Baked Eggs with cheese and mushrooms

Whole family meals in our house can be a bit challenging.  The adults will eat almost anything, but with a relatively picky eight year old and a fussy beyond belief two year old, it’s not always easy finding something that everyone can, or rather will, eat.  One meal ingredient that is guaranteed to bring a smile to everyone’s face though is egg.  Mr. Fussy will eat just about any other meal item, as long as he can dip it in egg yolk.  Mrs. Not Quite so Fussy (but still somewhat choosy) will almost certainly be demanding seconds if there’s egg involved, especially of the fried variety.   Tasty though it is, if it’s a meal for the adults as well as the children, I tend to look for an alternative to simple fried egg and chips.  A firm favourite in our house is Baked Eggs with cheese and mushrooms…or whatever else we happen to feel like adding to the mix on any given day!  The beauty of this meal is that it can be resized to fit virtually any meal, for any number of people.  When we had it most recently, there were, in fact, only two of us eating, at lunch-time.  However, it is so simple to convert into a meal for the whole family, by increasing the amounts described below and adding a ring of mashed potato to the dish before putting it into the oven.  Having said that, we couldn’t have managed another bite the other day – it’s a rather deceptive dish and was incredibly filling. 

 

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 shallot (or small onion)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 250g chestnut mushrooms
•  Handful of chopped parsley
• 50 -100g cheese
• 2 tbsp crème fraiche
• 2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180°. 

 

1.  Melt a little butter in a frying pan. 

 

2.  Chop the shallot relatively finely and then fry it in the butter until it is softened. 

 

3.  Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms.  For this dish, I chopped them into smaller pieces than I would ordinarily.  Once the shallot has softened, add the mushrooms to the pan, along with the garlic, which should be crushed.  The mushrooms will release quite a lot of moisture – cook until this has pretty much disappeared before moving on to the next step. 

 

4.  Add the parsley, some salt and pepper and the cheese to the pan.  The cheese should be grated or crumbled into the pan, depending on what works for the kind of cheese you decide to use.  I went with a Double Gloucester with onion and chives this time, which kind of half grated, half crumbled, being rather soft.  Stir this mixture over a low heat until the cheese has melted. 

 

5.  Put the mixture into an oven proof dish.  If you prefer, you can divide it between two individual sized dishes, but I just used one – saves on the washing up!  Make a slight well at each end of the dish and break an egg into each.  Put a tablespoon of crème fraiche on top of each egg (I gave it a quick whisk so that it was a bit runnier, instead of sitting in a lump on top of the egg).  Top this with a little more cheese and seasoning, if desired and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or so, until the egg white has set, but the yolk is still runny.  Obviously, if you prefer your eggs to be more thoroughly cooked, you can leave the dish in the oven for longer. 

 

When we had this for lunch the other day, we served it with crusty bread, but for dinner, I would use a much bigger over proof dish, which I would line with mashed potato.  I would then spoon the mushroom/ shallot/ cheese mix into the middle, making wells for enough eggs for everyone to have at least one each.  I’d also tend to add a leek to the mix to bulk it out a bit…and possibly some cooked chicken if Dad was joining us, seeing as he doesn’t think it counts as food unless there’s some meat/ fish/ poultry in it!  That’s another advantage to this meal – it’s so easy to make it in individual dishes, which can come in really handy if people have different tastes or dietary requirements. 

 

Empty plates in record time (ably assisted by Mr. Fussy himself, who begged from our plates, despite having scoffed his own lunch earlier) indicated that this eggy meal was a great success, beautifully succulent, wonderful tastes and very filling indeed.  An added bonus is that it’s very quick and easy to make – more time is spent chopping than anything else and even that is pretty minimal.  All in all, an excellent way to enjoy some lovely British Lion Eggs. 

 

This post is an entry for the #ShortcutEggsperts Linky Challenge sponsored by British Lion Eggs. Learn more and find recipes at www.eggrecipes.co.uk

 

Learn more and discover delicious recipes from celebrity chef Dean Edwards at www.eggrecipes.co.uk/mainmealsinminutes.