Easy Breakfast Quiche

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Basic breakfast staples — eggs and toast. How many ways can you make breakfast with these two ingredients? I like to keep my weekend brunches interesting yet simple. So I decided to use bread as a shortcut for my mini quiche crust. You can call it mini egg tarts or shortcut quiche or even omelette muffins.

Basic Ingredients: 

  • Bread
  • Eggs
  • Salt and pepper

Additional Ingredients:

  • Milk
  • Onions
  • Chives /Parsley/Coriander/Basil
  • Dried Herbs
  • Bacon
  • Tomato
  • Avocado
  • Capsicum
  • Cheese

Tips:

  • Add milk if you like a slightly smoother texture. If you prefer a crispier version, ignore the milk. 
  • Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. The egg will rise and puff up when it is done, but will flatten once it cools.
  • You can use the leftover bread and arrange them in a tray. Pour more egg mixture over it and sprinkle with tomatoes and cheese. A bigger version has been created.

My housemate Pam used to make these little egg muffins without the bread crust. She bakes the omelette mixture in a silicone muffin tray and once it is done, you can just tip the whole egg muffin out. She calls it her whatever-you-like egg muffin, loaded with bacon, onions, cheese and just whatever else she has at home. 

Perfect Half-Boiled Eggs

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How the half-boiled egg maker works

Did you know? The half-boiled egg maker was invented by a Malaysian in 1973 and was sold as the Newton Egg Maker. I took for granted that everyone knows what this gadget is but I realized that many of my friends from outside Malaysia and Singapore have never actually cooked their eggs this way.

When I first got my new Anova sous vide machine, I was excited to make some sous vide eggs that everyone was raving about — perfectly formed whites barely enveloping the creamy, liquid yolk inside. The instructions called for 45 minutes.

Just-cooked whites that doesn’t stick to the shell, clinging to a soft runny yolk inside

When my dad finally got to eat his sous vide eggs, the verdict was: “Almost the same as half-boiled egg. Just use the half-boiled egg maker. Takes only 10 minutes, save water, save electricity. ” To give the sous vide eggs credit, the yolks are a little creamier. But yes, it does save me a lot of time and work to just half-boil them the conventional Malaysian way.

So I started digging the cupboards for our yellow egg boiler. A four-piece plastic container that can cook up to 4 eggs each time. Almost every household and coffeeshop in Malaysia has one of these because the all time favourite Malaysian breakfast is half-boiled eggs with toast and a cup of hot coffee or Milo.

I decided to make a video of the half-boiled egg maker to show how this little gadget actually works. A few points to take note of when using this apparatus:

  • egg has to be at room temperature. If taking eggs out from the fridge, let it sit for 20 minutes or so until it has reached room temperature.
  • water has to be boiling. Straight from the boiling kettle or pot.
  • pour water up to the level indicator according to the number of eggs inside. This half-boiled egg maker can cook up to 4 eggs max.

Scientifically, if you want to boil the perfect egg, there is a formula for it. You have to take into account many variables such as the egg temperature, egg weight, surrounding temperature, air pressure, water temperature…blah blah blah. Unless you are into physics, many of us would just prefer to have a simple gadget that takes out all the calculations. But I did come across this Egg Boiling Calculator created by Miłosz Panfil, PhD and Mateusz Mucha. Something to amuse yourself if you do have time to experiment.