it’s all about the Egg

The crêpes, the poach, the soufflé. Whip ’em, drop them, swirl them around in a pan. It’s all about the egg.

How many minutes for hard boiled – 11, soft boiled – 6 to 7, poached, just stand there and be ready.
We started tonight’s class by being served a DELICIOUS lobster sauced pasta. Kevin tossed a pound of precooked linguini and the sauce from the lobster bisque soup last week into a deep dish “fry” pan. He kept turning the pasta over, coating it with the sauce, a cup at a time and as the sauce thickened. About a pound of cooked pasta needed about 3 Cups of bisque. With a sprinkle of parsley on top it was done. Cheese is optional. It was exceptional and easy if you had the bisque.

Next, a Pear Tart we poached Anjou (of course) pears in a pan with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, lemon juice and vanilla.We used a melon ball cutter to core the halved pears. After about 20 minutes they were tender. We will put them into a tart later. The tart dough was 2 C flour, 1C unsalted butter, 6 ounces of Cream Cheese and 1 egg yolk. It chilled for 30 minutes before rolling and baked for 10 minutes in a buttered tart pan. The tart mixture was eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk and nutmeg. Don’t over whisk the mixture. The pears were sliced thinly and fanned out in a circular pattern and the custard poured over them. it baked for 20 -30 minutes until the custard was lightly browned. Heat 1/2 C apricot jam with a T of brandy and spoon over the tart to glaze. For the recipe, email me.

We tried our hand at a Chocolate Souffle baked in individual ramekins and served while hot, even with mixing up the order of adding the ingredients it came out yummy; and Quiche Lorraine with Swiss and bacon.

We learned how to make a “tornado” in a pot of water so we could poach an egg,

and how to carefully add butter to the yolks for Hollandaise but I prefer Julia Child’s recipe from “How to Cook”

BUT the repeat for Donald and I was the Ham and Brie stuffed Crêpes with sauteed apples which we served to our Icelandic friend the next week. One can use 1 or 2 slices of ham depending on how thick. We used Boar’s Head, thinly sliced.