Eggsactly

My meals of late have been rather unremarkable so I thought tonight I'd pay homage to The Egg.
You gotta love an egg, as a pastry chef I grew to have an unusual reverence for the humble egg, it is present in so much pastry work. And in so many different fashions, with so many different applications. It truly is remarkable. From bread to mousse, from ice cream to cookies, you need the egg for all of them.

There is a story that the hundred pleats in a chefs hat are supposed to represent the number of ways to use an egg. 100, thats alot. Im guessing alot of them are archaic and nothing we would know about...

Eggs got a bad rap what with the Cholesterol thing, but now we know that it is perfectly acceptable to have one egg a day. Unless of course you have some issues, and then, well, move along...nothing more to see here ;)

In training young staff over the past couple of years I was astounded at the lack of basic culinary knowledge. So a bit of an egg primer can't hurt.

First off, Sunny Side Up


Way too many young people I have encountered weren't quite sure what a sunny side up egg was...really?! OK well if you see a picture of a fried egg 93% of the time it is sunny side, because they are so pretty.

For traditional sunny-side up eggs, melt 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter in a 8-inch non-stick omelet pan or skillet over medium heat. Break open eggs into pan and immediately reduce heat to low. And I mean low. So many green cooks think every thing has to be on the highest heat or speed. I realize instant gratification takes too long these days, but patience is still a virtue in the kitchen Cook slowly until the whites are completely set and the yolks begins to thicken, but are not hard.
Voila.

Now stay with me here..over easy means, flip the egg over and cook it a short period of time on the opposing side, so the yolk remains somewhat runny.
Over medium, over hard..figure it our dear readers, I know you are a clever bunch

Myself, Im a fan of scrambled, and I have it perfected for my pan at home, exactly the right way to season it.
Now I will be frank, I have a method  I always use, then I cam across this Gordon Ramsay clip and I am intrigued. Not mystified, mind you, just intrigued. He makes it rather like a pastry cream, or custard. I never would have tried it, but now I must.
Plus this is a great clip showing us Ramsay is not just a TV chef, and he burns the toast, teehee