Monday, December 14, 2009

Day 272 - Scrambled Eggs with Caviar in Eggshell Cups and Herbed Crème Fraîche

Brunch with Marcy, version 87.0, and look how fancy we are today!

Scrambled Eggs with Caviar in Eggshell Cups (p. 87)


Have you ever? This is too cute. Seriously. Overly cute. And completely impractical.

As you might imagine, I've accumulated a ton of utensils, implements, appliances, and servingware/cookware pieces in order to execute this project. However, I have drawn the line at buying an egg topper, i.e. scissors to cut the top off an egg shell. I knew that it was something I'd use only this once, and I'm trying to avoid bringing any useless things into my new apartment.

To make my eggshell cups, ghetto-style, I cracked a couple of eggs carefully, and created a big enough opening to allow a spoon into. That's the crazy thing about these tiny cups. You need to use baby spoons to eat from them. So impractical. Yet cute.

This was my first time making Martha's scrambled eggs, which are seriously buttery. Two tablespoons of butter per four eggs? That's excessive, I think. Don't get me wrong - they were delicious, but I think you could have achieved a similar effect with half as much butter. And you'd probably add a couple of years to your life.

Piping scrambled eggs into eggshell cups is incredibly twee, but fun. It's difficult to be refined with the next steps, i.e. dolloping crème fraîche on top and spooning caviar on top of that. My technique was lacking, and what should have been dainty and refined ended up sloppy and goopy.

Looks aside, though, it was yummy! Sinfully buttery, creamy, salty - a great trio of flavors. Since I'd only prepared two eggshell cups, we ate the rest from bowls. Not as cute, but just as delicious. I think I'd serve this again, but maybe I'd serve it on toast...

Jeff: A- (completely unrefined presentation, but I'm giving myself points for just trying)
Martha: A


Herbed Crème Fraîche (p. 75)

I knew the eggs wouldn't be a whole meal for us, so I whipped up a Martha-style broccoli and potato soup. And then I figured, since I have the crème fraîche on hand, I should probably make this soup garnish.

For herbs, I used roughly 1.5 tablespoons of parsley, a half tablespoon of thyme, and a hint of sage. (I thought it might be too strong a flavor to use any more.)

Stirred into the soup, it adds a nice richness and flavor, without being overpowering.

And you can make designs!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Until we eat again....

2 comments:

  1. Good Lord ! I thought I was hungry before I saw this... hah! now Im ravenous. Looks lovely. Might have to look this one up and serve it for the next occasion brunch or no occasion AT ALL.

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  2. Tasty, but unless you have wee spoons and an egg topper, I'd skip the egg cups. I just served a frittata for a brunch, and that is my favorite new brunch solution. You can make it early and serve it warm or room temperature, and you only have to make one big thing vs. lots of little ones (i.e. piping scrambled eggs into tiny egg cups, etc.). Brunch happens too early in the day for so much painstaking kitchen work. :-)

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