You know that we are especially fond of egg cookbooks and of celebrity
recipes. This Famous Food Friday, we have both. The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
was published in a booklet form by the National Egg Board as an advertising compliment to their movie, "The Egg and I." (Yes, Virginia,
we are willing to concede that these recipes are probably not the actual
recipes of Fred and Claudette, but we are happy to overlook such
notions.)
In
1947, Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stared in "The Egg and I."
The movie was based on Betty MacDonald's book of the same name. It was a
wildly popular account of her life as a young bride on a chicken farm.
When I say The Egg and I was a popular book, I mean that in less
than a year it sold a million copies! The film rights were quickly sold
and in 1947 the book became a movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred
MacMurray.
In addition to Colbert and MacMurray, the
film co-stared Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle. (The co-stars have nothing to do with egg recipes, but I am a huge fan of Ma and Pa Kettle) Main was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress but
she lost to Celeste Holm in "Gentleman's Agreement." (It is so hard to
win for comedy!) After all the publicity, practically everyone involved
with the book was sued. According to the folks down on the farm, old
Mrs. MacDonald portrayed them negatively and they wanted monetary gains
for being made to look foolish! And they did indeed get paid, but enough
about them.
The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray features introductions by the two stars, a recipe from each bearing their names, and a handful of additional egg recipes. What do they say about the egg?
According to Colbert:
"The
egg is really one of the greatest boons to womankind, ranking with the
sewing machine, the electric washer, the permanent wave and the right to
vote."
According to MacMurray:
"The egg, for my money, is the best friend of any man ever trapped in the kitchen."
I
love eggs as much as the next person, but I am not sure I would equate
them with voting rights. What a difference seventy years makes. Well we
are still eating eggs, still voting, and still drinking. Of course,
today we are drinking alcohol. In 1947 such drinking, especially
endorsed by the family friendly National Egg Board, was frowned upon.
Here is an eggy julep for you, in the truest sense of a sweet, flavored
drink, as opposed to the kind that most often feature a good shot of
bourbon.
Egg and I Julep
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups orange juice, strained
1/3 cup lemon juice, strained
Crushed ice, club soda
Blend eggs, sugar and salt. Add fruit juices.
Shake or beat until sugar is dissolved. pour over finely cracked ice to
fill tall glasses 1/2 full. Add club soda slowly. Stir. Serve promptly.
Once upon a time, a nice Norwegian boy, named Paul Lowe, found he had a knack for cooking and making the food look really fine. He parlayed this knack into a job as a stylist. But he wasn't simply happy making other people's food look great, he wanted to show off his own food. So he started a blog and named it for himself, using the nickname he got from his flamboyant godmother, Sweet Paul. The blog was an immediate success and soon it spawned its own magazine called -- yes, Sweet Paul.
Then the blog/magazine got its very own cookbook: Sweet Paul Eat & Make. In addition to his cooking skills, Sweet Paul is also a bit of a crafter and he has included several easy projects in his cookbook. One look at this cookbook and you will understand why Paul was such a whiz as a food stylist. The photos are inviting, making you want to cook everything in this book. It is no secret that we love eggs and so does Paul. Here is Sweet Paul's preface to this recipe.
"I’m often asked what my favorite ingredient is. I always answer the same thing: eggs! I never get tired of them; there’s so much you can do with them. Runny, sunny, poached, hard-boiled, scrambled, put into omelets, on top, under, in the middle—any which way, just give me an egg, and I’m happy.
We feel the same way!
Baked Snug Eggs
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
1 tablespoon butter, plus more for the pan
8 medium-thick slices good-quality smoked ham
2 scallions, thinly sliced
8 large eggs
4 tablespoons heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F, with a rack in the middle position. Butter four small gratin dishes.
2. Fry the potatoes in the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Place 2 slices of ham in each dish. Divide the potatoes and scallions evenly among the dishes, then add 2 eggs and 1 tablespoon cream to each dish. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the eggs are set.
5. Serve warm.
What a great way to start the day. Grab some eggs, play some solitaire, dye a tablecloth, bake a cake, you can do it all with Sweet Paul!
Michael Ruhlman can wax poetic and philosophical about most anything in the food world. So one can simply imagine our joy when we found he was working on a book about our favorite food -- the egg. We do love our egg cookbooks and this one, appropriately titled: Egg, is no different.
Now we know what you are going to say, duh, everything has eggs in it so what's the big deal. True, eggs are eggs. We know that better than most, as we have an entire shelf of egg cookbooks. Ruhlman, however, brings his excessive/compulsive geek-y-ness to the subject of eggs. In the introduction, he describes a conversation with Alton Brown. Brown says "...the egg is the Rosetta Stone of the kitchen." Ruhlman is like the Food Language of Rosetta Stone software, follow along and soon, you too, will be fluent in no time.
First we get a look at all the ways one can cook the egg. Boiled, poached and fried lead us to gently fried, aggressively fried and deep fried. Shirred and coddled make their way into the mix. Speaking of mix, we get eggs in cake mix and yolks in pasta as well as meringues and mayonnaise. There is even a drink or two, like this one.
Nineteenth-Century Ale and Rum Flip
3 ounces/85 milliliters spices Christmas or pumpkin ale
2 ounces/55 milliliters dark rum
1 egg
Pinch of ground coriander (or whole coriander seeds shaved on a Microplane) or ground ginger (optional)
Grated orange zest (original)
Combine the ale, rum, and egg in a large mug. Whisk or blend with a hand mixer. Or toss the drink back and forth between two large mugs, as Jerry Thomas might have done. Heat it for 40 to 50 seconds n the microwave (or use a red hot poker). If desired, top with a pinch of coriander or ginger and some grated orange zest.
