Warm Poached Egg Breakfast Salad

I like to pretend I'm somewhere hot and sunny with breakfasts like these. I associate fruit salad type breakfasts with summer mornings on the beach, so refreshing and so energetic!

It's so much better than toast. Or cereal. Or porridge.

Even a Full English.

I think I've just upset the entire 50 million or so population of England by saying that, I'm sorry! But I still have mixed feelings about the heavy meal that is a fry-up... I find that all the oil and meat doesn't always agree with me first thing in the morning!

Although I do appreciate something hot, even just warm, in the mornings. The best way to dethaw yourself after waking up to a cold room is to warm from the inside.

So I get the pan out and heat it up, standing right next to the stove to make maximum use of any escaped heat. First thing in the morning is not a good time to be doing dishes, so keep your equipment to a minimum by choosing a tallish pan that's not too wide.

Fill with boiling water from the kettle, (I like to stand near that too when it boils, and let some of the steam soothe my face - cooled steam of course, wouldn't want to burn myself!) and gently simmer it in the pan.

Poach the egg: Gently but swiftly draw circles around the pan with a wooden spoon to create a whirlpool at the middle. Crack in an egg right into the middle of the whirlpool and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer for 90 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon. This gets you a nice runny yolk.

It's just beginning to thicken, and looks like lava that's the colour of happiness.

Make two, because one's not enough. ;)

Leave them on a plate to rest and drain. Also drain your pan of the water, and wipe it dry.

Replace the dry pan onto the heat, and turn to medium. Now, we grill: Or pan-fry. (I need a griddle pan, so I can pretend to grill!) Add oil, let it heat up and drop in some cherry tomatoes to the sides. Then, slice up your halloumi cheese into thinnish chunks, and place those into the pan too, in the middle. Brown the cheese on one side, then flip to do the other. Keep an eye on your cherry tomatoes too, spinning them around so they heat up and blister. It's done when the halloumi is browned, the cherry tomatoes can be served at whatever stage they're in.

Dish it up: Line the bottom with some fresh baby spinach leaves, then layer on the halloumi and cherry tomatoes. Peel, slice, and add a few kiwifruit discs, and then finish with your two poached eggs on top!

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your (mental) flight to a tropical island of your choice, with this warm poached egg breakfast with a salad of kiwifruit, cherry tomatoes, spinach and grilled halloumi cheese!

Portobello Mushroom Mania: Two Ways with Eggs for Breakfast

WARNING: MORE MUSHROOMS!

That bag of mushrooms I bought doesn't have a bottom. It's a magic mushroom bag. As in, a magic bag containing mushrooms, not a bag of magic mushrooms unfortunately! ;)

So I've made dinner (soup) and lunch (sandwich) with these portobello mushrooms already, so obvious next up is breakfast!

In order to prevent mushroom boredom, I decided to make my portobello mushroom breakfast in TWO different ways. Oh, the choices!

Both use eggs and bread and a simple balsamic reduction. Easy! So with the same ingredients, you can make:

1. Poached eggs with sliced portobello mushrooms on toast
2. Portobello mushroom omelette
3. Both!

Slice up your mushrooms. You can use as many you like, or as few. It just depends how many mushrooms you want. Then sauté them in sizzling hot butter until all the water evaporates off. Set them aside.

Now put the pan back on a medium-low heat and pour in about 50mL of balsamic vinegar. There's no need to use the fancy schmancy stuff, regular stuff is fine - just make sure it's not the pre-mixed vinaigrette. Scrape any sticky mushrooms bits off the pan with a wooden spatula and reduce the balsamic vinegar until it's about half the volume. Reserve it in a small bowl or dish.

That's pretty much that basis of these two breakfasts. Sautéed portobello mushrooms and a balsamic reduction for sauce.

So first up, poached eggs.

Simply toast some bread, butter it up if desired, and top with a layer of mushrooms. Then poach an egg and lay in on top.

Drizzle some of that balsamic reduction, which may have thickened up once cooled, on top and serve warm.

Breaking into that runny gooey yolk and watching it ooze all over the mushrooms and toast is a feast for your eyes. Then taking a bite of the smooth silky egg, combined with the umami / meaty feel of the mushrooms, then the crunch of the toast, all topped with a sweet tangy balsamic sauce will be pleasure for your tastebuds.

There isn't much more you want in life.

Apart from this omelette of course. ;)

Just your standard omelette. So beat up two eggs, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and pour into a buttered pan over medium heat. Give the pan a swirl, so that the bottom is all hidden by the egg, and let cook for 2 minutes until the edges have set, but the top isn't quick done. Sprinkle over the mushrooms on one half. Then with a spatula, or two, or with whatever works for you, pick up edges on the half without the mushroom filling, lift, and fold on top of the half with the mushrooms.

Again, drizzle with the balsamic reduction. Serve with toast.

It's a brilliantly filling and satisfying, shroomy and eggy breakfast, that will get your day off to a bright and cherry start.

Which one's for you? Which one do you want to wake up to? 

Eggs, Soldiers, and Banana Smoothies

It's always the weekends, and never the weekdays, that I find myself wide awake at seven in the morning, and no matter how much I try (counting sheep, reading medical texts, self hypnosis...) I can never get back to sleep. Why doesn't this ever happen to me during the week when I actually need to get up?!

So after rolling around for about an hour, I decided to get up and make breakfast.

Breakfast used to be a luxury for me last year, when I had to leave the house at 7am to get to hospital on time. I maximised sleep, which meant I sacrificed everything else... This year, lectures start a lot later, and it's a lot less travelling time for me, so I've gotten back into the routine of grabbing a bite (brioche roll and gulp of water) before leaving the house. 

I thought I'd something have a bit more substantial though today.

Banana smoothie is a brilliant Saturday morning drink - to replace all the potassium you've lost due to excessive alcohol intake the previous night, hehe! - and effortless as well.

Just put milk, bananas and some (optional) honey into a blender and whizz it up - Banana smoothie in seconds!

Eggs are my favourite breakfast food. I think I could have eggs for breakfast every single day for the rest of my life and never get sick of them. (Not actually gonna try that though, 'cause if I do get sick of them, I wouldn't know what to do...) There's just so many ways to cook them!

I like my eggs super-runny so eggs and soldiers are great. Fun-sized pieces of toast that you can pick up with your fingers and then dip into runny gooey liquid gold! 

My favourite way to make soft-boiled eggs is to boil for a minute, and then to leave it in the pan for a further 5 minutes. Then I run them under a cold water tap so they're easier to handle, and to stop the cooking process so the eggs stay nice and runny.

Egg cups are what I need. Small ramekins like these will hold the egg, but you've gotta keep a hold on it while you dip in the soldiers, otherwise it'll just roll and roll and roll...

Sometimes I just crack the egg into the ramekin as you would do if it was raw! If it's runny enough, it will just slide out as a raw egg would. It doesn't quite look as appetising, but it tastes just as good, and works perfectly as well.

I'm surprised how quick this breakfast took to make, it might just be worth it to get up that 15 minutes earlier each day to enjoy some eggs, soldiers and a banana smoothie!