Good Friday Scramble

Eggs are the perfect food for everyone, but especially for vegetarians. It's not an exaggeration to say that eating 10-20 eggs a week will do a body good — excellent protein, essential fatty acids, and pretty much the whole gamut of nutrients that contribute to the health of the brain and nervous system. I have two or three locally produced free-range and flax-fed eggs for breakfast almost every day, usually gently soft boiled or fried at a low-heat to keep the yolks soft to preserve their nutrients, along with some sourdough toast with butter, and some fruit. Simple and quick… but it can get just a little boring some days. Fortunately eggs are about the most forgiving ingredient for combining with just about anything you like, so a good tasty scramble with my favourite vegetables and spices livens things up and are just about as quick and easy as cooking the eggs plain. I find that eggs go especially well with hot spices, onions, mushrooms, celery, and almost any member of the nightshade family of vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes and peppers), and to make things even quicker in the morning any or all of these added ingredients for a scramble fry can be cut up and refrigerated the night before.

For this Good Friday I made an scrambled eggs with all my favourite scramble ingredients: mushrooms, celery, green onions, jalapeno peppers, and cayenne powder. Just fry up sliced white mushrooms in butter at medium-high heat until the moisture is gone and they're nice and brown. Turn down the heat, add some more butter to replace the butter absorbed by the mushrooms, and add lots of finely chopped up jalapeno peppers, the white parts of the green onions, and celery to give the scramble some crunch. While this is frying, break some eggs in a bowl and add plenty of yoghurt or milk, cayenne powder, the green parts of the onion, and whisk the mixture until well combined. After a few minutes, add the egg mixture to the pan and stir-fry until the eggs are cooked. Sprinkle on some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, toast and butter some slices of Irish Soda Bread, and you've got a fantastic breakfast feast.