Did we mention omelets and custard? Sous vide? Pancakes or potato pancakes? How about cookies? We are more than happy to add Egg to our egg shelf.
Now get the kitchen and get cracking. (Give us that one. We never used the word "eggcellent.")
Every year my friend, Ann, calls in October and says mark you wish list for Christmas. So I do. This year, Ann said, "I improvised." What did she mean? She meant she bought books on her own, with no supervision.
You can imagine how skeptical I must have been. There are three pages of books on my wish list. There is not a lot of room for error. So I must say, I opoened presents with a bit of trepidation. There was the River Cottage Handbook # 11 -- Chicken & Egg. Well you know I love me some chicken and egg books. I was a bit suprised to find that the River Cottage franchise had gotten up to 11 guides. (Actually, there are now even more.)
This is the best of both worlds: A book about chickens AND a cookbook! A lovely twofer!
Truth be told, the handbook is a bit heavy on the "raising" side of the chicken divide. But there are some truely wonderful recipes. Now I generally am opposed to nuts in my food, but sauced, they seem to be OK.
Chicken with Walnut Sauce
1 chicken, about 1.6kg, jointed into 8 pieces25g butter5 tbsp olive oil2 onions, peeled and finely sliced300ml dry white wine400ml chicken stock2 tsp sugar2 bay leaves3cm cinnamon stick (or 1 tsp ground)Freshly grated nutmeg3 large eggs120g walnut pieces8 garlic cloves, peeled and choppedA pinch of saffron strandsJuice of 2 limesA handful of parsley (or a third mint, two-thirds parsley), finely choppedSea salt and freshly groundBlack pepper
Have the chicken joints ready to cook. Heat the butter and three tablespoons of olive oil in a flameproof casserole or large frying pan (large enough to later hold the chicken pieces in a single layer). Brown the chicken in batches on both sides, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Don’t crowd the pan, fry the chicken in small batches, removing the pieces to kitchen paper as they are done.
Add another 1 tbsp. of oil to the pan and cook the onions over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened but not brown. Return the chicken pieces to the pan, in a single layer. Add the wine, stock, sugar, bay leaves, cinnamon and a generous grating of nutmeg. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the eggs for 10 minutes. Drain, cool under cold running water, then peel. Cut around the centre of the egg and separate the yolks from the whites.
Lightly toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat, shaking the pan. Add the remaining olive oil, then the garlic, and cook for a minute. Put the walnuts and garlic, egg yolks, and a few spoonfuls of the cooking liquid into a food processor and whiz to a smoothish paste. Stir this into the pan with the saffron and lime juice. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes or so, until the sauce has thickened. Check the chicken is cooked by piercing the thickest part with a knife to see if the juices run clear. If not, cook for another 5 minutes and check again. Finely chop the egg whites and sprinkle them with the herbs over the chicken.
A different spin on your usual baked chicken!
Thanks, Ann, for asking that eternal question: Which came first? The chicken or the egg cookbook.
It is one of our favorite cookbook subjects: the incredible, edible egg. Now this little book is a rare and cool treat. We must digress....
Once upon a time a guy named Nick Fauchald decided to do a series of magazine/cookbooks and he headed to Kickstarter. The idea was to create small, hand made cookbooks. The idea was a big hit.
Volume One featured eggs; you had us at eggs....
Enter the writer of Eggs, one Ian Knauer. Yes, you might look at Mr. Knauer and think: hipster poser dude. You would be wrong. Knauer has serious food chops. He was also raised on a farm. An actual farm! He wrote a fine cookbook about food from that farm entitled, The Farm, and we liked it very much.
Moving on... The Farm is now a PBS show. (PBS is this really weird entity where each individual station picks and chooses what they air and, where I live, never really shows the programing that is getting the buzz which is a huge pain, but I digress again...) Do check your listing and best of luck.
Since the Holidays are upon us, we thought we would give a shout out to an eggy drink that is not a nog, but a fizz.
Strawberry Rhubarb Rum Fizz
2 fresh strawberries, hulled
2 ounces white or amber rum
1 ounce Aperol
1 ounce cream sherry
Angostura bitters
1 large egg white
Muddle the strawberries in a cocktail shaker. Add enough ice to fill the shaker halfway, then add the rum, Aperol, sherry, bitters and egg white. Shake until your hands are very cold, about 45 seconds. Strain the fizz into a chilled coupe and serve.
Each little Short Stack has a witty cover and brightly colored pages. Each booklet is hand stitched by folks with developmental disabilities, giving them a job. Yes, there is a "but" coming on.
The bright and zippy paper often makes for lousy contrast. Eggs is on a nice yolky colored paper, so the contrast is OK, but be forewarned, you may need a good light to read the recipes.
(Full disclosure, we did get a copy of this book from the lovely book
publicist, Haley, but you know we never meet an egg book we don't
eventually add to our collection, so we were glad to take a look.) However...
If you have read this blog for more than a day, you know that one of our favorite things is the incredible, edible egg. We have our own talented chickens. We have a large collection of egg cookbooks. One might just think that everything there was to say about the egg had been said. We beg to differ.
