Cook with Us #19: Soft-Eggs with Gourmet Mushrooms and Prosciutto

Let’s be clear: I rarely do breakfast! In fact, breakfast in my household is considered an event. Unless we are celebrating a special occasion we don’t go out for breakfast. And we don’t eat or prepare breakfast at home either. Generally, I would wake up in the morning and have my coffee. Until such time this is done I can hardly eat anything. So I’ve grown used to not eating anything between my coffee and lunch time. My husband didn’t help either. He chose to skip breakfast because when he doesn’t he finds himself eating all morning until lunchtime. So our morning routine is a bit of a win-win situation in that we grabbed our coffee and off we go.

The theme’s this week was a good opportunity to reconnect with a long held tradition of having proper breakfast in the morning, at the very least for one morning. In Australia, particularly in Melbourne, eating a proper breakfast is an important part of the fabric which makes Melbourne the town it is. In every corner, every street or empty lot you can be sure to fall on a restaurant offering something resembling a breakfast. Breakfast are so popular that some restaurants even offer all-day breakfast now between 7am and 6pm. 

 

Traditionally, at least as far as I can remember, breakfast in Australia have 2 or 3 main components: eggs, bacons, and pancakes. I thought I would retain some of the key ingredients. But the idea was also to inspire myself by what I’ve seen being done elsewhere. With a more health-conscious Australia, the traditional breakfast has improved a lot and more healthy ingredients are being sourced like the use of superfoods, nutrients-rich salad bowls, raw nuts, as well as gourmet mushrooms (the more exotic ones).

 

About 10 minutes drive from where I live there is this tiny restaurant out of a shipping container known as One Fine Day. They specialise in healthy food but does have the traditional big breakfast as well. Their menu consists of yummy breakfast the like of Smashed Avocados, Beetroot Fritters, Acai Bliss, Pumpkin Smash, and their Wild mushroom platter. The last time we visited we didn’t have much luck. All the seats were taken and were told there was a wait time of 45 mins. The thing is on Saturday morning the early risers, the people hitting the gym first thing in the morning, would normally swarmed the café and take most of the tables for a fair couple of hours. We thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new. But we were badly mistaken. We ended up at a shop that don’t deserve to be selling out breakfast or anything else for that matter. And do make things worst they were particularly expensive.

 

So with this in mind my aim was to make a breakfast which would be both healthy and retain the elements of an Aussie big breakfast. Thus why I settled for the dish I’m presenting today. After a very long time my husband and I sat at the bench and enjoyed the hash brown, soft-eggs and all the rest. It was an enjoyable family time with my little nibbling on the hash brown in her high chair.

 

Good luck to everyone.

I hope you enjoy it!

Bon appétit!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Bunch Fresh Asparagus
• 5 Slices Prosciutto
• 1 Gourmet Mushrooms Barquettes
• 2 Free Range Eggs
• 1 small sweet potatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

METHODS

1. To make the sweet potatoes hash brown grate the sweet potatoes thinly as well as 1 onion and 1 garlic cloves. Mix everything together and add in the salt and pepper as well as one egg. Once mixed, save the mixture in the freezer to hold the shape.
   
2. Throw the asparagus in boiling water and leave for a few minutes before removing them and placing them in cold water to retain the colour.
 
3. Wrap the prosciutto around the asparagus and fry lightly in some butter. Remove as soon as they start to change colour.
   
4. Deep fried the hash brown until brown and serve immediately.
 
5. In the meantime, sliced the King Brown mushrooms in half and throw in the same pan used for the prosciutto along with the rest of the mushrooms. Sautée slightly and remove once you can smell the earthy flagrance of the mushroom.
 
6. For the eggs, bring some water to boil and add the two eggs for 4 minutes before removing. The breakfast is now ready to serve. Enjoy!