Day 69: Wild Mushrooms, White Bean Hummus & Poached Egg on Sourdough
inspired by Lantana Cafe
My second sourdough loaf was a definite improvement on my first.
For starters, this one did not look like a crusty cowpat.
This is mainly because I managed to get the dough out after proving without entirely destroying the shape. Did I go out and buy a specialist proving basket? I thought about it.
But in the end I improvised with what I had. It turns out the same calico fabric that was, as I discovered, completely unsuitable for cheesemaking (see my post on homemade paneer) turned out to be just what I needed for baking bread.
After the first prove the dough was shaped into a ball and then back into my casserole dish. But this time I had lined the pot with calico and then sprinkled over plenty of flour. I swear more went into dusting that fabric than into the actual bread.
But it was worth it.
After it’s second prove I got my hot oven tray, turned the pot upside down and the dough dropped gracefully (OK maybe not gracefully, but definitely smoothly) onto the tray ready for baking.
It’s still not perfect. But it’s a step in the right direction.
So now I need to find some toppings for my freshly baked bread. I’m off to see what I have in the fridge.
I’ve got some wild mushrooms. These turn out to be an ingredient that is sneaking into my weekly shop more and more during lockdown. Along with other ingredients like ricotta, buttermilk and miso, I never used to cook much with fresh wild mushrooms before. I would just use dried ones that I had in the cupboard. But now it seems all these ingredients are becoming staples, rather than occasional treats.
If I was cooking with regular mushrooms a pack would be eaten in one sitting. I can quite happily fry up a whole punnet of mushrooms with some butter and garlic and eat them on toast. That is one of my favourite lunches.
But with wild mushrooms I find them a bit too overwhelming to eat an entire pack at once. So as much as a pack might cost a bit more, I end up using them more sparingly across two or three dishes throughout the week.
Mushrooms on toast seems like a good place to start. But how can I make it slightly more exciting, and add a few other ingredients to make up for my smaller portion of mushrooms?
Lantana Cafe, a small chain of Australian inspired restaurants in London, seems to have the answer. I’ve walked past their restaurant in London Bridge many times and always wondered what the food was like. A quick read of their menu and a look on Instagram is all it takes for me to work out I definitely want to eat here now!
But trying to recreate this dish at home is a good start.
“Wild Mushrooms on sourdough with a poached egg, sun blushed tomato & white bean hummus & crispy shallot crumb”
This sounds delicious! I’ve never tried making hummus (or is it houmous?) with anything other than chickpeas before. A peak in the cupboard reveals I’ve got a tin of butter beans. Perfect.
The beans go in a blender with tahini. oil, garlic and lemon and blitzed until smooth.
Now to think about the rest of the dish. I don’t have any sun blushed tomatoes. No shallots either. But I have got half a red onion that needs using up so I chop this finely and the fry in oil until really crispy. They look a bit burnt but that’s OK with me. I love the taste of burnt onion.
I toast a piece of my freshly baked sourdough and pop an egg into boiling water to poach. Next I fry the mushrooms in butter, resisting the urge to add garlic to the pan. There’s enough in the hummus.
There we are… a lovely lunch for one. Using (as food writers always seem to say) just some leftovers from the fridge and store cupboard staples.
I appreciate it might not be every day that you end up with some leftover wild mushrooms in the fridge.
But if you ever do, thanks to Lantana Cafe, you know what you can do with them.
Wild Mushrooms, White Bean Hummus & Poached Egg on Sourdough
Ingredients
- 1 tin butter beans
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 1 lemon
- olive oil
- ½ onion (or one shallot)
- 1 knob butter
- 80 g mixed wild mushrooms
- 1 egg
- 1 thick slice of sourdough or other crusty bread
Instructions
- First make the hummus. Drain the beans and add them to a food processor with the peeled garlic clove and tahini. Blitz until smooth. With the food processor still running add olive oil until you are happy with the consistency. Squeeze in lemon juice and season to taste.
- Dice the onion really finely. Heat some olive oil in a small frying pan and fry the onions until really crispy. Let them drain on kitchen paper until you need them.
- Clean the mushrooms and tear any larger ones in half. Add a knob of butter to the same pan you used to fry the onions and let it melt. Then add the mushrooms and fry until golden.
- Poach an egg in boiling water and put a piece of toast in the toaster. I find the time it takes to toast a piece of bread is the perfect egg cooking time for a runny yolk.
- Spread the hummus on the toast and add the wild mushrooms. Top with the poached egg and sprinkle with the fried onions. Enjoy!