In today's world of factory farms and industrialized food, one seldom thinks of eggs as seasonal. Yet in nature, eggs are indeed seasonal, and sunshine is the key.

Shaun Smith is a writer, journalist and former chef in Toronto. He is the author of the young adult novel Snakes & Ladders.

On average, a healthy laying hen will require 14 hours of daylight (or an equivalent of artificial light) before she will begin laying eggs. After the vernal equinox, as the Earth's northern hemisphere tilts closer to the sun, days start becoming longer and hens soon start laying.

That's why the egg — a universal symbol of rebirth and fertility — is traditionally associated with spring and its holidays, such as Easter, Passover and Nowruz, the Persian New Year. So in honour of spring, I spoke with three cookbook authors to get recipes that utilize the humble egg.

Renowned pastry chef Regan Daley updates a classic dessert with her recipe for Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd, from her book In the Sweet Kitchen.

Tom Kitchin, one of Edinburgh's top restaurant chefs, delivers an easy recipe for Eggs en cocotte, as found in his book, From Nature to Plate.

Television chef Anna Olson is in full reinvention mode with her recipe Eggs Benedict with Peameal & Tomato "Cream" on Scallion Waffles, from her book Fresh.

My own recipe this month is for a delicious Spanish classic — tortilla. Spanish tortilla should not be confused with Mexican tortilla, a kind of flat bread. Spanish tortilla, as made in Spain, is a dish of layered potatoes and onions bound together with eggs. It's a hearty and simple dish that nonetheless requires a bit of skill to make. Flipping the tortilla whole, from frying pan onto a plate, is an adventure and a little bit messy, but the results are well worth it. In Spain, tortilla is coveted as an afternoon or evening snack in tapas bars, where it is eaten at room temperature, and always served with a glass of wine.

Spanish Tortilla

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 4 medium potatoes (about 600 grams)
• 1 regular cooking onion
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup olive oil (not extra virgin)
• salt and pepper

Peel and wash the potatoes, and then slice them thinly. The slices should be no thicker than the back edge of a standard chef's knife (about 2 millimetres). Place potato slices in a large bowl.

Peel the onion and cut in half. Slice the onion to the same thickness as the potato slices. Add to the bowl.

Drizzle four tablespoons of olive oil onto the potatoes and onion. Sprinkle on one teaspoon of salt and 15 turns of the black pepper mill. Use your hands to toss the potatoes and onions together, breaking up the onions and making sure everything is well coated in oil.

Heat all of the remaining olive oil over a medium-high heat in a 10-inch, non-stick frying pan. When the oil begins to foam a little and sputter, gently slide the potatoes and onions into the pan. Use a heat-proof spatula to spread the potatoes into an even layer. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes. As the potato slices cook, move them around in the pan to keep them from sticking, carefully lifting them in batches with a spatula and coaxing the slices on top down into the oil. If they start to brown, turn down the heat. The idea at this stage is not to fry them crispy, but to simmer them slowly in gently bubbling oil. After about 10 minutes, reduce heat to low and cook for another five minutes. The potatoes will be quite fragile at this point, so handle them extra carefully. Try not to break the slices.

Meanwhile, have a large colander ready in a bowl. When the potatoes are cooked, carefully slide them out of the pan into the colander, being mindful not to splash the hot oil. While the potatoes are draining, crack four eggs into a large bowl and add half a teaspoon of salt. Beat with a whisk till well combined. Carefully slide the drained potatoes into the bowl of beaten eggs. Jiggle the bowl a bit to thoroughly coat the potatoes. Let the potatoes soak in the eggs for 10 minutes. Reserve the cooking oil.

Wash out your frying pan. Once the potatoes have soaked for 10 minutes, return the frying pan to the stovetop with two tablespoons of the cooking oil and set the heat to high. Let the oil get very hot, so that it starts to smoke, and then carefully slide the egg and potato mixture into the pan, using a spatula to scrape out the bowl. Spread the potatoes into an even layer and continue to cook on high for one minute. The high heat will quickly seal the underside of the tortilla and stop it from sticking to the pan. If any part does stick, use a heatproof rubber spatula to lift that section away from the pan. It also helps to run the spatula around the perimeter of the tortilla, and under its edge to give it shape and stop it from sticking. The tortilla should be completely loose from the bottom of the pan. After one minute, turn the heat down to medium-low and continue cooking for five minutes longer, jiggling the pan often to keep the tortilla loose from the pan.

