Breakfast of champions

Whilst at uni, I lived with a rather sweet guy who, despite being outrageously sociable, declined to share his treasured Saturday morning breakfast ritual with anyone. Between 9.00am and 10.00am every Saturday, he would disappear with a book to a little cafe around the corner from our place. I'm fairly sure that the staff stopped taking his order, because he ate exactly the same thing every week.

Since partaking in the rather distressing reality of full time work, Monday to Friday, 9 -5 (which, incidentally, it isn't anymore, it's more like 8 - 6), I understand his sacred Saturday routine. Lazy breakfasts at any time of the week are the first casualty when you step onto the career path. Lesson learned, I now reserve an hour or so for myself in the sunny spot in my backyard on a Saturday morning with the paper, a bottomless cup of tea and a plate of something tasty from my own kitchen. On today's menu was poached eggs with spiced beans and mushrooms on a toasted poppyseed bagel. I can't promise that Kurt Vonnegut Jr would endorse it, but it is damn tasty and makes a good start to the weekend.

Spiced beans and mushrooms

1 clove of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tomato, diced
a handful of button mushrooms
1 little tin of mixed beans (around the 125g size)
1 tsp tomato paste
a couple of shakes of paprika
freshly ground pepper

Tip all of the ingredients for the spiced beans into a saucepan, mix well, and set over a low heat on the stove top. Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may need to add a little bit of water to prevent the mixture drying out. This is a really flexible recipe that you can modify depending on what you have available. You could try adding chilli, fresh basil or coriander, baby spinach, haloumi, fried chorizo etc.

Poached eggs

Since this is about having a relaxing breakfast, don't go stressing yourself out over poaching the eggs. There are a couple of things that you can do to pretty much guarantee perfect poached eggs...

• A deep frying pan, or wide saucepan, is good for cooking a number of eggs simultaneously. Fill with water and set on the stove top, and bring the water to a boil. Splash in a tablespoon or two of white vinegar (this helps the eggs to hold together) and bring the water back to a simmer (it shouldn't bubble).
  
• Going one at a time, crack a cold, free range, egg into a cup or ramekin. Fresh eggs will keep their shape best.
  
• Stir the water to create a whirlpool in the centre of the pan and gently slide the egg into the whirlpool from the cup. The whirlpool helps to keep the egg in a nice shape and prevents the white from going straggly. Once the white begins to solidify, push the egg to the side of the pan, and add the next egg following the same method. If you are having any kind of bread with your eggs, now is the time to pop it into the toaster.
  
• Cook the eggs for approximately 2 minutes if you like a thick but runny yolk, and 4 minutes if you prefer the yolk hard. Whilst the egg is cooking, butter the toast and have it ready on the plate
  
• Use a slotted spoon to lift the eggs out and let the water drain off before transferring the egg to the toast. Add any sides (like the spiced beans and mushrooms) and serve, with a little freshly ground salt and pepper.

If that all seems a little too hard, you can always eat out. If you are in Melbourne or Sydney, this is a particularly good site for hunting down the best.