Put An Egg On It by Lara Ferroni is one of those "ah ha" inspiring moments. Rather it is one of those, "Why didn't I thing of that?" moments. There is almost no food item out there that is not greatly enhanced by an egg sitting on top. "Ice Cream!" you might say. Well what is meringue if not whipped and airy eggs. So that settles it. An egg is a great addition to any food.
An egg is the salvation of leftovers. Cold pizza comes alive when warmed with an egg sitting on top. Leftover rice? Sit and egg in the middle for a great lunch. Oh my, we could go on and on, but thanks to Put An Egg On It, we don't have to. Now here is where we were a bit skeptical. There was a certain worry that this was a book of trite recipes with an egg sitting on the top. Not to worry, Ferroni has assembled a series of thoughtful recipes that are complimented by the addition of the egg, making it the star and not merely an afterthought.
The book starts out with egg basics and right off the bat provided recipes for both a regular and sweet pickled egg. Then some basic meringue recipes and techniques. Both will come in handy later on. There is a Blasted Cauliflower with Eggs and Brussels Sprout Hash. There are hip, happening grains like farro, buckwheat, and grits. There is even Israeli couscous, which looks rather grain-like but is actually a pasta.
There is a lot of pasta. Carnivores have their say with a traditional steak tartare along with pork, chicken, and fish dishes. Even tacos and hot dogs make an appearance. That meringue we learned to make at the outset, proves valuable for the dessert section. Lest we forget, there is also a cocktail chapter, because what's a flip without an egg?
This is a great example of making the egg and integral element of what might be a familiar dish. This light and airy version will have you heading for the kitchen.
Spring Onion Soup with Soft-Boiled Eggs.
1 pound spring onions or leeks
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 1/2 inch slices baguette
Olive oil, for brushing the baguette
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
Clean the onions well and chop just the lights and light green parts.
Melt the butter in a medium soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions,
time, and salt. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring
occasionally until the onions have softened and turned deep golden,
about 30 minutes.
Increase heat to medium-high and stir in the wine; cook until reduced by
about half, about five minutes. Add the stock, along with one cup water
and the bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for
20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove and discard the
bay leaf.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Brush the baguette slice with a little oil and
toast for 5 to 10 minutes, until golden. While the bread toasts, soft
boiled the eggs.
Ladled the soup into 4 individual ovenproof bowls (I like to use mini
coquettes), filling them only three-quarters full. Top each with a
toasted baguette slice and one quarter of the cheese. Place the bowls on
a baking sheet and broil for 1 to 2 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly
and golden in spots. To serve peel the eggs (or scoop them from the
shells) and place half of an egg on top of each bowl of soup.
What a refreshing change from the usual bowl of brown onions and a thick crust of cheese.
Ferroni not only writes cookbooks, she is an accomplished photographer who has contributed the photos to several of our favorite books including Top Pops and Absinthe Cocktails. Even if you don't have your own chickens, run out to the framer's market and grab a dozen -- grab two. Then crack open Put An Egg On It. You won't be sorry.
We were so excited to get a copy of How To Boil an Egg by Rose Carrarini from the Rose Bakery. Then we were saddened to learn that we had never written about Rose's first book, Breakfast, Lunch, or Tea. What were we thinking? How did that one get away? Well perhaps tomorrow. Today we are looking at How To Boil an Egg. If you read this blog you know we have a stacks of "how to" egg books. I will be the first to admit that they are often quite repetitious, which is odd given all the things one can do with an egg.
There are indeed plain egg recipes. There are muffins and scones that use eggs, tarts and quiches. An occasional flan. Since these recipes were garnered from the Rose Bakery, there are many recipes that fall into that lunch and tea option. Carrarini shines with sandwiches and soups. The Hot Tofu Pot is not what one thinks of when one heads into a bakery, but on a cold day, what could be better.
Hot Tofu Pot
1 liter (4 ½ cups) vegetable or chicken stock
1 onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 leek, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 celery stalks, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 carrot, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/1 head spring cabbage, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 baby turnips, cut into bite-sized pieces
300 g (11 ounces) firm tofu, cut into large bite-sized pieces
dash of shoyu
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
25g (1 tablespoon) butter (optional)
4 eggs
salt and ground black pepper
hot chili sauce or Dijon mustard, to serve
Pour the stock into a pan and bring to a simmer.
Add the onion, leek, celery and carrot and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Add the cabbage and turnips and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes,
until just tender but not overcooked, then add the tofu and warm
through.
Season to taste with shoyu and salt and pepper, if necessary, and add the chives.
The eggs may be fried in olive oil or butter or added to the pan and poached.
Transfer the eggs to 4 individual bowls, ladle in the stew and serve
immediately with a hot chili sauce, Japanese chili powder, or Dijon
mustard.
How To Boil An Egg features the work of Fiona Strickland, a botanical illustrator from Scotland. She has captured many of the Rose Bakery dishes with eerie calm. At first glance they seem like photographs. It might not have been such a great choice. Frankly, it seems hard to imagine that the food could possibly live up to the illustrations. And then you read the recipe for the Welsh Tea Cakes or the Mashed Potatoes, Eggs and Parmesan and all you want to do is break a few eggs.
Who knows what sends us down the path to obsession? I do know that one of the first cookbooks I bought with my own money was Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book. I have vivid memories of the book because it is one of those "go to" books that I consult often. I cannot help thinking of that book today upon hearing the new that Cunningham died.
The best tribute I have ever read of Marion Cunningham came from her friend, David Lebovitz. In 2006 he easily summed up what made her special.
