The easiest meal. Ever!

The egg and cheese sandwich

This is my go to instant meal of late, an easy, one pan wonder that can be busted out one-handed, half in the bag, 3 am, whenever. Most importantly, it tastes amazing and makes you feel oh so happy.

Here’s what you need (feel free to substitute/improvise as you see fit):

2 slices bread
2 eggs
3-4 thin slices of cheese
1 tbsp butter
salt to taste

Before we start, though, locate a few slices of bread. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; regular wheat bread or even the wonder bread – texas toast variety is quite alright for our purposes here.

I’ve got gruyere cheese this time around, but I’ve also used cheddar (the applewood smoked stuff is awesome if you can find it), mozzarella or havarti. Again, use whatever cheese makes you smile. Be it black truffle infused moliterno pecorino, ooey gooey raw milk Riopelle or extra thick Kraft single slices, I say use what you love, whatever makes you happy!

So, toast up your bread and cheese. This is easy if you’ve got a little toaster oven, but if you don’t, do as I do and fry it up just like a grilled cheese sandwich. I know you’ve made plenty of those before, so no need to go into detail.

Now for the eggs. Oh, the perfect, lovely egg. Try to get the freerange, organic kind if you can; it really does make a difference.

Crack your eggs and beat them very gently with a fork. Add a pinch of salt at this point; the salt not only helps to season them at this point but will also help to slightly break them down, making them silkier when you cook them. Strange, but true.

Now for the scrambling. Heat your non-stick pan to medium high heat and add a pat of butter. Mmm butter.

Patienly wait until the butter sizzles and bubbles away…when, and only when, the pan is glistening and hot but silent, drop in your lightly beaten bundles of joy. Right away, use a spatula to gently fold over the eggs as they start to cook. At this point, turn off the heat. Really, please trust me! Eggs are tender, sensitive little snowflakes and need only the gentlest of attention to bring out the best in them. Cut the heat and continue to fold, lightly, easily, in the same motions you would use to ice a cake or pet a sleeping kitten, until the eggs are almost cooked all the way through.

Leave it to the French to have invented a specific word to describe the ultimate texture of a perfectly cooked egg….baveuse. It translates, roughly, into that slightly wiggly, jiggly state found in just barely set custards and jellies. I think it might actually come from the same word as drool and slobber too. Isn’t that sexy?

Anyways, at this point, collect the shiny soft-scrambled baveuse bundle to one side of your pan and proceed to deposit the golden fluffiness onto your awaiting bed of melted cheese and toasted bread.

The residual heat from both the eggs and your warm toast will continue to ever so slightly cook your eggs to the perfect fluffy doneness. At this time, slap on the top of your sandwich and proceed to cut as you see fit.

Somehow I feel that sandwiches of these sort end up tasting better when cut on a diagonal. But that’s just me.

Admire your swift handywork and proceed to inhale. This definitely isn’t fancy food, but it sure is satisfying!