Poached egg and mushrooms with a twist

This is a recipe which was given to me by my sister, Lorna and is so good it has to be celebrated. We have adjusted only the tiniest details due to the availability of ingredients (we used spring onions but the original recipe used chives) and personal taste but we believe it still reflects the gorgeous light meal that she recommended. I am unsure whether she has made this up or has read about it somewhere but no matter which it is, we are going to share this with you and hope you enjoy it as much as we have. Thank you Lorna!

Below we will go through the process of cooking poached eggs without stress and also the correct way to cook mushrooms without boiling them! It doesn't take long, the recipe below is just thorough.

Poached egg and mushrooms with a twist

Serves 2 - can be made for more people if required.

Ingredients

 

4 large free range eggs
100 g mushrooms 
1 spring onion
Wholegrain mustard
White wine vinegar
25 g butter
Salt
Pepper

Notes - You MUST use fresh eggs for poaching otherwise you will end up with a pan full of straggly egg whites and a poor, lonely naked yolk. You will be cooking multiple poached eggs, but do not be afraid! Set up a bowl of ice water ready to dunk your eggs in once they're cooked to your liking, cool them for one minute before removing and setting aside. Doing this relieves the stress of everything being overcooked or gone cold as the ice water will stop the eggs cooking any further and you can heat them back up for a minute in the same pan you cooked them in before serving - if you're unfamiliar or worried about cooking poached eggs we go through the process below. For the mushrooms we use salted butter which means you don't need to season them - but if you wish to use unsalted, just add a pinch of salt to taste. You can use any type of mushrooms you fancy.

Method

1. First prepare everything. Slice the mushrooms, spring onion and four slices of bread ready for toasting. Put the kettle on to boil and prepare a bowl of water with plenty of ice in it.  

2. Place a medium saucepan on the heat and fill it 3/4 full with boiling water, add 1 tsp of salt and a dash of vinegar and bring to the boil (this is not stressful). Now crack an egg into a ramekin or small measuring cup. Once boiling, stir the water in the pan to make a small whirlpool (be careful not to splash yourself) and then carefully lower your egg from a very low height into the pan in the direction the water is spinning. Don't worry if they aren't perfectly formed, you'll get the hang of it - also in this recipe they get chopped up anyway so you can relax even more! The egg will take approximately 2-3 minutes to cook with a lovely soft yolk. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and place straight into the ice water as described above. Repeat for the others and then you'll have 4 poached eggs, cooked but cool, sitting in a row on the side ready for serving later. 

3. Meanwhile place a large frying pan with the butter over a high heat, chuck the mushrooms in the pan and stir through until all the butter has been absorbed. Turn the heat down and cook gently until they have given up all their juices, at which point turn the heat back to high and fry until coloured and the juices have evaporated. As Julia Child would say - "Do NOT overcrowd your mushrooms!" Give them all space to brown up nicely. A minute before they have finished cooking add the spring onion, mix throughout and soften and add a small knob of butter to finish.

4. When the mushrooms look like they are about to be ready, prepare your buttered toast and place your cool eggs back into the pan of lightly boiling water for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on top of the toast (this is the fun bit!). Place 1/4 tsp of mustard on top of each of the eggs with a pinch of salt, then chop up and mix together nicely. Place the mushrooms on top and garnish with a few more slices of spring onion. 

Gobble up greedily!