IMBB#16: The well-armored egg
Eggs. Eggs?!? Any kind of eggs? Good lord, that’s like cutting me loose to write a lullaby and assigning the London Philharmonic as backup. The possibilities are endless. We could get seriously carried away, here.
At least, that’s what I thought at first after reading this month’s IMBB theme announcement from Seattle Bon Vivant. I had visions, see. Visions of grandeur involving salmon roe floating atop a soft boiled quail egg, resting inside a hollowed out hard boiled duck egg. Egg inside egg inside egg. A veritable Russian nesting doll d’oeuf. It would be glorious.
Then (our first trauma), Chopper Dave had to remind me that soft boiled egg yolks are slippery, and the salmon roe would probably glumph into oblivion two seconds after contact. Damn. So much for this week’s crazy idea.
And then (a second trauma), we couldn’t find a single duck egg at this week’s farmer’s market.
And then… Well, not exactly a trauma, but the simple fact that we had a huge box of regular old chicken eggs in the fridge and we really needed to be making some headway on them. (Huge sigh of disappointment. This could get boring.)
So, on to plan B: We’d use just chicken eggs (and not even farm fresh eggs at that, alas), but we had to make something that would still feature the shape and the shell of the egg.
Like single serving soufflés, served in the shell.
Or, as Chopper dubbed it…
Goat Cheese and Herb Soufflé in Armor
Ingredients
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Egg whites
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon thyme, minced
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 ounces goat cheese
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Carefully score egg shells and remove tops. Rinse and save top halves for garnish. Rinse and dry inside of lower halves, then drizzle with olive oil and rub to cover interior. Drop a pinch of kosher salt in each shell, making sure to evenly distribute throughout the surface. (This will help the soufflé grab onto the shell’s inner surface as it rises.)
- Set shells upright into a muffin tin. (I used rice to keep them standing.)
- Separate egg whites and yolks and place them in separate bowls. Add the whites from two more eggs to the three already collected.
- Take three egg yolks and whip together with the goat cheese, herbs, salt, and pepper until fully combined and slightly fluffy.
- Whip five egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Fold egg yolk mixture into whipped egg whites.
- When fully combined, quickly pour mixture back into egg shells and place into 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.
- Garnish with oregano, and place top portion of egg shell over the soufflé as a helmet.
- Serve hot, before they fall.
And, I might add, know what you’re going to serve them in. We didn’t at first, and when Chopper Dave pulled the muffin tin out of the oven and started talking about photographing quickly while the soufflés still had a bit of height, it suddenly hit me: We don’t own egg cups.
I glanced around the kitchen in a panic, and a glint of copper caught my eye on an upper shelf. Well, he is calling it armor, after all, and armor is typically metallic, and those cups could look like they were made for eggs and not for Turkish coffee, right?
Right. I mean, what’s another day in the Belly-Timber kitchen without the usual healthy dose of last minute improvisation?
Nice idea, but you forgot to tell how it tasted!!!
Beautiful picture Chopper Dave and Mrs. D and by the recipe the eggs must taste divine. I have a question though. What did you put in the muffin pan to keep the eggs shells from topling?
What a great idea! They look absolutely stunning. What did you use to cut the egg shells so cleanly?
Factastic, as usual, Mrs. D.
gorgeous photos and great idea.
ummmmmm
Hi Chopper Dave and Mrs. D, VERY creative and amazingly well executed. I’ve always had trouble with the patience part of that “scoring and carefully removing” part of separating shells. I’ve spluged on a good egg topper but, as you know, it only takes a small cap off. Love the lighting in that last photo!
How cute to use the egg shells!
I don’t know what an egg topper is- I’ve only wacked eggs with the edge of a knife.
WOW. Mrs D., what a great entry for this months IMBB event. Like Chefdoc pointed out, great natural lighting and setup, the top image is my favourite one! I agree, those copper cups seem to have been devised solely for providing shelter for its rather delicate content :)
Hi everyone! Belated thanks for the all the comments! (Damn, I seem to be saying that a lot these days. Someday soon we will NOT be swamped with work…)
Yeah, I did forget to mention the taste — that’s what I get for posting at 1am! Truth be told, I’m not a big souffle fan — usually I find them too dry and not very flavorful. What made this one work for me was the fact that it was small (so less opportunity to get too dry) and that it had that great sprig of oregano on top. The key was to scoop out the egg with the sprig in the middle of the spoon and just enjoy all that herby goodness! Also, I am eternally grateful for goat cheese, as I can actually eat it, and I love the flavor. If anything, I would have wanted more goat cheese in my souffle!
For making the eggs stay upright we put a handful of uncooked rice in the bottom of each muffin cup in the tin (you can see the rice in the picture where Chopper is pouring the souffle mixture into the egg.) The Turkish coffee cups were small and round enough that the eggs stood on their own. (Big relief there!)
We don’t have an egg topper, so Dave just used a regular serrated knife to cut the eggs, and then I trimmed some of the irregularities with scissors. They weren’t at all perfect, but they worked. Some day, in the distant future, I will master this art the way Chef Sakai has! :-)
You are a brave and unusual chef. Bravo.