I’ve made this meal so often that I can co-ordinate cooking all three items at once and the whole thing takes about ten minutes (not including pre-heating the oven). But if you’re not too sure of your timing, please don’t risk burning anything, just cook the crumpets first and put them in a warm oven while you do the rest.

In any event, this is the ten minute method:

I toast crumpets under an oven broiler, so I move a rack up first and then turn the oven on so that it can preheat.

I put the eggs in a pot, cover them with cold salted water (helps to prevent them from cracking) and put them on the stove to cook, keeping an eye on them. As soon as the water reaches a rolling boil, I start timing them. For coddled eggs, the yolks should be soft and the whites cooked, so depending on the size of the egg that would normally take anywhere from three to four minutes. I can never find an egg timer, so I just put a cup of water in the microwave and set it to the right time.

While the water for the eggs is coming to a boil, I toast the crumpets, leaving the oven door open so that I can see what’s going on. It takes seven or eight minutes to do both sides.

I slice firm plum tomatoes into half-inch rounds, heat a skillet and sear the tomatoes on both sides in a little butter or olive oil, adding salt and pepper while they are cooking. They should be firm, but well seared on both sides and that is a matter of having the skillet really hot. They only take two or three minutes, and once they are cooked can be set aside while I take care of the eggs.

The crumpets are done by now, so I butter them, put them on a serving plate and top each one with a slice of seared tomato. Right about now the timer on the microwave goes off, so I take the eggs to the sink and run cold water over them to stop them from cooking further, peel them and put them in the bowls they will be served in. I add a small pat of butter, a dusting of fresh black pepper and salt.

The idea is to eat the eggs with a small spoon and pick up the crumpets with your hands.

It’s really good.

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