Readers of Cookbook Of The Day know of our abiding love the egg. One of my favorite egg dishes came from The Breakfast Book. It is Marion Cunningham's Featherbed Eggs. I always referred to them as "feathered" eggs. This may well be the greatest recipe that any cook can have in their cooking repertoire. First, it is incredibility easy. Any man, woman, or child can assemble it with little effort. Secondly, it can be customized to make it your own by adding virtually anything under the sun. My particular favorite is sausage! Finally, it is a "make ahead" dish and perfect for company.
When you have guests staying over and you are dreading being the breakfast short order cook, simply whip this up in the final minutes of dinner prep. Now is the perfect time to add your own touches. Sausage, as I said before, steamed cauliflower, apple slices, use your imagination. Cover the pan and set it in the refrigerator. While the coffee is brewing, set your dish in a cold oven and in less than an hour you will have a glorious breakfast with little fuss and big rewards.
Featherbed Eggs
6 slices white bread Salt and pepper to taste 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar, Gouda, provolone or Montery Jack cheese, or a combination 1 1/2 cups milk 6 eggs
Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
Arrange the slices of bread in the dish, trimming the edges, if
necessary. Sprinkle the bread with a little salt and pepper. Sprinkle
the grated cheese evenly over the bread.
Combine the milk and
eggs in a bowl and briskly stir until the mixture is all one color and
completely blended. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and cheese.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
Baking
the Featherbed Eggs: Because the dish will be chilled when you are ready
to bake it, start it in a cold oven and turn the thermostat to 350
degrees. Bake for 1 hour, or until the bread custard is puffy and
lightly golden. Check at 45 minutes, in case your oven is a
little hotter.
My favorite picture of Marion Cunningham was taken in 1987. She is seated across from another cooking legend, Edna Lewis. Oh to have been a fly on the wall, or the garden chair.
We have been quite fond of Allegra McEvedy since we got a copy of her first book, The Good Cook. McEvedy believes in straightforward cooking with great ingredients. That's it. Since The Good Cook, she may be best known for starting Leon, a healthy, fast-food, restaurant chain, like McDonald's only the Big Mac is butternut squash with lentils. (She has since moved on to other things.)
Bought, Borrowed & Stolen is a cookbook, travelogue, and knife lovers dream. The premise of this cookbook is a bit different and engaging. McEvedy shares recipes from her numerous travels based a a particular knife she procured, legitimately or not, from each culinary adventure. Since the recipes are far flung and a sometimes a bit exotic, they may be a bit more complicated than some of McEvedy's usual fare, but they are worth every story. If there is a drawback to this book, it is the fascination with the knives. It would seem that more ink has been given to the tools rather than the food. And why should we be different. (Seriously, you know we love kitchen gadgets!) So here are some knife facts cribbed from The Guardian and the book.
1. Picnic knife, Turkey
My mum bought this one in a Turkish hardware shop because we were going to have a picnic. It is so basic and has no place among my professional tools, yet I love it because when I hold it, it takes me back to that lunch in the biggest pine forest I had ever seen.
2. Artisan knives, New York
The chap responsible for these beauties is a blacksmith (and ex-farrier), with a suitably grizzly beard for a bloke whose best friend is an anvil. Michael Moses Lishinsky operates under the name Wildfire Cutlery (he actually works out of Oregon). His knives are full tang, which means the metal from the blade extends all the way through to the heel, making them stronger. These are made of heat-treated carbon steel, as opposed to stainless steel, so you have to dry them after use (I oil mine too), but they stay sharper longer.
3. Suction-free, San Francisco
I was sitting at a bus stop between restaurant shifts when I noticed my knife roll had gone. Like the scars on my arms, my knives represented my professional culinary journey. Next payday I went down to Japantown to get my first replacement. I had never seen a knife with holes in it before. The idea is that as you are chopping veg super-fast, the holes help to break any suction, so the slices don't stick to the blade (although I have never noticed them make much difference). I was feeling nervy about knife theft, so I went straight to an engraver's and carved my initials on it.
4. Pig-leg boner, Brazil
As I walked past a hardware shop in Salvador, I was attracted to this by its weird shape. When I got home I took it to my butcher but none of us could see how having the handle so high above the blade helped. When I return to Brazil I'm taking it with me and getting a demo – until then it remains my strangest and least-used knife.
5. Pastry slicer, Morocco
The knife man in the main souk in Marrakech sat on a carpet, surrounded by wood shavings. He carved this one to tackle pastry (especially filo) and cakes and I have found it most useful. Shaped from lemonwood, it is the most pleasing thing to hold.
6. Butcher's Chopper, Hong Kong
As I wandered around a vast indoor market in Kowloon, with about 100 butcher's stalls, I noticed that all of them had this knife. It's a serious butcher's knife, made of wood and stainless steel, with well-balanced weight for one so large.
7. Lorenzi's ceramic knife, Italy
G Lorenzi's in Milan is one of the finest names in sharp implements. Ceramic knives keep their edge much better than steel knives, and with that comes an almost surgical precision (mine is the only straight-edged – as opposed to serrated – knife that I use to slice tomatoes). And they are easier to keep clean as the ceramic doesn't absorb odours as much: I've done the garlic test on that.
8. Unagi-Saki, Japan
In Japanese cuisine, almost every job has a specific knife for it. This one is for cleaning eels.
