Here are the answers:

1. What is a bireweck?
   1. A tiered tray for cooling baked goods
   2. An Alsatian cake like a fruit loaf
   3. A steel utensil for holding asparagus in the cooking pan
   4. A type of fish
2. In what monthly magazine was Isabella Beeton’s household management advice first published?
   1. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine
   2. Good Housekeeping
   3. Cosmopolitan
   4. Best Advice For Housewives
3. What is a sargus?
   1. A type of Polish sausage
   2. A type of fish
   3. An Egyptian bread
   4. A flavouring derived from sugar cane
4. What is a sterlet?
   1. A type of fish
   2. An egg dish similar in texture to a soufflé
   3. A utensil for folding in stiffened egg whites
   4. The small piece of chicken meat in the hollow of the iliac bones, just above the tail.
5. Which cookbook writer won the 2004 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year for the book Toast?
   1. Nigella Lawson
   2. Delia Smith
   3. Darina Allen
   4. Nigel Slater

How did you get on?

Having visited the Mushroom Bureau’s website (which I mentioned in a previous posting) I decided to have a go at making their Weekend Mushrooms. But, true to form, I can never follow someone else’s recipe and prefer to do things my own way – so here’s their recipe and mine.

Weekend Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 4 breakfast or Portobello mushrooms
• About 60ml (4 tbsp) oil
• 8 medium eggs, beaten
• 30ml (2 tbsp) horseradish sauce
• 30ml (2 tbsp) chopped fresh parsley
• 75-125g (3-4oz) smoked salmon trimmings
• Salt & pepper
• 30ml (2 tbsp) fresh soured cream

Method

Heat oil and cook mushrooms in a large covered pan for about 6 minutes, turning occasionally.

Beat eggs, horseradish sauce, chopped parsley, smoked salmon and seasoning together.

Pour into a saucepan and cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. As egg begins to set, reduce heat and gently stir in the soured cream. Continue cooking until egg has almost cooked through.

Serve mushrooms on warm plates topped with the creamy scrambled eggs.

Birthday Brunch Mushrooms (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 2 large Portobello mushrooms
• A little oil and butter for frying
• 4 large/medium eggs (I used 5 small ones because we could only get small ones today)
• 100g packet of good quality smoked salmon (not trimmings, yuk!)
• a couple of spoonfuls of horseradish sauce
• Parsley for garnish
• Salt and pepper

Method

Heat oil and butter in a frying pan and fry mushrooms until cooked.

Make scrambled eggs in the usual way. (I didn’t have sour cream but I don’t think it mattered.)

(I didn’t add the horseradish because I’ve never had scrambled eggs with horseradish before and wasn’t sure if it would taste good. I served the horseradish on the side instead. As it turned out the horseradish gave the eggs a delicious taste. I also didn’t add the smoked salmon because we had good quality stuff and I didn’t want to cook it, so I served that on the side too.)

Place the mushrooms on the plates, spoon some scrambled egg over them and garnish with parsley. (With hindsight, chives would’ve been lovely with this – possibly even better than parsley.)

I served this with a wholemeal sub roll, a couple of slices of smoked salmon, and a baby spinach leaf and cherry tomato salad. Yum!

I think my version is better (well, I would, wouldn’t I?) but it was the Mushroom Bureau who gave me the idea for this in the first place. Take your choice.

For the baby spinach and cherry tomato salad I simply washed and dried the spinach, halved the tomatoes and tossed both in a bowl with my usual homemade salad dressing. (One part red or white wine vinegar, two parts olive oil, salt and pepper or McCormick’s steak seasoning.)