It’s mid-yawny-morning.
The doorbell rings.
I’m not expecting anyone or anything but, lo and behold, there is a man at my door bearing gifts (woohoo, I’m all for that!) – a basket of Denny sausages, rashers, ham and 2 still-warm, foil-wrapped breakfast rolls to be precise.
Score!
…or at least it would have been if I was given to eating porky products. As it is, I haven’t done so for a long time and, when baskets of same come my way (this being precisely the first time this has happened), I swiftly pass them on to family members who are only too happy to accept.
I suppose Denny weren’t to know. They were just drawing attention to the results of their “Home Is” campaign, where they surveyed people on their thoughts about what makes a home and, as part of the deal, donated funds to The Simon Communities of Ireland, longtime champions of the homeless in this country. Good on them for that.
The delivery got me thinking, not so much about home, though, as about breakfast rolls.
Beneath that foil exterior lurks a breakfast roll
For those of you not familiar with this classic item of Irish cuisine, just imagine yourself with a hangover and picture a white bread roll filled, more or less, with the contents of a full Irish breakfast: sausages and rashers at a minimum, sometimes black pudding, sometimes white pudding, sometimes egg, sometimes mushrooms and sometimes hash browns, plus ketchup or brown sauce. Best washed down with a big mug of tea.
They are a staple at hot food counters in garages and supermarkets the length and breadth of the country and are the stereotypical early-in-the-day meal of choice for Irish construction workers (even to the point of economist David McWilliams coining the phrase “Breakfast Roll Man” to describe a representative of that now much rarer construction worker species).
Breakfast rolls have even been immortalised in song:
Far from the healthiest things in the world, they are precisely the kind of thing you might want if you were feeling a little the worse for wear in the a.m. And while I might not be given to partaking in the classic breakfast roll these days, that’s not to say that there aren’t times when I fancy something breakfast-roll-like. When that happens, I might just make something like this:
Egg and Mushroom Breakfast Roll
The recipe for a breakfast roll may be summarised as follows: “Stuff whatever fried objects you’d like for breakfast into a crusty bread roll”. In this case, the fried objects are pieces of shredded omelette and a mushroom, garlic and onion mix. For more detailed instructions, should you need them, see below.
You’ll need:
- butter for frying and for spreading on the bread roll(s)
- 75g onion (about half a medium-sized onion), sliced into fine half rings
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- small pinch of dried thyme
- 100g mushrooms (I used a mix of chestnut and oyster mushrooms), wiped clean and sliced
- 1 egg
- 2 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tblsp finely grated parmesan
- 1 baguette / crusty bread roll, around 25cm long (or use 2 smaller rolls)
You’ll also need:
- 2 frying pans, one small (around 20cm diameter) for cooking the egg and a larger one (mine was around 24cm) for the onions and mushrooms.
The Steps:
- Place the larger frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add about 1 tblsp butter and allow to melt.
- Add the onions to the pan and stir and fry for around 6-8 minutes, or until they have softened and are starting to develop brown spots.
- Add the garlic and thyme and stir and fry for another minute or so.
- If the pan is very dry at this point, you can add a little more butter, then add the mushrooms.
- Fry (but avoid stirring too much), allowing the mushrooms to brown on the pan. The mushrooms will release some liquid (how much will vary, depending on the mushrooms used). Continue to fry until there is very little liquid left, maybe around 8-10 minutes in total.
- While the mushrooms are frying, break the egg into a small bowl and whisk lightly. Stir in half of the chopped parsley and season with a little salt and a couple of twists of black pepper.
- Place your small frying pan over a medium-high heat and, when hot, add about a tsp of butter and allow to melt.
- Now add your beaten egg, swirl it around the pan, then fry for 2-3 minutes, until there is no liquid egg left. Turn the omelette, sprinkle with the parmesan and cook for another 2 minutes or so.
- Remove from the heat and slice the omelette into thin strips, around 0.5cm wide.
