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Eating in<br />
Illustration: rachelgale.com<br />
Ingredients (for 4)<br />
4 duck eggs (it works with other<br />
eggs but the richness of a duck<br />
egg is pretty special.)<br />
A handful of St George’s<br />
mushrooms, or morels, or<br />
whatever floats your mushroom<br />
boat<br />
50g butter<br />
200ml double cream<br />
Sprig of thyme<br />
Four or so leaves of wild garlic,<br />
shredded, or use crushed cloves of<br />
standard garlic – but be aware<br />
that it will produce a stronger<br />
flavour<br />
100g finely grated Parmesan<br />
Elliott Lidstone, rustles up a tasty mushroom and<br />
duck egg treat for spring<br />
Fry the mushrooms, sliced,<br />
in the butter. Break the duck<br />
eggs into four individual baking<br />
dishes (or a communal one if<br />
you wish) and cover evenly with<br />
the infused cream.<br />
Up there amongst our three<br />
year-old’s top pursuits is<br />
messing around in sandpits. So<br />
on a recent sunny day, my wife<br />
decided it was time to let our<br />
baby join the fun in the sand.<br />
She ate it. Of course. So much<br />
for raising a culinary genius.<br />
But, still, if it’s playing-in-thesandpit<br />
weather then that<br />
means spring is here and<br />
summer is a-coming, and THAT<br />
means I can play around with<br />
lovely spring ingredients like<br />
wild garlic and St George’s<br />
mushrooms. Win-win.<br />
St George mushrooms (named<br />
because they appear around<br />
22 LOVEEAST<br />
St George's day) – should be<br />
available from <strong>April</strong> to June-ish.<br />
If you’re struggling to find them<br />
then go with morels, which are<br />
not cheap, but their flavour is<br />
worth the splurge.<br />
Local forager John Rensten<br />
(foragelondon.co.uk), may be<br />
able to help you find both<br />
wild garlic and St George’s<br />
mushrooms, but please, please<br />
be sure before you go picking<br />
and eating fungi!<br />
Method<br />
Bring the cream to the boil and<br />
infuse with the wild garlic and<br />
thyme. Season lightly, set aside.<br />
Scatter the mushroom into the<br />
dishes and cover with the finely<br />
grated cheese, leaving the yolks<br />
exposed where possible.<br />
Bake for about 10 minutes, or<br />
until the whites set (you still<br />
want runny yolks), in an oven<br />
set to about 180 degrees.<br />
Enjoy straight from the oven<br />
with crusty bread and a twist<br />
of cracked black pepper and<br />
slug of truffle oil if you’re feeling<br />
indulgent. Perfect if you didn’t<br />
get your fill of eggs at Easter.<br />
Elliott Lidstone is head chef at The<br />
Empress empresse9.co.uk<br />
@ElliottLidstone
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