Tuesday 27 October 2015

A neat egg trick. Devilled mushrooms.



South or southeast, veering west later, 4 or 5.

Slight or moderate.

Mainly fair.

Moderate or good, occasionally poor later.





What a summer. It was apparently here and now it is gone. Didn’t really have time to enjoy it, was working like mad. But now the days are getting shorter, the work madness has eased and I hope to find more time again for my write ups.
I will restart with a bonus recipe, the neat egg trick. It is dead simple, yet you need to tweak it. I hear you saying: “How can it be dead simple if I need to experiment?”
Well, I don’t know your microwave, your mug size or how thick the walls are of your mug. Just bear with me and you will understand:
Heat the kettle. Pour into a wide, big mug with not too thick walls (something like above) the hot water until the mug is about 1/3 full. Crack an egg and let it glide carefully into the water. Put mug uncovered into your microwave and give it 40 seconds.
Let stand for another 10 seconds. Glide egg onto a perforated spoon, let water drip and put it onto your warm and buttered toast: Perfect poached egg.
So basically you put the kettle on, put bread in the toaster, make tea, make the egg and have toast with a poached egg within one minute.
What can go wrong? Obviously it could be too soft..give it a few more seconds. Too hard..OMG, you have to eat a hardboiled egg- just give it less next time.
Egg yolk hard and egg white slimy: use less water next time.
As you can see: the worst thing that can happen is that you have hardboiled egg. So just give it a few tries until you know exactly what you are doing, and you will have in the future in “instant” poached egg (Eggs Florentine anyone?)

But today`s recipe is my Vegetarian take on “devilled kidneys”. According to Wikipedia it is a Victorian British breakfast dish consisting of lamb's kidneys cooked in a spiced sauce, referred to as "devilling”. Apart from some men in Gentlemen`s Clubs I can’t imagine anyone having it for breakfast. It is incredible rich tasting (albeit less fatty than a fry-up) and cries out for a fresh white wine or a glass of champagne to go with it. Might be something for a Boxing Day or birthday breakfast, or, as I do, a luxurious supper for one.
BTW, if you don’t mind eating meat, use lamb or veal kidneys instead of mushrooms. No pork kidneys, they are vile. And clean them properly and fry very quickly or they become hard. Or save yourself the trouble and use mushrooms.

Devilled mushrooms
2 slices of good quality white bread
200 gr. mushrooms (be brave, mix wild mushrooms into your bog standard shrooms, or use a mixture of shitake, brown and Portobello)
1 shallot, finely cut
A bit of butter
1 hefty glug of Port wine (or Brandy or Sherry)
A timid shake of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1 heaped tbsp redcurrant, Cumberland sauce or any red fruit jelly or jam
2–3 tbsp double cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to finish
1 poached egg (see above)

Cut the shrooms into slices. Set a frying pan over a high heat. When it is hot, add the butter and let melt, add the shallots, followed by the mushrooms.
After about 1½ minutes, add the Port (or Brandy). Let it bubble and reduce down, then add Worcestershire sauce, mustard, cayenne and fruit condiment. Stir to combine. Give it about 3 minutes.
Now stir in the cream and allow the sauce to bubble and reduce down to a thick coating consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning or cayenne heat as required.
Toast your bread, get your egg ready, put the toasts on a plate, cover with the mushrooms, add the poached egg on top and finish with freshly chopped parsley.
Serve with a glass of bubbly.

And enjoy a golden autumn evening.