Kaya Toast with Soft-Boiled Eggs

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks
• 180g caster sugar
• 300ml coconut milk
• 4 pandan leaves, knotted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 thick slices of white sandwich bread
• 80g cold salted butter, cut into thin slabs
• 8 eggs, straight from the fridge
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce
• white pepper, to taste

Before you cook

• Knot the pandan leaves and bruise them by rolling them firmly under your palm.
• Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a heatproof bowl until smooth and pale.
• Set a saucepan of water on to simmer with a bowl that fits over it without touching the water.

Steps

1. Warm the coconut milk with the pandan leaves and salt in a small pan over low heat for 5 minutes until steaming, then take it off the heat.
2. Pour the warm coconut milk slowly into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly so the yolks do not scramble.
3. Set the bowl over the simmering water and stir the mixture with a spatula, scraping the sides.
4. Keep stirring patiently for 35 to 45 minutes until the kaya thickens to the texture of soft custard and coats the back of the spatula heavily.
5. Take the bowl off the heat, fish out the pandan leaves, and whisk the kaya smooth.
6. Pour the kaya into a jar and chill it for at least 30 minutes, where it will thicken further.
7. Bring a pan of water to the boil, then turn off the heat entirely.
8. Lower the cold eggs into the hot water, cover the pan, and leave them for 6 minutes for barely set whites and liquid yolks.
9. Toast the bread slices until they are dry and deeply golden, almost to the edge of burnt.
10. Spread a thick layer of chilled kaya on four slices of toast.
11. Lay slabs of cold butter over the kaya and close each into a sandwich, then cut them into fingers.
12. Crack the eggs into shallow bowls, splash each with dark soy sauce and a heavy grind of white pepper, and serve with the toast for dipping.