Nourished

Eggs

Alba Truffle

Oeufs en Cocotte, Alba Truffle, and King Oyster Mushrooms

Some supper dishes are so simple that they should be saved until you have some really special ingredients – oeufs en cocotte (baked eggs) are the perfect example.  A quick tour of the fridge reveals lovely Legbar eggs, the remains of an alba truffle from Christmas, and king oyster mushrooms.  Baked together like this it’s not a supper dish but a feast…


Ingredients:

Legbar eggs (at least one per person, depending on their size and your appetite)
Single cream or creme fraiche
1 finely diced shallot
2-3 king oyster mushrooms
Truffle butter, or unsalted butter
Alba or black truffle

Method:

  • Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF)
  • Chop the mushroom stems into fine dice (duxelle), but reserve the top of the mushroom to slice finely
  • Cook the diced mushroom and shallot in the truffle butter until they are softened and set aside
  • Gently fry the sliced mushroom tops, making sure they retain their shape
  • Butter the inside of a small ramekin or similar dish
  • Put a quantity of the diced mushroom into the bottom of the ramekin
  • Place a sliced mushroom on top of the duxelle, and a few slices of truffle on top of that
  • Pour a little cream over the mushrooms
  • Season each layer!
  • Break one or two eggs into the ramekin, and place a few slices of the mushroom cap delicately over the egg
  • Top the mixture with single cream, or some creme fraiche thinned with a little milk
  • Top with a little more sliced mushroom and grated truffle
  • Put the ramekins into the bottom of a roasting tin, and fill up the outside of the tin with boiling water, which should reach up to half the height of the ramekin.  It’s much easier to do this on the actual oven shelf, to avoid spilling boiling water all over yourself
  • For Legbar eggs, cook for about 18 minutes
  • Finely slice some more truffle over the cooked egg and serve with either a little toast, or perhaps some asparagus if in season.
Mushroom duxelle, garlic and finely sliced mushroom top
On the bottom, the seasoned mushroom duxelle, topped with slices of mushroom and grated truffle
Add a layer of cream or creme fraiche

Make a little indent in the mixture, and tip in the egg

Top again with a little cream, and further layers of mushroom

Don’t forget to season the layers

Place the ramekins in a deep pan, and top up with boiling water, up to about half way

Serve with some good toasted sourdough, like Poilaine

Ben Spalding

Tribute Dish: Ben Spalding’s Slow Cooked Duck Egg

I think we all know that I love Roganic, I certainly seem to talk about it enough :0)  One of my favourite dishes is the sous-vide duck egg, which Ben has served us in a couple of different ways.  Recently I was determined to make proper use of my sous-vide machine, which can often languish in the cupboard, unloved and unused.

Here is Ben’s sous vide egg, with soused vegetables and grains.   Of course Ben’s is much prettier and delicate than mine, but I was happy enough with that as a first attempt.  I need to be much tidier next time, and definitely use my mandolin for the onion rings!

 

Eggs

Truffles and Eggs…

Typically a truffle will last for around a week in normal kitchen conditions, and during that time you can maximise it’s impact by infusing it’s scent into other ingredients.


You should store it in a glass container, rather than a plastic one, but typically this is what I do :

This allows me to have truffle scented risotto, and even better, the best scrambled egg imaginable.  The egg shells being porous allow the truffle to permeate the egg.  You could also make a very luxurious eggs Benedict.

If you are going to poach your eggs, the most efficient method I’ve found to date is the Marcus Wareing one – instead of putting vinegar into the pan, you put a tiny amount into a little bowl (or wipe the bowl around with the vinegar) and crack an egg into it.  This causes the egg white to coagulate and when you tip it into the water, you’ll end up with a beautiful poached egg!  Don’t forget to season your water too, for the perfect egg.  Poached Eggs

Another magnificent eggy dish is the Michel Roux’s recipe for:

Truffled Eggs en Cocotte

4 eggs
60g fresh black truffles
6tbsp double cream
30g softened butter
salt and freshly grated papper
60g Emmenthal or Comte, grated

Pur the eggs in an airtight container with the truffles and keep in the fridge for at least 24 hours or 48 hours if possible to allow the aroma of the truffles to permeate the eggs.

Slice the eggs as thinly as possible [if you don’t have a truffle slicer, do use a mandolin, carefully].  Bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan, then immediately drop in the truffles and turn off the heat.  Stir the truffles into the cream with a spoon, cover the pan, and set aside until almost cold.

Preheat the oven to 170oC / Gas 3.  Brush the insides of 4 cocottes or ramekins, about 8cm in diameter and 4cm deep, with the softened butter and season with salt and pepper.  Put three-quarters of the grated cheese into one cocotte and rotate it to coat the inside.  Tip the excess cheese into a second cocotte and repeat to coat all 4 dishes.

Didvid the cooked cream and truffle mixture between the cocottes,  Carefully tip an egg into each one, sprinkle on the remaining cheese, and bake the eggs until cooked to your liking.  The cocotte can be cooked by putting the dishes into a greaseproof paper lined baking tray.  Fill the pan with boiling water up to half the height of the cocotte and put in the oven for around 10 minutes.  The egg white should be just set, with the yolk still loose…  Put a cocotte on each plate and serve.

You can find this recipe and many more in: