BLT 'em

This is the perfect breakfast to scoff while watching Saturday Kitchen on the sofa with a cup of coffee. 

The BLT you already know: bacon, lettuce and tomato - usually served with mayonnaise and ketchup. The EM is egg and mushroom, which elevates this breakfast into a brunch that will keep you going until dinnertime.

I prefer unsmoked bacon for this, because the smoked stuff would completely overpower all the rest of it. Smoked is great for cooking with lentils or in casseroles. My bacon originally comes from Ensors, who work with a co-operative of organic farmers in Herefordshire.

First of all, get the frying pan so hot that the oil is pretty much smoking, then lay the bacon down with the mushrooms tucked around it. Try not to move it about, it takes on that lovely sticky coating if you just leave it be until fully cooked on one side. Repeat for the other and then put on some kitchen roll to absorb the grease.


Put the eggs in the pan to cook alongside the mushrooms and get your bread on to toast.

Once the toast is done, lay the slices side by side and top one with butter or ketchup, and the other with mayonnaise. Add the lettuce and sliced tomato to the butter/ketchup half and the bacon to the mayo side.

When the egg and mushrooms are ready, pop the egg on top of the bacon and the mushrooms on top of the salad. Mmm, wonderful. Demolish in the messiest way possible (see below).