Eggs
Eggs make a wonderful vehicle for herbs, so enjoy sampling these recipes.
3 sprigs tarragon, 4 large eggs, salt/pepper,
150 ml or 1/4 pint or 2/3 cup thin/light cream.
Strip 1 teaspoon of the best leaves from tarragon sprigs and chop them. Put rest in a pan with cream and bring to boil. Remove from heat, cover the pan, and leave for 20 minutes.
Strain cream and add salt and black pepper to taste. Break each egg into a buttered individual ramekin and stand them in a roasting pan with
Cook in moderate oven (160C or 325 F or Gas Mark 3 ) until whites are almost set. Pour a little cream over each one, just enough to cover the surface, then return to oven for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped tarragon and serve immediately.
450g or 1 lb hop tips or asparagus tips
sea salt and black pepper
4 poached eggs hollandaise sauce (see Sauce section).
Cut hop (asparagus) tips to equal length, tie in 2 or 3 bundle, and lower them into a pan of boiling water. Cook until tender when pierced with skewer, lift and and drain well. Unfasten bundles and lay the hop tips on flat dish.
Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and put the poached eggs on top. Pour over the hollandaise sauce and serve immediately.
Eggs with Saffron Sauce
Stuffed Eggs
Eggs in Tarragon Jelly.
(recipes below)
225 g or 8oz or 1 cup long grain rice pinch saffron 4 eggs
saffron sauce .
Wash and drain rice. Bring saucepan of salted water to boil, and add saffron and cook rice till tender. Drain it well, and keep warm in a shallow serving dish.
Hard-boil eggs, shell them and lay them in middle or rice. Prepare saffron sauce and pour some over the warm eggs, handing the remainder separatley.
This makes an unusual and delicious dish. for something more substantial allow 2 eggs per person.
SAUCE -- 25 g or 1oz or 2 tabs butter, 1 tab. flour, salt and pepper to taste,
1 tabs finely chopped shallot, pinch saffron, 2 tabs. sour cream,
300ml or 1/2 pt or 1 1/4 cups chicken stock.
Melt butter in saucepan and cook shallot very gently for 3 minutes, without browing.
Add flour and stir till blended. Cook for 1 minute. Heat stock and pour it on,
stir until blended and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes, adding saffron and salt/pepper to taste.
Stir in sour cream and serve.
6 eggs, sea salt and black pepper to taste, few sprigs of dill to garnish,
2 tabs. sout cream, 2 tabs. chopped chives, 1 tab chopped dill, 1 tabs. tarragon
Boil eggs for 12 minutes then cool quickly in bowl of cold water. Shell them, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out yolks, being careful not to damage whites.
Mash yolks to paste, adding salt/pepper and sour cream to make a smooth mix.
Stir in the chopped herbs. Pile mixture back into egg whites, and arrange them on a flat dish, with feathery sprigs of dill curling among them.
4 eggs 4 sprigs tarragon 4 lettuce leaves to garnish
450 ml or 3/4 pt or 2 cups chicken stock, 2 1/2 teas gelatine.
Bring a saucepan of lightly salted waterto the boil.. Put eggs into pan and cook for exactly 5 minutes. Cool eggs immediately under cold water, and shell them carefully.
Strip 4 of the best leaves from tarragon sprigs and reserve them. heat the stock, which must be of good flavour and totally free of fat, with the tarragon sprigs.
Leave 15 minutes to infuse.
If the flavour still seems weak, bring back to boil, and leave to cool once more.
Lift out the tarragon and stir in the gelatine. Stir the stock over a very low heat until the gelatine, has melted. Pour through a strainer to make a thin layer in each of 4 oeufs en gelee moulds, or use ramekin dishes.
Put in refrigerator to set. When firm lay a tarragon leaf on the bottom of each one, then an egg. Pour the remaining stock through a strainer to cover the eggs. Chill until set.
To serve, turn out on individual plates and surround with shredded lettuce. garnish with thin slices of stuffed olives, if desired.
2 slices dry bread, 1 alrge clove garlic, 5 eggs, sea salt & pepper (to taste),
50g or 20 oz or 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 tabs. finely chopped parsley.
Trim crusts off bread and cut each slice into small cubes. Peel and crush garlic. Heat most of butter in frying pan (skillet), leaving just enough to cook the omelette, and fry the bread until golden brown, stirring constantly and add crushed garlic.
Remove from pan and set aside. Break eggs into bowl and beat lightly with fork and season with salt/pepper. Heat remaining butter in omelette pan and tip in eggs.
As eggs start to set, tip in the garlic-flavoured croutons and continue to cook quickly, turning the omelette out on to a flat dish before eggs have completely set.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
One omelette will serve 2 people. For 4 people just make 2.
updated 3 January 2004
Painting by Susan Seals