Mushroom & Mature Kirkham's Lancashire Omelette by Laura Jackson

To celebrate the launch of our Melting Selection, we've dug out some of our favourite recipes that feature the cheeses in our selection. 

Laura is head chef at Towpath Cafe. She is a truly brilliant cook; her food is nutritious, unpretentious and quite simply what you want to eat all-day, everyday. Below she shares her favourite way to eat Kirkham's Lancashire. For a stronger flavour, why not try Kirkham's Mature Lancashire. 

"Lancashire cheese in my opinion is one of the best cheeses for melting. It has such a rich, buttery, unctuous flavour that comes across just as strongly once melted. Rather than doing cheese on toast, I thought about what I could do which is simple, uses seasonal ingredients, is cheap and quick to make.

This recipe, to me, signifies an enormous hug. It is so nurturing and comforting, and can be eaten at any time of the day. It's rich but light enough to enjoy even in the Spring weather. Serve on its own, with some toast or a green salad. I like to serve a blob of hot sauce on the side to cut through the richness!"

Serves 1

For the Mushrooms:

3 tbsp olive oil
100g button mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced into 2mm thick slices
3 sprigs thyme, picked and finely chopped
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, peeled and minced
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the Omelette:

2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp olive oil
10g butter
50g Kirkham's Lancashire cheese, finely grated
Mushrooms [cooked above]

• Heat a medium-sized saucepan over a high heat.
• Add the olive oil and when hot add the mushrooms and thyme. 
• Cook on a high heat until the mushrooms have browned and gone crispy. If you're making enough mushroom mix for a few omelettes, consider frying in batches to avoid overcrowding - otherwise your mushrooms will sweat rather than colour. 
• Turn heat down to low, add the garlic, salt and pepper.
• Mix well and stir in the lemon juice.
• Cook for a couple more minutes.
• Set aside.

• Whisk the eggs, egg yolk and double cream together in a bowl. 
• Very lightly season with salt and pepper [the cheese is quite salty so don't overdo it].
• Heat a small saucepan over a high heat. Add the olive oil and butter.
• When hot and foaming add the egg mix and let it brown on the bottom, constantly moving the egg mix around to cook evenly. This should take 1-2 minutes.
• Sprinkle the cheese onto one half of the omelette and add the mushroom mix on top.
• Fold the other half of the omelette over to make a neat parcel.
• Turn heat off and let sit in the pan for 1 minute so the cheese melts but the egg doesn’t overcook.

If you don’t have any double cream you can easily replace with milk or just omit them all together. If you don’t have mushrooms a Kirkham's Lancashire omelette on it's own would be just as delicious, but please replace the mushrooms with any other vegetables, such as tomatoes, spring onions and so on.