Egg them on: Eggs Benedict

Eggs are a culinary wonder. Really. They have got to be one of the most versatile ingredients in any cook’s arsenal. And of course they’re little nuggets of goodness, too – omegas, vitamins, the lot. They are quite possibly my favourite food in the world.

Eggs have been used in cooking for so long that thousands of jokes and adages have grown up around them (my favourite being: you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs). There have also been some damaging myths about eggs, including that they are not that good for you to eat every day. Thankfully that myth has been firmly debunked in recent years, and eggs have regained their rightful place at the kitchen table.

For the tired or lazy cook, eggs are a winner because they’re so quick to cook. It’s always comforting to know that at the end of a long day, once you have eggs and cheese and a few other random bits and bobs in the fridge, you have dinner in the bag, an omelette or frittata in front of you and a reasonable chance of getting some nutrition.

There are, happily, hundreds of ways to eat eggs, from the simple – thinking here of scrambled on toast – to the more refined, such as steamed asparagus with the molten gold of egg yolk just spilling over it. Yum.

In terms of how to use them in your cooking, eggs are a bit like that really popular kid at school: everyone wants to hang out with them. Scrambled, boiled, poached or baked, eggs are happy to partner up with almost anything – bacon, cheese, spinach, peppers, onions, potato, ham, mushrooms and avocado. You can also eat them at any meal – breakfast, lunch or dinner. See what I mean by versatile?

But of all the ways to cook eggs, there are some old reliables.

Of these, two star in almost every popular brunch menu: Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine, the latter with spinach, the former with ham, and both with that wonderful ode to the beauty of eggs and butter – hollandaise sauce.

My recipes this week play fast and loose with the classic Eggs Benedict, being essentially a veggie version with mushrooms instead of ham, and no hollandaise at all.

Portobello mushrooms are gratifyingly “meaty”. With the accompanying Asian-inspired avocado mash and the tomato salsa, made punchy with miso, this would make a simple and nutritious supper or even a brunch.

dkemp@irishtimes.com