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!