A classic brunch with some extra hacks – some that work, some that don’t, plus a deceptively simple recipe for an egg salad that is fit for a king.

Time: 3/5
You can get most things done while the portobello mushroom roasts

Effort: 3/5
Having more parts to a meal always ups the effort

Breakfast for Lunch

Since I have given up on the hope of ever affording a house, and I also happen to have some sourdough left over from the Bruschetta experiment, I decided that now was the time to have some avocado toast. Or is it going out for avocado toast that is costing me the house, and I’m making the right move by making it myself? I can never keep up with the memes.

House or not, the bread is going to go stale in a few days (unless I keep it in the freezer) and I would hate to let it go to waste. And because the market was running a deal, I got us some nice portobello mushrooms to go with the avocados. I thought it would be nice to roast them whole and give the meal some meaty texture.

But the unexpected star of this meal was the Japanese-style egg salad! I always try to include plenty of protein in my meals, but I couldn’t fit all the soft boiled eggs on top of the toast. Turns out, all it took was a bit of Kewpie mayo, salt, black pepper and elbow grease to make the most amazing side dish from the rest of the eggs.

And because I’ve had a near religious experience on why appearance matters when serving food (and because I wanted to clear out leftovers from my fridge), I served the leftover tomato salad from the bruschetta recipe yesterday on the side in a cute little ramekin. The egg salad got the same ramekin treatment, and I like to think that the additional colours and plating added to the visual appeal.

One of the other ways I tried to jazz up the avocado toast was to melt a layer of mozzarella onto the bread, below the avocados, to give some umami and saltiness to each bite. In the spirit of full disclosure, it didn’t work as well as I expected. The flavour of the cheese got lost among the richness of the avocados. But no regrets, the cheese was a clearance sale item that cost next to nothing, and I still have most of the rest of it for omlettes and stuff.

In any case, a lot of the elements of this meal worked well with each other. I might not do the cheesy toast thing again, but besides that this is something I would be happy to make again for a weekend brunch.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 4

Dramatis Personae

Served 2.

2 slices of sourdough

Being conservative with the carbs, to make space for the avocado and the cheese. These go straight into the oven with the cheese on top – the bottom will toast, while the top will stay soft and chewy for some nice textural contrast.

50g Low fat shredded mozzarella

Food bloggers like to say that the pre-shredded stuff is not as good as shredding cheese yourself. But I’d like to contend out that the convenience of pre-shredded cheese is a virtue that outshines any downsides it has, because if something is so much trouble that my time-poor salaryman’s ass can’t be bothered to do it, it’s not going into the meal.

1 small avocado

Plenty of good fats and fiber, but it also comes with a lot of calories too. They do need a bit of salt to taste their best, so just like with the bread in bruschetta it’s worth seasoning each part of the dish individually.

2 Portobello mushrooms

The larger the better. They shrink by a lot as they roast, so keep that in mind if the presentation matters to you. Mushrooms naturally contain glutamates, which makes them naturally savoury tasting. It doesn’t take much to make them taste good, just some olive oil, salt and pepper will do the job.

I removed the stems and roasted them separately with the intention of cutting it into slices and putting them between the pieces of egg. It was a good idea in my head, but when it came time to plate I just couldn’t be bothered.

Maybe that’s an idea you might try for this dish, or another recipe. At least roasting them separately increased the surface area to volume ratio, which means more roasty toasty flavours.

5 eggs

Into boiling water for 7 minutes, then immediately into a cold water bath. After some experimentation, it seems to be the most reliable method to make soft-boiled eggs that are also easy to peel – maybe the temperature shock helps the egg white shrink away from the shell. Just a pet theory. Although I’ve heard that steaming eggs make them easier to peel, so that might be something to try next time.

1 tablespoon Kewpie mayo

Kewpie specifically, because unlike Western mayo it doesn’t have any sugar in it, and it’s tangier from having vinegar in the ingredients. It also has MSG, which never hurts when making savoury food.

Salt and Pepper to taste, Tajin and scallions for garnish

The salt is needed for the avocado, needed for the soft boiled eggs, and especially important for the egg salad. The egg salad also gains a lot from the burst of fresh allium flavour of some finely chopped scallions.

Besides the standard salt and pepper, I also has a bit of tajin that I used as a garnish. It has been sitting in my pantry since I brought it back from my trip to the US, and I haven’t found a good use for it yet. Tried it on mangoes, didn’t like it a lot. I was hoping the acidity might play nice with the avocado, but to be honest I couldn’t taste the difference. The colour was nice though, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

Executive summary

1. Boil eggs in water for 7 minutes, then immediately put them in a cold water bath.
2. Preheat oven to 150C/300F. Cover the pieces of bread with shredded cheese, and toast for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
3. After bread is toasted, raise oven temperature to 200C/400F. Oil and season the portobello mushrooms, and roast for about 20 minutes, flipping once halfway through.
4. While mushrooms roast, peel the eggs. Cut two into slices for the toast. Mash the rest of the eggs in a bowl with kewpie mayo, salt and pepper. Keep it in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
5. Halve and deseed the avocado. Arrange avocado slices on top of the cheese toast, and sprinkle lightly with salt.
6. Top avocado toast with slices of egg, and serve with egg salad on the side.

Play by Play

Starting in the midst of action – I already had extra soft-boiled eggs for something else yesterday. Bread goes into the oven once cheesed.

I washed and de-stemmed my portobellos while the bread toasted. The oven is preheated anyway, might as well make use of the heat.

Bread is ready. Pull the old switcheroo, crank up the oven, lightly oil and season the mushroom, back into the oven.

More knife work while the mushrooms roast. Save the pretty eggs to top the toast, and the rest goes into the salad. To be honest, peeling the eggs was the hardest part of the entire process.

There isn’t much to say about making this egg salad – mash ingredients together, taste and adjust seasonings until it tastes amazing. Divide this (and the tomato salad) into ramekins, and keep in the fridge while waiting for the mushrooms to cook.

Speak of the devil, here they are. A pity about the lake of mushroom juice that collected in the cap. I wonder if it would turn out differently if I finished roasting them the other way round.

Assemble and serve. A bit of garnish and plating goes a long way!

The toast was great, but this egg salad is my favourite part of this meal!

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