacon and black pudding. When they are all cooked, move them to the side of the pan to make room. Add the pepper slices to the pan and cook until softened, just a few minutes. Break an egg into the centre of each round of pepper and cook for a few minutes until done how you like them – spooning some hot fat over each egg to set the white, leaving the yolk runny.

Serve, with some toast if your campfire can run to it.