Now, here comes the tricky part. Remove the pan from the heat. Make sure no one else is standing close by. Wearing a pair of oven mitts to protect your hands and forearms from the hot oil, invert a dinner plate over the frying pan and hold it in place with one hand. Then flip the tortilla onto the plate by quickly inverting the frying pan and plate together. Set the plate with the tortilla on the counter and wipe out the frying pan with paper towels and scrape out any bits of egg or potato that might have stuck. Add another two tablespoons of oil to the pan and bring it to a high, smoking heat. Slide the inverted tortilla carefully off the plate into the hot oil. Again, let the tortilla cook on high for one minute, jiggling it and using your spatula to keep it from sticking. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for five more minutes as before. When done, both sides of the tortilla should be a deep, golden brown.

Slide the finished tortilla onto a cutting board and use some paper towel to dab off any excess oil. Let the tortilla set for 30 minutes before serving, cut into wedges.

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Regan Daley's Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd

Regan Daley

Regan Daley's award-winning cookbook, In the Sweet Kitchen, is one of the most comprehensive books on baking and pastry ever published. The 700-page tome is split into two sections. The first provides a definitive guide to all the baker's ingredients and tools, and is ready to answer just about any question you may have about baking. The second offers 150 delicious recipes.

What Daley teaches us about the use of eggs in baking may not be immediately obvious, but once you learn it, it seems born of the utmost common sense.

"When you are creaming a batter," says Daley, reached by phone at her Toronto home, "you want the butter at room temperature, because that's when the fat will expand to the maximum as you are blending in the sugar, and that will incorporate the most air. So you'll get the lightest and fluffiest butter and sugar mixture. If your eggs are at room temperature when they get added, they'll homogenize with that mixture and retain the air pockets, but if the eggs are cold, the coldness shocks the butter, makes it contract and tighten up, and you lose the air. So when you make a cake batter, put your eggs in hot water for three minutes before mixing them in and your cake will be much lighter."

Of course, eggs do many other things as well in baking, as Daley explains in a 15-page section of her book devoted to them. For example, Daley explains that because eggs are high in lecithin, an emulsifier, they add velvety texture. They also hold moisture to keep baked goods fresh. They have leavening properties, add colour and can be used as sealers and glues — and of course, they add flavour.

Daley's recipe for Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd showcases some of the best properties eggs can bring to a dessert. Not only does it feature the leavening properties of whipped egg whites, which are folded into the cake batter, but it utilizes the yolks from those eggs in its richly coloured and silky sauce, the grapefruit curd.

"They are really yin and yang together," says Daley of the cake and curd combination. "You've got this really indulgent and unctuous custard on the side, and then you've got this light, spongy cake. And the poppyseeds add a slightly nutty, earthy flavour."

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd

In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley

(Reprinted from In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley, Copyright 2010. Reprinted by permission of Random House Canada. All rights reserved. Photo by Rob Fiocca.)

Angel food cake has recently become fashionable again, mostly due to its low fat content. The thing is, dreamy light angel food cake is very nice with a few slices of orange or a handful of berries, but is absolutely wicked with a big dollop of rich fruit curd beside it (diet police be damned!). Both original and simple, this is a fluffy cake with a fine moist crumb, enhanced by the delicate flavour and texture of poppyseeds. The Grapefruit Curd makes it a truly exceptional dessert. The cake and the grapefruit curd are natural partners for another reason: the curd uses the same number of yolks as the cake does whites!

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake

Ingredients (serves eight to 10)

• 1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 ½ cups superfine sugar
• 1 ½ cups egg whites (about 10 extra large, or 12 to 13 large), at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
• 1 ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons poppyseeds
• 1 recipe Grapefruit Curd (see below)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Have ready a spotlessly clean 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom, ungreased and unlined. I prefer the old-fashioned aluminum pans, as opposed to the new non-stick pans. A properly baked angel food cake will have no trouble unmoulding from an aluminum pan. Working between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, sift the flour and half a cup of the sugar together three times, then set it nearby.

