BREAKFAST & BRUNCH
MUSHROOM PARMESAN TUILE FRENCH TOAST
- Timescale In A Hurry
- Serves 2
- Difficulty Simple
We’ve taken the humble mushrooms on toast and turned it into a brunch Show-Stopper.
French toast is a stellar way to use up any stale slices you have lying around but this works particularly well with a good sourdough or a slice of sweet brioche. The drama in this dish comes from the parmesan tuille – a salty, cheesy nest fixed to your french toast just waiting for the mushrooms.
We’ve used a mix of Chanterelle and Girolle mushrooms and pan-fried them with brown butter and sage. Served with lemon-zested greek yoghurt, this impressive dish will have your guests marvelling at the tastiest and tallest french toast they’ve ever had.
Ingredients
THE FRENCH TOAST
2 Thick Slices of Stale Bread
50g Parmesan, Finely Grated
1 Large Egg, Beaten
25ml Milk
1 tsp. Dried Thyme
Generous Pinch of Salt & Pepper
THE MUSHROOMS
150g Wild Mushrooms, we used Chanterelle and Girolles
30g Salted Butter
Half a Shallot, finely diced
1 Small Bunch of Sage
THE YOGHURT
50g Greek Yoghurt
Zest of half a Lemon
Pinch of Salt
METHOD
THE YOGHURT
To make the Yoghurt, simply combine all the ingredients together and mix until you have a thick, homogenous, Yoghurt.
Refrigerate until needed.
THE FRENCH TOAST
In a large bowl, combine the Egg, Milk, Thyme, Salt and Pepper and whisk together until evenly combined.
Dip each slice of bread into the batter allowing 15 seconds or so for each side, until most of, if not all of the batter has been soaked up.
Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add a knob of butter to the pan with a splash of olive oil. Once the butter has melted, add the bread to the pan and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
Set the cooked toast aside and wipe the pan clean with some kitchen paper. Return the pan to the heat and increase to high.
To make the Parmesan Tuile, add half of the parmesan to the pan in an even circle, it will start to melt and begin to crisp almost immediately. As soon as the parmesan is in the pan, place a slice of the French toast on top of the melting cheese and leave for 1-2 minutes.
Working carefully with a spatula, tease around the edges of the parmesan, it should lift up easily. Work your way under the cheese to the centre of the toast and then lift up the toast in a single, clean motion. The cheese should stick to the underside of the toast whilst the overhanging cheese will hang down and instantly start to harden. Hold the toast upside down for 10-20 seconds as the parmesan tuile hardens before flipping over. The result should be a spectacularly sculptural piece of toast with shards of parmesan jutting vertically upright from the toast.
Repeat for the second piece of toast.
Set aside whilst you cook the mushrooms.
THE MUSHROOMS
Place a large pan over medium heat and add in the butter. Cook gently for 3 minutes until the butter has melted and is starting to colour and beginning to smell nutty. Pick the sage leaves and divide into thirds, finely dice two-thirds of the leaves and add into the butter along with the finely diced shallot. Cook for another minute and then add in the remaining whole sage leaves followed by a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook until the whole sage leaves have caramelised. And then remove them from the pan.
Increase the heat to high and add the mushrooms to the pan, leave undisturbed for a minute or two until they are starting to caramelise and getting crisp and delicious. Stir and cook for a further minute until cooked through.
Serve immediately inside the parmesan-tuile-nest atop your delicious french toast and a dollop of the yoghurt.
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