Pan-fried toast

Pan-fried toast gives a rich and luxurious flavour to your meals. It provides a wonderful base for Eggs Florentine, for example; and dozens of other toppings. But will it make you fat?

Let's face it up front; it is the kind of bread you choose, not the butter you use that will determine whether this is going to add yet more pounds on the wrong places. Put any slice baked from refined-flour in your toaster and you will soon be googling for a new diet that actually works; knowing full well that none of them do.

It's mostly about the starches we choose and the way we cook them rather than the fat used to fry them; that is what will determine whether our pan-fried toast will add copious inches to our waistlines or not. 

Having said that there is increasing concern that it is the excessive amounts of seed-oils extracted at high temperatures that are inflammatory. So we stick to coconut and olive; and butter too.

Cold-pressed sunflower oil in moderation is good; if you can find it.

• Linoleic acid in sunflower and soybean oil promotes inflammation
  

This really is quick, no more than perhaps 3-minutes; a little longer than a conventional toaster. For the extra flavour it's absolutely worthwhile.

That's particularly true if you have an induction-stove which will heat your pan twice as fast, using half the electricity; more about that further down.

Once your pan-fried toast is crispy and brown slide it onto a plate, smear with a little butter if your cholesterol is in good shape and then smother it with your topping.

If you are about to have scrambled eggs, then just swill it about on the same pan. It will mean one less vessel to wash. Dishes that take longer to prepare, like our Eggs Parkinson's Disease obviously must be cooked separately in advance. Do you know about L-dopa? The only natural source is broad beans.

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Or when it is nearly ready pour the eggs around the bread and let it infiltrate the slice; like French-toast. If you love it sloppy like I do then just use more water and milk when scrambling.

It's good to try a variety of fats for your pan-fried toast. We like coconut and butter but really there are so many to choose from. The tahini we buy for our hummus comes with a few centimetres of sesame oil on top; that gives an interesting and different flavour.

You could also drop a few slithers of chili or a clove of garlic into the fat just before adding your bread for a different flavour.

A little finely-chopped fresh ginger or a sprinkling of turmeric added to the oil just before dropping in the bread are other options. Try them all and then personalise your own cooking. For heaven's sake do not slavishly follow recipes; that just destroys our creativity. It makes for very boring food and you are unlikely to experience the joy of discovering something new, for you at least.

I generally like my food rather wetter and more juicy, so I would often have my pan-fried toast in a bowl rather than on a plate. Eggs Hilton is one of our favourites. It has large green beans so you have to prepare it ahead of time. Luckily fresh limas or favas only take a few minutes to cook.

Can you see the beans lurking amongst the greens, with a peppadew for a little zing; they're spicy but not hot like a chili.

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Pan-fried toast

Pan-fried toast makes a delightfully crispy base for your food. But will it add to your waist-line? Yes, if you use a commercial loaf. Think about baking your own artisan bread; it takes me only five minutes every morning.

Real bread

Your pan-fried toast will only be as good as the bread you use. Baked with wholegrain flour and it will contribute to your wellness. The more refined the loaf is, the greater the noxious influence on your blood sugar will be; that means obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The great difficulty is finding a source of 100% flour; mostly despite being called whole grain it is refined to one degree or another. We strongly advocate the purchase of an electric wheat-mill and baking your own low GI bread.

Add a sourdough-starter and you have bread as good as can be found anywhere in the world.

This is where the difference lies between real and fake bread; that which is tasteless, makes you fat and gives you a bellyache. Without unrefined flour you can't have excellent pan-fried toast no matter how good a cook you are.

Scotland the bread^[1] brings so much benefit to our world of baking.

Find out more about the real bread movement.

Induction-stoves

Absolutely every family should have an induction stove. The table-top models are inexpensive and now they are being coupled with gas. They heat your pan twice as fast and use half the electricity.

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