2. In the very clean, grease-free bowl of an electric or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl if whipping by hand, beat the egg whites with the warm water until frothy. Make sure your whisk and any scrapers you will use are also grease-free — even a speck of fat or yolk could prevent the whites from achieving the best volume. Add the cream of tartar and the salt and whip the whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar, a little at a time, whipping constantly. When all the sugar has been added, the whites should be firm, glossy and hold stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.

3. The flour-sugar mixture must be incorporated very gently, but as quickly as possible so as not to deflate the whites. I find the best way to do this is to use my bare hand. This way, I can feel exactly when the flour has been evenly distributed, and where any lumps might be. (You can also use a large rubber spatula, but I encourage you to get right in there — it feels wonderful and decadent.) Sprinkle about one-quarter of the flour mixture over the whites, then use your (clean!) hand to fold the batter over onto itself, making sure you reach down to the very bottom of the bowl and scoop all the way around the sides and through the centre. When you don't see or feel lumps of flour, add another quarter of the flour. Repeat until the final quarter of the flour is almost incorporated, then fold in the poppyseeds. The batter should still be very fluffy, light and smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan, taking care not to bang the spatula on the bowl or the bowl on the counter, as this could deflate some of the air trapped in the whites. Smooth the top of the batter, then run a clean knife though the batter in the pan to rupture any large air bubbles.

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd (Rob Fiocca)

4. Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean, and the cake's top is cracked and golden. If your tube pan has little legs, invert the pan and cool the cake upside down right over the counter. If your pan does not have legs, invert the pan over a wine bottle neck through the centre tube. Some pans have tubes that are too narrow to accommodate the neck of a wine bottle-these pans can be inverted into a large colander and cooled right in the bowl of the colander. The holes allow the cake to cool perfectly well. Cool the cake completely, until the pan no longer feels warm.

5. To unmould, run a long, thin-bladed knife all around the outside of the cake and around the centre tube. Carefully pull the tube upwards, bringing the cake with it and leaving the sides of the pan. Run the knife between the cake and the pan bottom, then invert the cake onto a platter. Angel food cake is best served the day it is made, as it tends to lose its fluffiness and gets sticky with sitting, but well-covered leftovers can be stored for several days at room temperature. There are special angel food cake cutters available at kitchenware shops, and they are a great gadget if you like this type of cake! Conventional knives tear the delicate cake and make a mess of each slice. The best way to cut this cake without the special cutter is with two forks: put the forks back to back into the top of the cake, where you mean to make a cut. Gently pull the cake apart, as though you were exposing a treasure buried just beneath the surface. You will have perfect, high-standing pieces. Serve with a generous dollop of Grapefruit Curd (see below) and garnish with a few pieces of candied grapefruit peel, if desired.

Grapefruit Curd

The sweet-tart taste of grapefruit is perfectly captured in a curd - smooth, bright and tangy. If you prefer a really tart flavour, use white or yellow grapefruit for the juice. Pink or Ruby Red grapefruit will yield a mellower, slightly sweeter curd with a more gentle citrus taste. Serve as an unusual partner to plain scones or croissants, or as a wild accompaniment to angel food cake.

Ingredients (makes about six cups)

• 12 large egg yolks
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 2 teaspoons finely grated pink or yellow grapefruit zest
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed pink or yellow grapefruit juice
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Method

1. Fill a large pot with an inch or two of water and bring the water to a simmer. Have a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium-sized bowl nearby. Place the egg yolks in a separate heatproof bowl, preferably stainless steel, and whisk them until they are frothy. Whisk in the sugar, then the grapefruit zest and juice and the lemon juice.

2. Set the bowl over the pot of simmering water and adjust the heat to keep the water just barely simmering. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it thickly coats the back of the spoon and a finger drawn across the back of the spoon leaves a clean trail, about seven to 10 minutes. This curd must be kept moving, or the egg yolks will cook unevenly and the curd will be lumpy and taste of egg, not grapefruit! Make sure the spoon sweeps across the bottom of the bowl and all around the sides. As soon as the curd has thickened, pour it through the waiting strainer.

