The Slow Cooked Egg.......

[marlena spieler]

just read a quote from Wylie Dugresne one of my favorite chefs, about the slow-cooked egg and how it is a current chefs' obsession these days (though i'm sure his slow cooked egg in parmesan broth was on the menu about two years ago once when i ate at wd-50?).

anyhow, because i have not tasted it and because the dish--the egg in parmesan broth, with tomato powder (a personal favorite of mine) and chopped chives (i eat them by the spoonful) sounds so good, I was trying to finish my vicarious enjoyment of the dish by imagining what the slow-cooked egg was like.

Can anyone do a good description? I"m thinking? soft yolk? (when i cooked an egg on the sidewalk during last years hot season, the yolk cooked but the white stayed gooshy). firm white? soft everything? firm everything?

I must know all. am becoming a bit obsessed myself, and i haven't even let myself near the eggs yet! i am hoping they are on the menu when i next breeze through nyc i can tell you......

thanks in advance,

marlena

[Fat Guy]

The closest thing texture-wise is a soft-cooked coddled egg. The egg is soft and custardy throughout. It's not quite like a poached egg, where the white coalesces but the yolk is runny. It's a uniform texture somewhere in the middle.

Eggs cooked this way (recirculating water bath at about 63-64 C for about an hour, I think -- sous vide geeks will know exactly) make for a particularly dramatic presentation because they maintain their smooth ovoid shape and they really glisten. Then as soon as you go at one with a spoon it oozes everywhere.

[marlena spieler]

The closest thing texture-wise is a soft-cooked coddled egg. The egg is soft and custardy throughout. It's not quite like a poached egg, where the white coalesces but the yolk is runny. It's a uniform texture somewhere in the middle.

Eggs cooked this way (recirculating water bath at about 63-64 C for about an hour, I think -- sous vide geeks will know exactly) make for a particularly dramatic presentation because they maintain their smooth ovoid shape and they really glisten. Then as soon as you go at one with a spoon it oozes everywhere.

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Thank you for full description, Mr Fat Guy!

Have you ever prepared one?

I'm not crazy about all the sous vide stuff going on, i don't think it is always successful though i do understand it is a toy that many chefs love playing with....but your description of the way the egg behaves when you dig into it is very fetching indeed!

Dufresne's dish--slow cooked egg, parmesan broth, crisp indian sev, tomato powder and chives-- sounds totally divine!

thanks again,

marlena

[Fat Guy]

I've never prepared one. I've eaten about ten of them, though (I probably had three of them at Momofuku Noodle Bar the other night). It's a technique that I can definitely support. I wouldn't say that an egg coddled this way is better than a properly poached egg, but both are good and there's a definite feeling that, when you eat one of these water-bath-coddled eggs, you're getting a really pure expression of egg.

I agree about sous vide and water bath/steam oven cookery in general: they can produce great results, or not -- they're often not as successful as traditional cooking methods. But in this particular instance, I think it's a good use of the technology.

I believe it's also possible to get eggs cooked this way without using a recirculating water bath. I haven't tried, but I think I remember one chef telling me he did it manually for awhile when his circulating pump broke. Presumably, if you heat a hotel pan of water to the right temperature, add the eggs and put it all in an oven at the right temperature, you'll get something usable. Finding the right oven temperature might require some trial and error, though. Good thing eggs are cheap.

[Miriam Kresh]

...Am I displaying ignorance here? I sometimes put a few eggs in my Sabbath overnight stew (cholent, to the mavens ). Covered in the stew's liquid and barely simmered for about 20 hours, the shelled eggs are brown, tender, and divine mashed into the meat, barley, beans and potatoes. You need a little chili to make it a really transcendental cholent, though.

Miriam

[marlena spieler]

Thank you Fat Guy! I"m definitely very excited now!

am looking forward to reading about the cooking process in Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Cooking, and also i'm looking forward to experimenting on my own, or being fed these famous eggs by someone else. it'll happen soon!

After all, its spring and as you say: eggs are cheap!

and PS: I love your phrase: "pure expression of egg".

and Miriam, yes, eggs in their shells tucked into a cholent, or a hamim, is lovely; in the eastern lands they call it haminados, though i'm not sure they always cook it with beans. sometimes i've had them simply simmered in water with onion skins and coffee grounds to give the eggshells a brown colour; and i've had it with the shells of the cooked eggs crushed a bit to give an almost batik-like effect.

delicious dipped in za'atar or cumin salt. Or coarsely chopped and drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and chopped onion.

marlena

[Miriam Kresh]

and Miriam, yes, eggs in their shells tucked into a cholent, or a hamim, is lovely; in the eastern lands they call it haminados, though i'm not sure they always cook it with beans.  ...

marlena

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Marlena,

Sometimes I see huevos haminados served in ful ve-houmous eateries. That is also a delicious way to eat them, either chopped or mashed with your fork into the hot, mealy favas and techinah and houmous, well sprinkled with parsley and chopped onion and threads of dense green olive oil. Warm, fresh pitta on the side and a beer - proletarian heaven (count me in). The eggs, although their brown color proves that they were cooked a long time, must be cooked in onion skins or something else, as you say, for those places don't usually serve meat.

In some bakeries you can get a large bourekah with a huevo haminado too. I never asked if those eggs have a name of their own in Hebrew; I've only ever heard them called plain eggs. Haminado is Ladino of course. I've heard cholent eggs called heuvos alchamiados, also (Moroccan Jewry). Nowadays I don't hear much Ladino, it has become an old person's language. People pick up modern Spanish from the telenovelas and I think it has infiltrated the minds of younger generations so that Ladino sounds awkward and hard to speak. A pity.

But this isn't germaine to the original discussion, sorry... At any rate, an egg simmered in a stew retains its character very well although absorbing some of the meat flavors; it stays tender too. But if you're seeking true white and yellow egginess with a custardy texture, that water bath way sounds right.

Miriam

[marlena spieler]

haminados/beitzim/slow cooked eggs with ful.....

be still my heart: so delicious! such perfection! the rich earthy brown beans, the lemony tahina, the blast of hot sauce (i always have to add at least a few drops), the perky onions, the rich grassy olive oil........i wish i didn't live so far away, i'd say: take me to your favourite spot for them!

xx marlena

Edited March 20, 2007 by marlena spieler (log)

[misstenacity]

Here's a great blog post on how to do it in a pan with butter.... no sous vide required!

Slow Egg on Paupered Chef

Enjoy!

Andrea

http://foodpart.com