Breakfast and Brunch, Family Recipe, Mains, Simple Meals, Vegetarian
Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 1
My ever-so-slightly fancier take on a classic dish. (Only slightly—if you’re looking for a crab meat and bearnaise sauce-fancy version go find Marco Pierre White.) Suitable for brunch, lunch, or dinner. Serve with a simple salad.
Mushrooms on toast was always something I considered an easy dinner. It seemed like more of a legitmeal™️ than just making instant ramen or throwing something in the microwave, but not so complicated that I couldn’t manage it on my low energy/high pain days. As a bonus, most of the ingredients are staples in my kitchen.
I started with a fairly basic plan: “sauté sliced white mushrooms in butter with jarred minced garlic and worchestershire sauce. Serve on buttered toast. Top with poached or over-medium egg.” Over time, it evolved to sautéing a mushroom/green onion combo in butter with minced fresh garlic and thyme, then adding whole grain mustard and a bit of milk to make more of a sauce. Finally, one night I didn’t feel up to cooking eggs (because accidentally broken yolks are a freaking tragedy) so I decided to break the damned yolk on purpose and use the egg to make French toast as the base. ✨REVELATION.✨
My step-grandfather, Frank Otis (1932-1998), had worked as a country club chef for years and taught me to make French toast when I was maybe in junior high school. His version involved slices of a dense loaf topped with sesame seeds, dipped in a mix of one egg and just a splash of milk per slice, and shallow fried in a measurable depth of oil. Though I can’t quite remember the variety of bread he favored (maybe it was sold in a pre-sliced loaf as Texas toast?), I still rely on his egg+milk proportions.
*All measurements given are approximations. Unlike baking, cooking isn’t always science. Some quantities, like garlic, you can only truly measure with your heart.
1 thick slice good quality bread (brioche if you can get it)
2 large handfuls white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 green onions, chopped and separated white/green (reserve some of the prettier green parts for a garnish)
2 cloves OR 1 tablespoon* minced garlic (fresh is great, but jarred is just fine. Conserve your energy as needed).
1 tablespoon dried thyme, crushed
Butter (or butter + olive oil) sufficient for sautéing
1 heaping tablespoon whole grain mustard (my favorite is Maille Old Style)
2 tablespoons whole milk or cream (adjust as desired)
Finishing salt (like that jar of ĂĽber-fancy fleur de sel your sister gave you a few years ago)
Beat egg and milk in container large enough to fit the bread slice. Briefly soak bread in egg mixture. Cook in a sauté pan over medium heat, turning once, until golden brown on both sides. Pour any additional egg mixture in the pan and cook it, too. (Let it cool then give it to the cats—no sense wasting it!) Remove from heat; cover and keep warm in a wide, shallow bowl.
For the mushroom topping:
In the pan you cooked the toast in, add more butter. Add the garlic and thyme, then after that’s heated through and fragrant add the whites of the green onions. Cook for a few minutes. Add sliced mushrooms, salt**, pepper, and the remainder of the green onions (except the garnish bits), adding additional butter or oil if needed.
**Add a bit less salt than you think you need because you’re going to add the finishing salt later.
When the mushrooms are almost done cooking, add the mustard and milk and stir to incorporate.
Remove bread from the microwave (or wherever you’re keeping it warm). Spoon/pour mushroom mixture over the French toast. Add reserved green onions and finishing salt. Take a photo for Instagram as proof you cooked.