9. Cleaver, Mexico
I like the mid-size of this cleaver: not as daunting as my enormous Chinese chopper, which I use only for the occasional precision strike. This is in my regular armoury for the way it goes through chicken bones, pork ribs, racks of lamb, even fish steak.
10. Fisherman's Friend, Norway
This is a Scandinavian design classic. It has a Japanese steel blade and is extremely efficient at filleting fish.
11. El Jamonero, Spain
No prizes for guessing what my jamonero is for: all 25cm of it are designed to slice ham. Factory-made by Arcos (a well-known Spanish knife producer), its handle is cool to hold and there is a reassuring weight to it. Slicing this dense meat is suprisingly difficult, but the dimples down both sides of the blade help by letting air in, so less pressure is needed and you can keep your strokes smooth. I like the fact that the Spanish still carve ham by hand.
While the cutlery is impressive, the recipes are also quite grand. We are willing to admit that most of these recipes will never end up on our plate, but just seeing them is enough for us.
Bring a pan of water to the boil and carefully lower in the duck eggs. Cook them for 4–6 minutes, depending on size, then drop them into the sink to crack the shells and run them under cold water.
Heat the oil in a wide saucepan. When it's hot, drop in the shallots, breaking them up into rings. Once they are a deep golden brown (5–8 minutes), use a slotted spoon to transfer them on to kitchen paper and sprinkle immediately with salt.
Put the duck eggs into the hot oil and lower the heat. Fry them for 3–4 minutes, turning them to brown on all sides, then take them out of the pan and sit them on kitchen paper, too.
Add the okra with a big pinch of salt, followed by the tomatoes, and give it all a good stir. Dissolve the shrimp paste in 500ml of hot water, pour it into the pan and bring to a fast simmer. Let it bubble away busily for around 10 minutes without a lid to reduce, then lower the eggs back into the pan giving them a prod so they are mostly submerged in the liquid. Put the lid on and simmer for just another couple of minutes so that the eggs warm through, then turn the heat off and give it a 3 minute rest.
Finish by sprinkling a little salt on each egg and scattering on the shallots, with roughly chopped coriander on hand to top off each serving.
As someone who may have a ill-gotten knife here or there, I found this book to be great fun. Thanks, again, to TheGuardian, we have the opportunity to actually watch Allegra McEvedy cook the above recipe. Check her out.
At Lucindaville we were raving about our new chickens. They are still a bit skittish and will not be laying for several months, but they are getting to know their new home.
We are looking forward to lots of eggs, which means looking for new egg recipes. In addition to the chickens we picked up a two volume gem from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Eggs featured a volume on egg production and breeding and this volume of recipes.
Book II was a compendium of chicken and egg recipes for the adventurous housewife. Of course the book was ready to teach you how to accomplish that most French dish, the omelet. I was drawn to more fanciful recipes.
The drink section of the book gave up a treasure trove of interesting drinks with the most outlandish of titles. Perhaps because there are just so many uses for eggs, spending the time to invent really lovely sounding names was just too much trouble. My particular favorite is the Albumen Fruit Beverage. Stick that on a menu and see if you have any takers. (Still I am thinking there might just be a Cocktail At The Burn Pit with 'Albumen" in the name.) Then there is the very French LaitdePoule or Hen's Milk. Again, it does not sound that appetizing. But judge for yourself.
Albumen Fruit Beverage
1/2 c. orange or lemon juice 1 egg white Honey to taste
Beat egg white into a froth, add fruit juice and strain. Sweeten. Serve cold.
LaitdePoule
1 egg 1/2 c. powdered sugar 2 tbsp orange flower water 1 c. boiling milk
Beat the egg, add sugar and orange flower water. Mix thoroughly and add hot milk, stirring as it is added.
Here is another in our long line of egg cookbooks. Alessandro Filippini, who worked for 25 years at Delmonico, wrote 100 Ways of Cooking Eggs.
Originally compiled in 1892 100 Ways of Cooking Eggs was republished by the Dodge Publishing Company in 1915.This lovely period piece features a delicate, faint green decoration on each page that echos the cover with its beautifully “wrapped” egg.
Having worked at Delmonico for a long period of time, Filippini saw his share of famous clients and many of them got egg on their name – or their name on eggs.There are both eggs and an omlete Vanderbilt, both featuring a sauce of peppers.There are eggs Buckley, Hamilton Fish, W. W. Ladd, Jr., and Jay Gould to mention a few names that might stand out.
Since this little book was written from restaurant recipes, they tend to call for a dozen-egg minimum. The omletes begin with a basic omelet and the variations are just things stuffed into them.There are the usual sausage, ham and tomatoes preparations as well as a few sweet egg concoctions.
Eggs à la Paysanne
Put half a pint of cream into a dish, on the fire, and when it boils, break twelve fresh eggs, season with a pinch of salt and twelve whole peppers; let cook two minutes, and then set it in the oven for three minutes, so that the eggs get a good golden color, taking care that they do not harden.Remove form the oven, place the dish on another, and serve.
Mrs. Philip Martineau, sometimes known as Alice, wrote several cookbooks and a gardening tome or two or three.Caviare to Candy features recipes for small households from all parts of the world. This particular “new” edition Mrs. Martineau notes:
“…there are fashions in cookery as in all things and “Caviare to Candy” must be kept up to date.Readers have urged me to give more French dishes while some have said…I should tell them how to make and omelette, and how to prevent Brussels sprouts looking brown instead of green!
So here is good eating to you all, good appetite and a cook good enough to like experimenting.”