3. With a clean spoon or rubber spatula, stir the butter into the hot curd a few pieces at a time, blending well after each addition. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming and poke a few slits in the top with a sharp knife to allow the steam to escape. Cool the curd to lukewarm, then refrigerate until cold, at least two hours or up to eight hours. It's best served the day it is made, but may be stored, well-covered, in the refrigerator for up to three days.

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Tom Kitchin's Eggs en cocotte

Tom Kitchin (Marc Millar)

Tom Kitchin grew up in rural Scotland and started working in kitchens when he was just 13, taking a job as a pot washer at a local pub. By 18, he'd completed a cooking apprenticeship at the famous Gleneagles Hotel, and had moved to London where he worked for five years at Chef Pierre Koffman's Michelin-three-star restaurant, La Tante Claire. From there, he crossed the Channel and did stints cooking at the renowned Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris, and at Chef Alaine Ducasse's equally notable Le Louis XV in Monte Carlo. By June 2006, at the age of just 29, he was back in Scotland and had opened his own restaurant in Edinburgh, aptly named The Kitchin. The following January, he became the youngest chef ever to be awarded a Michelin star.

Speaking by phone from Scotland, Kitchin explains the inspiration behind his restaurant. "When I was doing my training in all these wonderful restaurants, we were using Scottish produce — langoustine, lobster, game, grouse, hare, venison and even in the summer, the red fruits that we have here. So the inspiration was there to come back to Scotland and use the phenomenal produce we have here."

You don't have to live in Scotland, however, to appreciate Kitchin's new cookbook From Nature to Plate, in which he not only tells his life story — so far — but also provides dozens of gorgeous recipes born of his restaurant and inspired by the Scottish terroir.

One such recipe is Eggs en cocotte, which details an easy method for cooking eggs, bacon and broad beans in a simple cheddar sauce using a bain-marie, or hot water bath.

"Spring to me always means green," says Kitchin. "I use broad beans in this recipe, which really signify spring for me, as well."

If you can't find fresh broad beans (a.k.a. fava beans), Kitchin recommends using fresh sweet peas or asparagus in the dish.

The recipe, says Kitchin, would be equally suitable for breakfast or as a light dinner.

"In the UK, we're very proud of our Sunday roasted lunch," says Kitchin. "You have a big Sunday roast in the afternoon, with family or friends, and by the time you get to the evening you might feel a bit peckish again. This recipe is something to keep you ticking over, something casual maybe to eat in front of the television."

Eggs en cocotte

(Excerpted from From Nature to Plate by Tom Kitchin, Copyright Tom and Michaela Kitchin 2009. Reprinted by permission of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. All Rights reserved.)

From Nature to Plate by Tom Kitchin

This is a great Sunday supper. I sometimes add smoked haddock or smoked salmon instead of bacon.

Ingredients (serves four)

• 100 grams of button mushrooms
• 100g bacon rashers
• 100g broad beans
• 250g fresh spinach
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• salt
• 4 free-range eggs

Mornay sauce

• 60g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 1 litre milk
• 4 gratings of nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 100g grated Mull Cheddar, or other sharp white cheddar

Method

To make the mornay sauce:

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk over a low heat for two to three minutes until there are no lumps. Bring the milk to the boil with a little grated nutmeg and pour it over the cooked roux. Bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring gently. Season, pass through a sieve and stir in the grated cheese.

To prepare the vegetables and bacon:

Eggs en cocotte (Marc Millar)

Wipe the mushrooms and cut them into quarters. Cut the bacon into 1 cm batons and sauté together with mushrooms for three or four minutes. Pod the broad beans and blanch them for one minute in boiling salted water. Refresh them in a bowl of iced water and then peel off the tough outer skins. Wash the spinach and dry on some paper towels. Heat the olive oil in a medium pan, add the spinach and a pinch of salt, and cook until the spinach is wilted.

Assembling the dish:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350ºF. You will need four ovenproof dishes.

Place some spinach in each dish and cover with mornay sauce. Crack an egg on top, sprinkle with broad beans and bacon, and season with salt and pepper.

Put the dishes in a baking tin, pour in boiling water to come half way up the sides of the dishes and bake for eight to 10 minutes. The egg yolks should still be soft.

