Brunch Lunch

Buck Rarebit

Welsh rarebit is so much more than cheese on toast! It's bread topped with a gooey, beer-flavored cheese sauce, flavoured with sharp Cheddar cheese, dry mustard and Worcestershire sauce and grilled until golden brown. Most aficionados would argue that a good Welsh rarebit cannot be improved upon. That's until you put an egg on it. A fried egg can improve almost any food and in this Welsh rarebit recipe, it also creates a legendary hangover cure

20 minutes prep, 30 minutes cook

Serves 6

Ingredients

50g butter

50g plain flour

250ml ale

175g mature Cheddar, grated

3 tbsps crème fraîche

2 tsps English mustard

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

6 slices of good-quality bread (hearty grain bread or whole wheat bread work well)

Sunflower oil, for frying

6 free range eggs

Handful pea shoots or baby leaf salad leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Melt the butter in a saucepan and, once foaming, add the flour and stir well to form a paste. Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute until bubbling. Gradually whisk in the ale until you have a smooth thickish sauce then let it bubble for 1 –2 minutes.

Add the cheese, crème fraîche, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and some seasoning and stir until melted and combined. Set aside to cool and firm up a little.

Heat the grill to medium. Lightly toast the bread then spread the gooey cheese sauce thickly onto one side of your slices of bread. Pop under the bread slices under the grill for a couple of minutes under a medium heat, or until golden and bubbling.

Meanwhile heat a little oil in a frying pan. Once hot crack in three of the eggs and fry until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining eggs.

Pop the fried eggs on top of the roasted cheese then grind over some more black pepper to finish. Serve with pea shoots or green salad leaves. It makes for a beautiful lunch!