Caviare to Candy was updated in1933.Mrs. Martineau suggests Welsh Rarebit as a savory, but interestedly, with all the lovely hard English cheddar, she suggests Kraft cheese.
She laments the poor soul who lives in a small flat and thus, has very little room to hang game.
Since the poor old cook in one’s employ has rarely eaten in the finer restaurants.How Mrs. Martineau asks:
“…can one expect one’s cook to invent such a sauce as current jelly beaten into horseradish cream to eat with saddle of mutton – or to stuff French prunes with chutney as an alternative?”
I am definitely explaining to my cooks that she should add current jelly to the horseradish cream.
I keep coming back to this economical and emergency recipe.
Poached Eggs with Sweet Corn
A dish for an emergency
Make a white sauce of half a tin of sweet corn, butter and a spoon of milk or cream, pepper and salt.
Heap up and pour over the poached eggs, and garnish with tiny strips of fried bacon.
Well, you know most anything is better with fried bacon.
We were thrilled to hear that Angry Bird is coming out with own egg cookbook. As you know, egg cookbooks are a favorite here at Cookbook Of The Day. Until the Angry Bird hatches, you will have to settle for this gem, Good Egg Dishes by Ambrose Heath. Heath wrote and translated more than one hundred works on food, this being the fourth of his books we have reviewed.
Like many egg cookery books, this is not so much a "cookbook" as a list of how to treat the eggs after they have been cooked. It is more of an egg "decorating" book.
Eggs Sur Le Plat Clamart
The bottom of the dish is garnished with green peas à la française, and the egg is broken on to these and baked.
How many peas? How high the oven? You are left to the imagination.
The most favorite thing about this book is the clever use of recipe titles. Heath wallows in his French providing the most decadent titles for the most simple of dishes. Think about it-- eggs cooked over peas -- I don't think so. But EggsSur Le Plat Clamart, I am so making this dish.
How about scrambled eggs? Heath makes a mere scrambled egg a vision of poetry.
Eggs Scrambled Chatillon
The scrambled eggs are served in a border with minced fried mushrooms in the middle, surrounded by a heap of fried parsley, and little fleurons of puff pastry round the outside.
Again, if you have to ask how to scramble and egg or make a puff pastry or fry mushrooms or parsley, this book is not for you.
Chatillon is a French town or family or battle, one would guess depending upon how you perceive your eggs.
A border is a small platter with slightly raised edges. Now days a square plate would work nicely.
Fleurons are literally florets. In typography they are those curly cues around type, the frilly bits, which accurately describe the exact way those little bits of puff pastry should adorn the boarder.
Here is his cooking instruction for Eggs Mollets.
"There is no English word to describe this kind of egg, which might perhaps be called a soft hard-boiled one, for it is cooked enough for the white to to be firm enough for the shell to be removed, while the yolk remains quite soft inside."
Let's go out a limb here and and say that in English we would call eggs mollets "soft-boiled" eggs. Again we must point out that a soft-boiled egg doesen't hold a verbal candle to eggs mollets. And, as a added bonus, Heath points out that for every recipe that calls for poached egg, eggs mollets can be substitute and there would, of course, be a name change:
"In any recipe for Poached Eggs that follow, an Egg Mollet can be substituted where convenient. The name would then run: OeufsMollets So-and-So."
Next time you are in restaurant and the waiter says, "How would you like your eggs?" You know what to say!
Well, you know my love of all things egg! So it is really hard for me to turn down an egg book. This one is entitled Holiday Eggs. It is written by Georgeanne Brennan. Brennan always turns out a lovely product and Holiday Eggs is no exception. Combined with the recipes are tips for using the shells as tiny vases, votive candles, or napkin rings.
The photographs are, as always, well done. The book is simple and easy to follow. As with most "egg" books, there are a lot of scrambled eggs/omelettes of eggs mixed with whatever! Still, there are worse things in life than eggs mixed with stuff, especially if that "stuff" is a nice truffle.
Brouillade with Truffles
8 eggs 1 ounce black truffles, scrubbed and minced 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Crack the eggs into a bowl and add truffles. In the top part of a double boiler, whisk the eggs and truffles together. Add the butter and place over simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture has thickened into a creamy mass of tiny curds; this will take about 15 minutes. Whisk in the salt and pepper and serve immediately on warmed plates, accompanied by slices of baguette or other country style bread, plain or toasted.
Of course, one might buy illegal drugs cheaper than a truffle, but I have yet to see a Coke Omelette, so in lieu of a big old truffle, you could always cut back on the butter and add a few drops of truffle oil.
As you know, I love the incredible, edible egg. I was flipping through an omelette book the other day and this clipping from London's The Observer fell out. I love finding things in old books. Well, Len Deighton, the famous mystery writer was also a bit of a cooking expert and a mighty fine illustrator. So, long before there were "graphic novels" Deighton did a graphic cookbook. Well, two actually, based on his cook strips for The Observer.
That's it.
Wait, actually, his most famous of these "cook strip" collection, Action Cook Book, has been reprinted in England. Perhaps it will soon be available in the U.S.
Narcissa Chamberlain and her husband, Samuel, wrote many classic cookbooks. As you know of our love for "egg" books, it is no wonder the The Omelette Book is one of our favorites.
In doing some research, I found this article from none other than Sports Illustrated from 23 March 1959 with a dashing Aly Khan on the cover. Sports Illustrated is probably the last place I would have looked for great omelette recipes!
