Creative Cooking for the Global Kitchen

David Marteau Daily, The Infinite World of Eggs

The infinite world of eggs:

As part of my pursuit to be innovative, we decided at the Parkyard Hotel Shanghai to do an egg promotion. Yes, it might sound a bit awkward but we wanted to do something different and that will really have an effects.

The first thing we needed to do was to find a catchy name, as just eggs was a bit boring. After doing a little brainstorming we decide to go with the word:

 “Br-egg-fast”, basically a combination of the word breakfast with the inclusion of egg, but I am sure you understood.

Nevertheless, now that we finally found the concept around the egg, I needed to come up with some great ideas, that we would be able to do and in the same time keep it up to our standards.

So here is what I did as an example, as you might understand, this short listed menu is just an example:

Hard-boiled egg with asparagus and orange Poached egg on English muffin with green tea hollandaise sauce

Pickled red beet hard-boiled egg

Hard-boiled egg salad on pumpernickel bread

Onion flavored pigeon egg Tea scented quail eggs

Bacon and soft poached egg Oeuf cocotte with cream and chives

Boiled egg with smoked salmon, celery and Fish eggs

As the world of egg is very vast and flexible, basically, you can pretty much do anything you want with different type of eggs.

Here are some tips about eggs.

Cooking eggs:

Egg white coagulates, or solidifies, when it reaches temperatures between 144 °F and 149 °F (62.2 °C-65 °C). Egg yolk coagulates at slightly higher temperatures, between 149 °F and 158 °F (65 °C-70 °C). If a boiled egg is overcooked, a greenish ring sometimes appears around egg yolk due to the iron and sulfur compounds in the egg. It can also occur when there is an abundance of iron in the cooking water. The green ring does not affect the egg’s taste; overcooking, however, harms the quality of the protein. Chilling the egg for a few minutes in cold water until it is completely cooled prevents the greenish “ring” from forming on the surface of the yolk.

Types of egg dishes:

Chicken eggs are widely used in many types of dishes, both sweet and savory, including many baked goods. Some of the most common preparation methods include scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, and pickled. They can also be eaten raw, though this is not recommended for people who may be especially susceptible to salmonellosis, such as the elderly, the infirm, or pregnant women. In addition, the protein in raw eggs is only 51% bioavailable, whereas that of a cooked egg is nearer 91% bioavailable, meaning the protein of cooked eggs is nearly twice as absorbable as the protein from raw eggs. As an ingredient, egg yolks are an important emulsifier in the kitchen, and the proteins in egg white allow it to form foams and aerated dishes. Soft-boiled quail eggs, with potato galette The albumen, or egg white, contains protein but little or no fat, and can be used in cooking separately from the yolk. Egg whites may be aerated or whipped to a light, fluffy consistency, and are often used in desserts such as meringues and mousse. Ground egg shells are sometimes used as a food additive to deliver calcium. Every part of an egg is edible although the eggshell is generally discarded.

Boiled egg with asparagus and orange

Boiled egg with smoked salmon, celery and Fish eggs

Egg salad on pumpernickel bread

overview of my “Br-egg-fast” presentation

Poached egg on English muffin with green tea hollandaise sauce

soft qauil egg with potato pancake

Flavor variations:

A batch of tea eggs with shell still on soaking in a brew of spices and tea Although the age of the egg and the conditions of its storage have a greater influence, the bird’s diet does affect the flavor of the egg. For example, when a brown-egg chicken breed eats rapeseed or soy meals, its intestinal microbes metabolize them into fishy-smelling triethylamine, which ends up in the egg. The unpredictable diet of free-range hens will produce unpredictable eggs. Duck eggs tend to have a flavor distinct from, but still resembling, chicken eggs. Eggs can also be soaked in mixtures to absorb flavor. Tea eggs are steeped in a brew from a mixture of various spices, soy sauce, and black tea leaves to give flavor.

Preservation:

Salted duck egg Careful preservation of edible eggs is extremely important, as an improperly handled egg can contain elevated levels of Salmonella bacteria that can cause severe food poisoning. The USDA recommends refrigerating eggs in order to prevent the growth of Salmonella. Refrigeration also preserves the taste and texture. However uncracked eggs can be left unrefrigerated for several months without spoiling The simplest method to preserve an egg is to treat it with salt. Salt draws water out of bacteria and molds, which prevents their growth. The Chinese salted duck egg is made by immersing duck eggs in brine, or coating them individually with a paste of salt and mud or clay. The eggs stop absorbing salt after about a month, having reached osmotic equilibrium. Their yolks take on an orange-red color and solidify, but the white remains liquid. They are boiled before consumption, and are often served with rice congee.

Pickled egg, colored with beetroot juice Another method is to make pickled eggs, by boiling them first and immersing them in a mixture of vinegar, salt, and spices, such as ginger or allspice. Frequently, beetroot juice is added to impart a red color to the eggs. If the eggs are immersed in it for a few hours, the distinct red, white, and yellow colors can be seen when the eggs are sliced. If marinated for several days or more, the red color will reach the yolk. If the eggs are marinated in the mixture for several weeks or more, the vinegar will dissolve much of the shell’s calcium carbonate and penetrate the egg, making it acidic enough to inhibit the growth of bacteria and molds. Pickled eggs made this way will generally keep for a year or more without refrigeration.

Century egg A century egg or hundred-year-old egg is preserved by coating an egg in a mixture of clay, wood ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with a comparatively mild, distinct flavor. The transforming agent in a century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from around 9 to 12 or more. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats of the yolk into simpler, flavorful ones, which in some way may be thought of as an “inorganic” version of fermentation.

Source: WIKIPEDIA

Culinary yours David Marteau Global Chef My latest cookbook on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Cooking-Global-Kitchen-International/dp/0986812501

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