eggs

Eggs are awesome!  When my daughter was four years old she told her teacher that her mommy's favorite food was eggs.  I had never thought of eggs in that fashion, but in a way my daughter was right.  Eggs are extremely versatile and are a requirement in so many of my favorite foods.  And here's a fun fact: the tall fancy toque that fancy Chefs wear has 101 folds in it and each fold represents a way in which the egg can be prepared.  I haven't found the official, definitive list of 101 ways to cook an egg, but I did locate a website that shares 100 ways to cook an egg through photographs (recipes included).

This week's class was all about the incredible, edible egg and it was a super fun class.  We made omelets, eggs sunny-side up, and eggs over-easy...and get this, we made them over-easy without a spatula.  It was just me, an egg and a pan...and a whole lot of hope that the egg didn't land on my face.  And here's the key: confidence.  Somehow that egg knows if you're nervous and it will take full advantage of this weakness.  But if you are confident and just know that you're going to flip that egg perfectly, well, you probably will.  I was so proud of my new party trick, I made several eggs over-easy for my family this morning.  I was like, "look what cool thing mommy can do!"  My kids weren't nearly as impressed as I thought they should be (KP, however, was uber-impressed).

We also made shirred eggs, scotch eggs, sabayon sauce and two souffles in our table teams.  Shirred eggs are basically baked eggs.  Line a ramekin (or muffin tin) with a slice of ham, pour in a cracked egg or two, season with salt and pepper and bake.  You can top it off with a spot of cream and cheese for  added richness.  Our shirred eggs didn't turn out quite right.  The yolk was over-cooked and the white of the egg was severely under-cooked.  We came to the conclusion that less heat and a still oven would help correct the problem.

Scotch eggs are simply a heart attack on a plate.  Hard boil an egg, wrap it in sausage, bread it and deep-fry it.  Apparently, they are a popular dish in Great Britain.  Ours turned out great, but I don't find them at all appealing.

Sabayon sauce is a decadent, rich sauce that is the perfect accompaniment to fresh fruit (my team opted to eat it with our chocolate souffles...double-dose of richness).  It requires a lot of whisking, but it is well worth it.  My teammate made a delicious sabayon sauce.

And now for the souffles.  Souffles are tricky, temperamental little buggers.  There are several tips and tricks that one should follow, but following directions alone does not equal a successful souffle...luck is also required.  My other teammate prepared the cheddar grit souffle.   It was creamy, cheesy yumminess and it rose beautifully.

I prepared the chocolate souffle and my right arm muscle was sore the next day.  The first step was to prepare the base.  I heated egg yolks, fresh-squeezed orange juice, sugar and flour over low, simmering water (double-boiler style...also known as bain-marie).  This required constant whisking...hence, the sore arm.  Next, I added chopped chocolate and Grand Marnier (yum!).  I let this cool to room temperature.  Then, I said a silent prayer to the Goddess of Egg Whites and started whisking my egg whites to medium peaks (my arm was on fire...clearly, I need to get to the gym).  Now I'm on the clock as those egg whites are very impatient and begin to deteriorate  the second you get them where you want them.  Next, I folded the whipped egg whites into the chocolatey goodness and now I had light, fluffy chocolatey goodness.  Earlier I had prepared the ramekins by rubbing them with butter and a light sprinkle of sugar.  I filled the ramekins and then wiped the edges perfectly clean (apparently, speckles of food on the edge of the ramekin pisses off the souffle and it doesn't rise as nicely as one would like).  And finally, I said a silent prayer to the Goddess of Rising and put the souffles in the oven to bake....and I prayed some more.

Many people have heard the old wives' tale about not opening the oven while cooking souffles.  Chef assured us that it was perfectly ok to quickly take a look to see how they were doing.  But I was skeptical.  I looked around the 8 minute mark...quickly.  They had barely risen.  More praying.  I checked on them again at 11 minutes.  They were doing much better on the rising, but needed to cook just a bit more.  I pulled them from the oven 2 minutes later.

We presented the chocolate souffle to Chef right out of the oven as those little suckers fall fast.  We were also presenting our sabayon sauce at the same time. He tasted the souffle.  Someone asked a question about the sauce and Chef started tasting and talking about the sauce.  The sauce was absolutely delicious, but I was kind of dying over here...Chef tasted my souffle and said nothing and now he's talking about the sauce and all sorts of other things.  I was quite certain that his lack of immediate  feedback wasn't great news.  And then he redirected his attention to the chocolate souffle.  He looked at me and said I had made a near perfect souffle.  (Thank you Goddesses of Egg Whites and Rising!)  But seriously, I was ecstatic.  I wasn't expecting that.  I've received some nice comments from Chef in previous classes (as well as some honest, needs improvement comments too), but I have never made something near-perfect.  I did follow the directions and all of the tips and tricks, but I know there was a lot of luck involved with the success of my souffle.  I'm quite grateful for both that bit of luck and for Chef's assessment of my souffle.