How To Make A Perfect Omelet
Mary Frost Mabon
Because a lot of people don't seem to know how to beat an egg, I decided to write a book on omelets," said Narcissa Chamberlain. We were sitting, on a winter's day in Marblehead, Mass., before one of the six fireplaces that issue into a central chimney in the enchanting 17th century house which is called home by the much-traveled Chamberlains. The walls of every room, or so it seemed, were lined right up to the low ceilings with books—innumerable books, many of them cookbooks, ancient and modern. For the writings of erudite, gifted Samuel Chamberlain combine history and travel with lore about food and restaurants in many countries of the world.
His wife Narcissa and daughter Narcisse make their contribution in the kitchen, testing his discoveries and adapting exotic recipes for American use. The mother-daughter team also is responsible for the charming Chamberlain Calendar of French Cooking, published every year by Hastings House. But The Omelette Book, first published in 1955 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and reprinted last year, is the creation of Narcissa Chamberlain alone. An English edition has appeared, and DasOmelettBuch is making her famous in West Germany. The book contains nearly 300 recipes for omelets, with a choice of Spanish, Italian, Russian and Chinese versions, besides many variations of the classic French dish.
But where does one begin? I asked Mrs. Chamberlain to describe the essential steps in preparing the basic French omelette. The first requirement, she specified, is the selection of impeccably fresh eggs and the best butter. From that point on, here are the important things to know and do:
The pan should be the shape of a frying pan, but rounded inside, with "sloping shoulders"; it can be of heavyweight aluminum or of heavyweight French steel. It should be reserved for omelets only, and kept oiled, so as always to be "slidy"; wiped out with oil and soft paper before and after use, but never washed. (Adhering particles of egg may be removed with coarse salt and oil.) A new pan must be seasoned by heating oil in it very slowly. Use a pan about 10 inches in top diameter for a 5- or 6-egg omelet for 4 people; for a larger number of people, cook several omelets successively.
Beating the eggs: The eggs, broken in a bowl, with salt and pepper and half a teaspoon of water per egg (milk makes an omelet tough), should never be beaten with an egg beater as this thins them—"takes all the joy out of them," Mrs. Chamberlain said, "unless they are beaten for a very long time." She continued: "I use only a fork, and beat towards me. I beat the eggs for just 30 seconds or a few seconds more, but I beat very, very vigorously; 45 seconds is probably about right for most people."
Cooking the omelet: "The place where many cooks go wrong is in heating the pan too fast. Warm it slowly over medium heat; it is at the right temperature when a tiny bit of butter sizzles but does not turn brown. Now add a few drops of oil to keep the pan 'slidy,' together with the amount of butter required (a generous tablespoon for a 6-egg omelet). Tilt and turn the pan to coat its surface; cook on moderate heat till the frothing bubbles of butter have subsided. Now, in go the seasoned eggs. Stir around with the flat of a fork a couple of times, tilt the pan, and shake back and forth as the eggs set, to keep the omelet slipping and free. Lift edges here and there to let the liquid part run under."
To fold and turn out: "While the surface of the eggs is still soft, grasp the handle of the pan with your left hand from underneath (see picture opposite), and with a rubber spatula or scraper held in the right hand fold the omelet over from left side to center. Tilt the pan so that the omelet slips to the edge of the pan. Now, discarding the spatula, hold a platter with your right hand close up to the omelet pan, and with your left hand turn the pan completely over on it. The omelet, neatly folded, should then be in position on the platter."
Once these instructions for the plain omelet have been mastered, there are many exciting changes to be tried—the addition of fresh herbs or grated cheese in the omelet itself, or of delicate vegetables such as okra or fresh asparagus tips in a slit made lengthwise in the top surface, or the swathing of the omelet in a rich sauce. Here, from Narcissa Chamberlain, is one example of the possibilities:
SHRIMP OMELET MIREPOIX
(A savory sauce for an omelet serving 4)
4 teaspoons butter 2 tablespoons grated raw carrot 2 tablespoons minced onion 1/2 teaspoon fine-chopped parsley small piece celery with leaves, chopped fine half a bay leaf small pinch marjoram small pinch thyme salt and pepper 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon tomato paste 1/4 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup clear chicken broth 1 teaspoon brandy 1/2 cup diced cooked shrimp
Here's a really great veggie omelette. I would have never thought of a corn omelette. This post has just been full of surprises.
Creamed Corn Omelette
Scrape the kernels from 2 ears of cold, boiled sweet corn and combine with about 1/4 cup rich cream sauce, or just enough to give a nice consistency. Reheat, season well, and fold into the center of a 6-egg omelette.
Honestly, I am thinking about going out and getting a subscription to SI. Well, probably not.
As you know if you read this blog for any length of time, I love egg cookbooks. About three years ago, a lovely addition to this genre was published, The Farmstead Egg Cookbook by Terry Golson. This small volume is chocked full of vibrant pictures of both food and fowl. There are facts and figures on egg production, sizing and safety. And there are numerous recipes. The recipes are straightforward, and not overly complicated.
As I was flipping through it, I ran across a recipe for quiche, which I used to make all the time. I can’t for the life of me think why I don’t make it anymore, so this slightly old-fashioned recipe seemed to jump off the page.