Serve straight from the oven. The dishes will be piping hot, so place them on a plate.

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Anna Olson's Eggs Benedict & Peameal with Scallion Waffles & Tomato "Cream"

Anna Olson (John Choi)

"I am a big fan of eggs Benedict, because it means you're taking time for breakfast," says Anna Olson, whose new cookbook Fresh with Anna Olson collects recipes from the first two seasons of her Food Network Canada television show of the same name.

"You don't make this on Tuesday morning when you have to be out the door in 10 minutes. You're either being social, cooking for a group, or you are out having fun yourself."

Eggs Benedict, of course, is traditionally served on a toasted English muffin, but Olson developed this variation using savoury waffles because she finds that English muffins become too tough when toasted.

"You've got this beautifully delicate poached egg," she says, "and the lovely hollandaise sauce, and then you're wresting through the English muffin."

If you don't have a waffle iron, Olson suggests toasted egg bread, instead.

She also replaces the hollandaise with a lighter tomato-based sauce.

"Don't get me wrong," she says, "I love a good Hollandaise, but if it's Sunday morning and you're bleary eyed, to try to make a Hollandaise, and make it properly, is a bit of a struggle."

The tomato "cream" sauce of the recipe actually has no cream in it, but is simply an emulsion made from puréed tomatoes and vegetable oil.

"It's really a treat," she says, "and there's no issue of raw egg, as you have with hollandaise. It can also be used as a salad dressing or in lieu of mayonnaise on a BLT sandwich."

As for poaching an egg, that's a skill that comes only with practice, though Olson does provide a few tips, beyond the basic instructions in her recipe.

"A very fresh egg is key," she states. "When an egg is fresh, the albumen — the white part — is really tightly bound, but as the egg ages, it loosens up and it will spread too quickly in the poaching liquid. A fresh egg will hold together a little better."

She also notes that correct water temperature is important.

"A poach is not a simmer," she says. "You should see little bubbles at the bottom of the pot, but no bubbles rising to the surface of the water."

Eggs Benedict & Peameal with Scallion Waffles & Tomato "Cream"

(Excerpted with permission from Fresh with Anna Olson, published by Whitecap Books 2009. All rights reserved. Photo by Ryan Szulc.)

Fresh with Anna Olson by Anna Olson

This is a special recipe for a special occasion. In place of a traditional hollandaise, I make a fresh, creamy tomato sauce, and in place of English muffins, savory waffles whose crevices embrace every bit of tasty goodness (serves four).

Scallion waffles

Ingredients (makes eight to 10 waffles)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp cornmeal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup finely chopped scallions (green onions)
• oil, for greasing waffle iron

Method

Stir the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and baking soda to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter. Add this buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the scallions.

Preheat a waffle iron and lightly grease it. Make the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions and keep warm in a 250°F (120°C) oven until ready to serve.

Tomato "cream"

Ingredients (makes 2 cups)

• 1 pint / 2 cups ripe cherry or grape tomatoes
• ½ cup canola or grapeseed oil
• salt & pepper

Method

Wash the tomatoes then place them in a jar and purée finely with an immersion blender. While blending, gradually pour in the oil. The mixture will emulsify and look like a tomato mayonnaise. Strain the sauce through a sieve, season to taste, and chill until ready to serve.

For a twist, this recipe can be made using red, orange, and yellow tomatoes. Blend each tomato colour separately with oil then strain.

Eggs Benedict & Peameal with Scallion Waffles & Tomato "Cream" (Ryan Szulc)

Poached eggs with peameal

Ingredients (serves four)

• 8 slices peameal bacon, cooked
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• 8 large eggs

Method

Keep the peameal warm while you prepare the eggs.

Fill a pot with 16 cups (4 litres) water, add the vinegar, and bring to just below a simmer. Break an egg into a cup. Stir the water to create a "whirlpool" in its centre. Drop the egg just to the side of the centre (the water should still be moving) and cook it until set on the outside but the yolk is still visibly soft (for "easy"), about four minutes. You can cook the eggs two or three at a time. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon.

To assemble this dish, place two waffles on a plate and arrange a slice of peameal bacon on each. Top with poached eggs and spoon tomato cream over. Serve immediately.