I
had a lovely asparagus starter with a deep fried poached egg at a pub in the South
Downs, which inspired this. Mushrooms
with tarragon is a classic combination, the latter giving the mushrooms a sweet
almost aniseed flavour. I used a fresh slice of bread for soft
breadcrumbs mixed with sage and Parmesan roughly covered the poached egg and
then shallow fried it in olive oil.
Serves 2
Ingredients
3 eggs
6 Portobello mushrooms
1 handful of tarragon leaves
1 1/2 tbsp. crème fraiche
1 1/2 tbsp. of grainy mustard
1 slice of bread
6 fresh sage leaves
1 tbsp. parmesan
1 tbsp. water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 thinly sliced spring onion for scattering
The mushrooms
Slice them thickly, add a generous stick of butter to a high sided
pan and once melted add the mushrooms. Coat and then after a minute add a
splash of water, salt, pepper and cook for 10 minutes on a low heat. Once the
poached egg is frying add the mustard and Crème fraiche and stir through. Keep
moving gently until most of the liquid is gone and they are just moist and
coated. Just before serving take off the heat and stir through the tarragon
leaves.
Breadcrumbs
Roughly blitz a slice of bread (any bread, I used a seedy bread,
which gave the crumbs a nice texture and more depth) and then add a tablespoon
of Parmesan, the chopped sage, salt and pepper and combine with your fingers.
Get the egg dip ready by cracking an egg into a cup and whisking.
The poached egg
Poach your egg. I prefer (after trying both ways) the egg to be
just set so as to keep the flavours cleaner but each to their own! I poached
the egg in cling film (see previous poached egg post) for 3 minutes. Take it
out, brush with the egg and scatter both sides with the bread crumbs gently as
the egg is delicate. Put approximately a thumb and a halves depth of olive oil
in a pan and heat gently. After a few minutes add the poached egg and cook a
few minutes each side until golden. I actually tried this with a boiled egg as
well, which made me feel like I was essentially making a scotch egg in three
parts. It was harder to coat and shallow fry, therefore would probably stick
with the poached.
Serve the egg on the mushrooms with a scattering of spring
onion.
Labels: breadcrumbs, Mushrooms, poached egg