Quiche with Bacon and Cheese
One 9-inch All-Purpose Pastry Crust 4 large eggs 1 1/2 cups light cream or half-and-half 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese 3 slices slab bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled
1. Put the crust in a 9-inch pie plate, preferably glass or ceramic. Prebake the piecrust into it begins to brown.
2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
3. Using the electric mixer, beat the eggs and cream for 1 minute, until the mixture increases slightly in volume. Stir in the salt, cheese, and bacon. Pour into the pie plate.
4. Bake 34 to 40 minutes, until the center is just set and the edges begin to brown.
What a great way to use eggs! I am definitely putting quiche back into our kitchen rotation.
For more info on Terry Golson and to see her chickens, "live and in person", check out the hencam at her blog.
We love our chickens. And we love their eggs even more. As you may have noticed if you read this blog on a regular basis, we just adore egg cookbooks. Really, there is no more perfect food.
It is hard to imagine after a dozen egg cookbooks that there is anything left to say or do about the egg, but with each new book, there seems to be a new story.
Here is a fine little dessert.
Flan au Vin
2 cups white wine 1/2 cup sugar 6 egg yolks, well beaten Brandied cherries
Dissolve the sugar in the white wine and heat over boiling water. When hot but not boiling, pour over the egg yolks, stirring constantly. Strain into custard cups or into one large mold. Place in pan of hot water and cook in a moderate oven (350 F.) for 45 minutes. Serve ice-cold with the brandied cherries on top. Serves 6.
Marcel Boulestin was a noted French restaurateur and cookbook writer. A. H. Adair was more of a “drink” man. They came upon a book about eggs at a time when the papers were full of the passing of Madame Poulard, a cook famous for her omelettes. Everyone who had eaten them had some magical story of how she came to cook such memorable and fanciful eggs.
Boulestin dismisses the hyperbole about Madame Poulard. She was for him, simply an excellent cook who knew how to make eggs. The secret was cooking eggs. Enough said. I dare say if people were talking about Boulestin's fabulous omelettes, he would probably allowed for the hyperbole, though he would respond that he was simply a fabulous cook. He was also the very first television chef appearing on an experimental BBC program in 1937.
Boulestin and Adiar concede that listing every dish with eggs would be exhaustive. 120 Ways of Cooking Eggs is filled with recipes that feature eggs as the primary component. 120 Ways of Cooking Eggs was one of the cookbooks often used by the Duchess of Windsor. Her copy was sold during the Sotheby's auction of Duke & Duchess' estate.
There is really no point in venturing past the first recipe to come up with a wonderful "eggy" treat. They begin with poached eggs. One must first, however, learn to poach the eggs.
Fill a saucepan with a quart of water, put in a coffeespoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of wine vinegar, bring to the boil. Break the eggs, one by one in a bowl and drop them carefully, also one by one, in the water at the place where it boils most. Move the saucepan a little aside and cook for three and a half minutes; by then the yolk will be enclosed by the white, set enough to keep its shape.
Boulestin recommends absolutely fresh eggs to insure that the whites retain their natural shape and coat the yolk.
Poached Eggs Argenteuil
Make a puree of asparagus, and spread over buttered toast; put on each piece one poached egg, a few asparagus tips (previously cooked) neatly arranges and pour a little hot cream over the egg. Should be well seasoned.
Think about it, a lovely moonlit night, a glass of fruity wine and Poached Eggs Argenteuil – you too will be a legend.
After perusing Pot on the Fire, I pulled down another one of John Thorne’s books, Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots . John Thorne’s books always list his wife, Matt, as the co-author, a generous move in today’s world of wanting to be the center of everything. He writes in his introduction:
“Matt has considered every word of every draft, reacting, suggesting, amending, and hence, reshaping, what appears herein…this means that the subjective self who speaks out of these pages is a larger, braver, much more interesting person than that which belongs to me alone.”
That is the heart and soul of cooking, is it not. The people for whom we cook, react and amend our recipes, reshaping them. I don’t like nuts, you don’t like Brussels sprouts; cooking evolves with the voice of those around us and it makes for a richer, braver cooks.
My friend, Paul, is a chef. Every time he ate something I made he would say, “You know what would make this really good….” His girlfriend would get apoplectic, but I understand. Cooks are always adjusting and changing. It is why one cannot copyright a recipe. Each cook transforms a recipe. People who cook are constantly asking themselves that question: What would make this better?
I have a lot of chives planted and I have been looking for recipes for chive blossoms. In Serious Pig, Thorne discuses his romance with the Shakers. He provides a recipe attributed to Eldress Clymena or Sister Abigail from Ohio.
Blue Flower Omelet
4 eggs 4 tablespoons milk or water 1/2 teaspoon salt Pinch of black pepper 1 tablespoon minced parsley 1 teaspoon minced chives 2 tablespoons best butter 12 chive blossoms
This delicious omelet can be made only when the chives are in full bloom. Take the eggs and beat them just enough to blend the whites and yolks well. Add milk or water, seasonings, and the minced parsley and chives. Melt butter in a heavy iron skillet; pour in the mixture. When the edges of the omelet begin to set, reduce the heat. With a pancake shovel [i.e., a spatula], slash uncooked parts until the bottom is well browned. Then sprinkle the washed blossoms over the omelet and fold. Serve immediately on a hot platter. The blue blossoms add a delicious flavor and interest to the dish.
Recipes come directly from the listed cookbooks. We impose no uniform standards upon them. That is why you find omelettes and omelets, cups and liters and other peculiarities in the text. And I'm a bit dyslexic, so my personal spelling can be a tad idiosyncratic on its own.
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