Home The Author The Book Kind Words Reviews Contact



Creamy Morning Eggs



From a deleted chapter

Since it was obvious that Capucine's story would carry her mood along without his assistance, Alexandre returned to his beloved stove and began preparing scrambled eggs.

He beat eight free-range farmers' eggs from the Bastille market in a round bottomed stainless steel bowl of the sort that chefs call a cul de poule—a chicken's ass—added coarse salt, ground in some white pepper, and finished with an unreasonably huge dollop of butter.

Then, with reverence, he took a black truffle from a jar in the refrigerator, shaved off six almost translucent slices, diced them into tiny cubes the size of pepper grains, and tossed them into the mixture.

He put the cul de poule on the top of a pot on the stove with an inch of water in the bottom, making an impromptu double boiler, and began to stir the eggs gently with a whisk.

These eggs take a little time but come out looking and tasting more like cream than scrambled eggs.

Many chefs believe the dish is the most sophisticated and elegant thing you can do with eggs and yet one of the simplest and most foolproof way of cooking them.

In an early version of the novel Alexandre cooks them for Capucine quite early one morning and provides a fairly accurate description of how they are cooked, but that chapter wound up on the cutting room floor. So here's the recipe.

Method

Break the eggs into a small rounded bottomed mixing bowl and place it on top of a sauce pot with an inch or so of water. This is the double boiler professional chefs use.

Whip the eggs until they are thoroughly mixed, add the butter, a pinch of salt, the twists of pepper, and the diced truffle if you have it.

Sir slowly. When the water starts to boil vigorously turn the heat down so it just simmers. Keep stirring until the eggs become thick and creamy. The end will come in about twenty minutes and will happen quickly. The eggs will begin to get nubbly. This is the point to take them off. If you leave them in the double boiler they will thicken very quickly: good, but not as delicious as when creamy.

Serve immediately. Decorate with a thin sliver of truffle if fortune is smiling at you showing all its teeth.

Cook's Notes

In this day and age, truffles are no more than a memory in the amateur's kitchen. If by some miracle you can obtain one, these eggs are probably one of the best uses you can put it to. Unlike most other foods, eggs are a delicious but unobtrusive backdrop that allows the fully complexity of the truffle flavor to emerge.

Add a pinch of salt at the beginning, not more. It is easy to rectify by adding a little more salt at the end, impossible to remove the salt if too much has been added at the beginning.

Black pepper will taste a little less sharp than white, but it will spoil the pristine look of the eggs. Of course, if you're using truffles, there is no point to the white pepper.




site design by
www.Pearleye.com