Marvellous mushrooms and an eggs champignon recipe

South Cambridgeshire-based food writer Jenny Jefferies asks us to find room for mushrooms.

Trumpet, oyster, portobello, lion’s mane, enoki, button… this month, I am, of course, writing about the mushroom.

Our Victorian predecessors would be very proud as the entire organism consists of an underground network of filaments called mycelium, and the mushroom is the visible ‘fruit’ of this organism. The fungus's roots absorb nutrients from its substrate and play an essential role in decomposing, reproducing and cycling nutrients.

There are approximately 15,000 types of wild fungi in the UK alone and one teaspoon of healthy soil holds more living organisms than there are the number of people on planet Earth. Most organisms that live in soils are microscopically small, but they are essential for keeping soils in good condition.

It is also becoming widely known that a fungus from the Amazon rainforest can break down polyurethane plastic without oxygen. It's the first organism that has been discovered with this capability, and it can survive by using plastic as its only food source.

Pestalotiopsis microspora was discovered in 2011 in Ecuador's Yasuní National Forest, isolated from plant stems. The endophytic fungus lives inside plant tissues without harming its host. Laboratory testing revealed its remarkable ability; degrading plastic equally well with, or without, oxygen present.

More often than not, the mushroom remains to be an interesting source of enjoyment and fulfilment; the availability of good books written about them is vast, appreciative and important. I have duly provided you with my top five book recommendations for some mushroom musings.

Unfortunately, many mushroom puns are in spore taste, however, I will also leave you with my monthly recipe for ‘Eggs Champignon’, as featured in my third book For The Love of the Land II.

Scott Marshall, of Forest Fungi, says: “I first fell in love with mushrooms while roaming the forests of Cambridgeshire and Devon. The idea of farming them came to me after discovering their medicinal benefits when I was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy. This recipe was developed by my friend and talented chef Andrew Milford-Dunnet, who sadly passed away a few years ago. It has become our signature dish at the Forest Fungi café and I’m proud to share it with you here.”

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Eggs Champignon

Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 15 minutes | Serve 2

Ingredients

7 large free-range eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
145g butter
250g Forest Fungi mixed mushrooms
2 English breakfast muffins
½ a lemon
25g fresh parsley, finely chopped
Smoked paprika or truffle dust, to finish

Method

First, make the Hollandaise sauce. Separate three of the eggs and combine the yolks with the lemon juice, Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper in a blender.

Blend on high power for 5 seconds. Melt 120g of the butter in a microwave for one minute. Gradually add the melted butter to the yolk mixture while continuing to blend until the sauce has emulsified to a smooth texture. Set aside.

Boil some water in a saucepan and leave to simmer ready for your poached eggs.

Next, melt the remaining 25g of butter in a frying pan on a high heat. As the butter starts to brown, stir in the mushrooms so they are all coated. Leave on a high heat, stirring occasionally, for seven minutes. You are aiming to brown the mushrooms as quickly as you can. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, halve and toast the breakfast muffins. Once the seven minutes are up, carefully crack the remaining four eggs into the saucepan of simmering water to poach. This should take between two minutes and two minutes 30 seconds.

Place the toasted muffins cut side up on your serving plates. Take the mushrooms off the heat once fully cooked and quickly squeeze the fresh lemon juice over them. Stir in the parsley to finish them and taste to check the seasoning.

Evenly pile the mushrooms onto your halved muffins. Carefully place a poached egg on top of each stack.

Spoon over your finished hollandaise sauce and garnish with smoked paprika or truffle dust and a little more parsley to serve.

Jenny Jefferies’ Top Five books about the mushroom

‘The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

The Magic of Mushrooms: Fungi in folklore, superstition and traditional medicine by Sandra Lawrence

Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds by Merlin Sheldrake

A Passion for Mushrooms: The classic cookbook by Antonio Carluccio

The Gourmand's Mushroom. A Collection of Stories & Recipes by The Gourmand will be published on the 8th December 2025