GastroChick Egg Nirvana
Thursday January 12th 2006, 11:18 am
Filed under: Recipes

Scrambled EggIf you had to eat one type of food for the rest of your life what would it be?

This question haunts me, provides perfect dinner party fodder, and sometimes keeps me awake at night. An internal debate rages as to the merits of the decadent drug-like hit of seared foie gras compared to the clean untampered beauty of raw fish or maybe the comfortable simplicity of light, fluffy gnocchi con pomodoro, I could go on and on…….

Yet the answer I frequently alight upon invariably remains the same; the egg. You are probably thinking isn’t it like asking a gardener what’s your favourite flower and him/her answering soil. Yes, eggs do provide the foundation for a hundred million sauces, pastas, soufflés etc. In this context however, I am referring to the egg in its purest and most untainted incarnation either poached, scrambled, boiled or fried. And if pushed to choose, yes I’m obsessive and neurotic, I would certainly settle on the scrambled egg.

My love of this seemingly humble ingredient has spurred me to the dizzying heights of trying to attain scrambled egg nirvana. This has been achieved once at a restaurant, La Petite Maison in Nice. However, it is realised every morning in my little kitchen thanks mainly to Mr Gordon Ramsay’s excellent recipe below:

SUBLIME SCRAMBLED EGGS ON TOAST
serves 2-3
6 large free-range eggs
25g ice-cold butter, cut into small dice
1 tbsp crème fraîche
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper
Few chives, snipped
2-3 chunky slices of rustic bread, such aspain Polaîne, to serve

1 Break the eggs into a cold, heavy-based pan, place on the lowest heat possible, and add half the butter. Using a spatula, stir the eggs frequently to combine the yolks with the whites.
2 As the mixture begins to set, add the remaining butter. The eggs will take about 4-5 minutes to scramble – they should still be soft and quite lumpy. Don’t let them get too hot – keep moving the pan off and back on the heat.
3 Meanwhile, toast the bread.
4 Add the crème fraîche and season the eggs at the last minute, then add the snipped chives. Put the toast on warm plates, pile the softly scrambled eggs on top and serve immediately.

This recipe depends on the best quality eggs you can find plus the utmost patience and care. You will however, be rewarded by the most heavenly concotion, creamy, light and fluffy. Enjoy.


18 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Scrambled Egg debate is great, I think the slower you scramble the better, Bain-Marie’s all the way!

Comment by damo 01.12.06 @ 11:39 am

How do they do the egg in a McMuffin? I always thought it was fried but it’s never the same when you try to recreate one at home. So I assume it’s poached. I think I like that best.

Scrambled is ok but frustrating because it just keeps falling off the fork; not good first thing in the morning when you’re very hungry.

Comment by Andrew 01.12.06 @ 4:48 pm

Well I’m sure in the egg McMuffin they use a reconsituted egg, which has probably been frozen since prehistoric times, throw in a bit of MSG for good measure, and then serve it to your very refined palate.

As for the scrambled egg falling off your fork, I suggest putting it atop a piece of bread, hopefully your clumsy fingers will be able to manage that.

Comment by GastroChick 01.12.06 @ 5:06 pm

If I had to choose one food to eat all the time it would be toro sashimi. I can’t get enough of the stuff. But a perfect scrambled egg is hard to beat too. I have yet to try it with truffles however and will put that on my list of things to do. I’m hungry. I have to get my bitch to cook me something good.

Comment by Lauren McLaughlin 01.12.06 @ 6:43 pm

Oh boy it’s a hard one, grilled mackeral, puy lentilles, butternut squash ravioli maybe, I won’t even attempt to try and norrow it down to one. With regards to the eggs on toast I feel you may have skirted over a fundamental part of the dish. This being, what kind of butter do you butter the toast with and do you do it when the toast comes straight out of the toaster thereby alowing it to melt slightly or do you wait a short period for the toast to cool thereby providing a greasy seal protecting the bread from moisture in the eggs which could cause soggyness. Also what salt is required for the perfect eggs, a fresh briny salt such as maldon or maybe something a little more complex like fleur de sel. And pepper, white or black and what type?

Comment by woofy 01.12.06 @ 7:03 pm

You pose some interesting questions mr woofy. Personally I like my eggs unadulterated by bread. Using bread or toast denotes that scrambled eggs are for breakfast, whereas I like to enjoy them any meal of the day, in their purest form. As for salt I have been using the fleur de sel, I think it really lifts the egginess of the eggs if that makes sense. I would opt for black pepper.

Comment by GastroChick 01.12.06 @ 7:17 pm

Toro is the most sublime fish ever!

Comment by GastroChick 01.12.06 @ 7:18 pm

woofy - i get round the soggy bread problem by layering my eggs on top of bacon.

Comment by damo 01.12.06 @ 7:31 pm

If I had to eat just eggs for the rest of my life, then then I would have to insist on having them each morning with a kiss…as the song goes!

Comment by Philip Williams 01.13.06 @ 12:36 pm

Aaah how sweet

Comment by GastroChick 01.13.06 @ 12:48 pm

New favorite egg recipe: Alex Miro’s slow-cooked egg and creme freche (sp?)topped with pureed beat root. Heaven. Oh and, of course, followed by perfectly cooked rabbit wrapped in streaky bacon courtesy of Damien. Mmm mmm good.

Comment by Lauren McLaughlin 01.15.06 @ 4:16 pm

There is no doubting the abundant merits of eggs and their numerous culinary combinations. Although in my opinion eggs only play a small, but granted integral part, in the larger and more extraordinary world of English breakfasts. Hence in the tradition of yin and yang; Laurel and Hardy; eggs need to be considered with Cumberland sausages, bacon, black pudding, and fresh toast.

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