- When the mushrooms and onions are done, remove from the heat, season with some salt and black pepper and stir in the remaining parsley.
- Now split your bread roll(s), butter as liberally as you desire, and stuff with the shredded omelette, mushrooms and onions. Enjoy with a big mug of tea.
The Variations:
- Of course you can add some good ketchup or other condiments of your choice – whatever it is you like with your eggy, mushroomy breakfast.
- If I were feeling a bit more Asian, I’d skip the thyme and parmesan, replace the parsley with fresh coriander leaves, add some grated ginger to the onions and mushrooms, season with soy sauce instead of salt and spread some sweet chili sauce on the bread. I might need to go and do that right now in fact.
The Results:
- Breakfast roll for one if you’re very hungry or for two if you feel like sharing.
I can smell this cooking as I read it. Reminds me of evenings my da would take a notion and disappear over the fields and return with a bag of huge mushrooms!I am v hungry reading this- sounds so delicious!! Thank you Spud!
I never thought I would see a vegetarian breakfast roll! Looks delicious!
Hmmmm there’s no sight better than meltin’ butter on a jumbo mushroom roll ;-)
Ah mushrooms fried in butter … great anytime of the day.
There is no way, absolutely no way that a roll containing bits of omelette and mushrooms can even pretend to be a substitute for the mighty jumbo breakfast roll. The JBR is a thing of magnificent beauty, an icon, a symbol of our late and lamented celtic tiger. There is no other meal that you can eat that supplies all the calories you need for a week delivered in a form that allows you to eat, chat on your mobile and drive your van all at the same time. A vegetarian version? I don’t think so!
Ha, feel much better having got that rant of my chest.
Yvette: ah, you’re welcome – you’ve reminded me, in turn, of picking mushrooms as a kid, something I would now approach with great trepidation!
Jane: thanks – though I do realise that a vegetarian breakfast roll is really somewhat of a contradiction in terms :)
Gillian: yep, fried in butter is the way to go
Michelle: What can I say except that I agree! The JBR has indeed achieved iconic status and, however tasty in its own right, I don’t for a minute think that a meatless version comes anywhere close to the experience that is the JBR. Perhaps I should clarify for all and sundry that this is inspired by, but not a true replacement for, the original.
Apparently I am a breakfast roll virgin as I’ve never heard of one before! This looks like it would make my other half a very happy man on a Saturday morning. Delicious!
What comes to mind as the US equivalent of the breakfast roll might be the Sausage Egg McMuffin. I no longer have the stern constitution to attempt consumption of either but I don’t begrudge those who do. But I’d much rather have your breakfast roll. Just look at it: an explosion of mushroomy, eggy goodness and healthy to boot! (Otherwise, I’ll take the pork sausages in the background of photo #1, whichever you can spare)
A grand mushrooms breakfast roll,….waw & yummie!
Phoo-D: it’s real weekend morning fare for sure :)
Tangled Noodle: A sausage egg mcmuffin probably counts as one of the junior siblings of the breakfast roll family whereas the JBR is the big daddy of them all. The egg & mushroom version, meanwhile, is one of those strange foreign cousins that some people suspect is not even related to the rest! Regardless of its status within the family, though, I’m sure I could spare some of the Egg McMushroom to send your way – pork sausages too (and if they don’t arrive, just blame the customs inspectors!)
Sophie: just the thing for a Sunday morning, might need to make another right now :D
I’ve got a little something for you….winner girl! Congratulations….head on over to KB!
Good morning with this! Looks like the perfect thing to eat for a brunch.
Kichen Butterfly: very excited about my win over at your place!
Duo Dishes: yep, it’s brunch-worthy, very brunch-worthy indeed :)
I am over here looking for an omelet, but I will take that if it is on the menu! Hangover or not! I could make it a ‘French Dip’ with a side car of Irish whiskey…bite the hair as they say!