{ ffwd } creamy mushrooms and eggs

What a crazy day yesterday was. C-R-A-Z-Y. I took the morning flight from Singapore to Jakarta to pick up Bébé from my mother’s place where she had spent the last two weeks. She was beaming and seemed to have gained weight. My mother obviously had fed her well. I was very happy to see her. She seemed happy to see me too. We spent the early afternoon together with my mother and by late afternoon we were to catch the 4 o’clock flight back to Singapore. Everything went well when we got to the airport. I had packed everything we needed for the short hour flight back to Singapore. Milk supply, check. Blanket, check. Baby Einstein videos uploaded to my tablet, check, check, check.

Bébé had had a big lunch. She was relaxed and seemed ready to doze off at the boarding gate. I of course tried to keep her awake so that she could take her nap during the flight rather. FYI, this was not the first time we travelled alone. Bébé took her first flight to Jakarta at the mere age of 3 months. Since then, she has been to Vietnam once, and Jakarta many a times. You must think that by now I should have mastered the art of flying with Bébé with a minimum fuss. Well so did I to the point that I often bragged about it to fellow mothers in my building. That is,  until they delayed my flight for almost 2 hours (!!). As you can probably imagine, everything went downhill from there straight to the fiery wrath of hell. Struggling to keep her awake before the flight, I entertained Bébé with pictures and videos from my tablet. But after 3 replays of “Baby Einstein numbers nursery”, Bébé grew bored and demanded one thing and one thing only: MILK. Like a furious child, she downed her supply of milk before I can even salvage a drop for the flight home. Doom was upon me and doomed I was.

The one hour something flight was the longest most horrible flight I ever took in my whole life. My baby kept crying demanding for more milk when I had none. She threw away the biscuit I offered her. I dared not turn my head to see whose lap/head it landed upon. My Baby Einstein videos of which I had only high hopes, couldn’t rescue me from the piercing unapologetic glares of 4B, 4C and 5C. I glanced angrily at 6A who literally gave two thumbs up to the 4-year old sitting behind me for being so “nice and quiet”. To make matters worse, Bébé’s “ultra protection” diaper chose the worst moment ever to lower it’s guard. I had no choice but to retreat to the plane’s washroom. Now, I am one of those people who get cold sweats when using the bathroom on a plane in case the loo decided to suck me out of the plane or something. I guess my daughter feels the same way for she screamed and screamed and did not stop until we were tucked safe in a baby nursing room somewhere in terminal 1 Changi airport. I vowed to never let myself go through all that again, at least not without my husband.

So where does this traumatising experience lead me on Food Revolution Day? I woke up feeling tired and sore from carrying Bébé all night long (she is a hefty 10kg bundle of joy now). I certainly wasn’t in the mood of cooking something fancy. I needed a quick and comforting fix, done in a jiffy, preferably during Bébé’s morning nap. And of course! Creamed mushrooms on buttery toast. This was an FFwD assignment from earlier this month that I had missed. And I’m so glad I made this. It was quick, easy, and most importantly yummy. I used a variety of Asian mushrooms: Brown Bunashimeji, Shiitake and Oyster. The mint did surprise me but in a good way. The poached egg yielded another layer of richness and comfort to the toast.

The only problem I had with this dish was poaching the egg. I’m not even going to pretend and tell myself that I did a good job with the egg because I didn’t. The hard truth is that I am a lousy poacher. I have always been. My egg fell apart as soon as it hit the water and I overcooked the yolk slightly. I did not even bother with the ruffly egg option because I’ve tried it before. And because I am that lousy, it did not work for me either. Believe you me, I have watched every how-to videos, did every trick in the book, still there is no saving me. But because I love poached eggs, I poached one, despite my lousiness. It wasn’t a beautifully poached egg, but it certainly wasn’t bad either. I ate two toasts, and blitzed the rest of the mushrooms to make a Bébé-friendly mushroom risotto. I served it to her for lunch. She did not flinch.

Creamy Mushrooms and Eggs (in 5 steps)

1. You first slather some bread with butter and toast them until nice and golden. You can use any kind of bread. I used a multigrain country loaf.
2. Next, sweat shallots with a little olive oil. Add in the mushrooms until they have rendered their juice.
3. Then you add some heavy cream and herbs (rosemary and mint, or anything you’d like). Cook to a boil until the cream has thickened. Don’t forget to season.
4. Now poach an egg.
5. Serve the mushrooms on toast and top it with a poached egg. Et voilà! A much needed quick lunch for one.

The complete recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s “Around My French Table”.

Check out:

• Dorie Greenspan’s book: “Around My French Table”
• French Fridays with Dorie
• Amazon page for Dorie’s book