' EGGS BENEDICT. V-1.1 .'

70 degree C. Egg yolks, Poached whipped egg whites, House hollandaise, Crispy parma ham, Maple bacon curls, Toasted English muffin, Olive herb and Tarragon sprigs.

             

                    Eggs Benedict is a classic breakfast dish that has stood the test of time and the basic four ingredient combination of bacon and poached eggs on an english muffin with hollandaise sauce, has been a target for deconstruction, reconstruction by many a modern day chef. In this version (1.1) I've employed some of the techniques to the eggs made famous by chef Wylie Dufresne's Eggs Benedict served at his world renown WD-50 restaurant. Wylie does his egg yolks sous vide 70C for 17 minutes producing yolks that have a texture of soft dense fudge that coats your mouth. And another of his techniques is to poach whipped seasoned egg whites in barely simmering water, forming a savoury meringue that is delicate and dissolves in your mouth. This plate took me back to the days at Acland St.

St.Kilda in Melbourne where I served time as a breakfast chef, starting my commute to work at 4am to get to the restaurant to set up for busy breakfast crowds of Eggs Benedict and some its variations. My main task and one of the two main tests I had to keep my job was the big batches of 2 dozen egg hollandaise sauce, there would be two to do sometimes three. My first morning on my own after earning the trust of head chef to make the sauce I split the sauce halfway through, a bit of panic set in with the time I had lost not to mention the eggs. I managed to get it back with a little cold water and I was saved, since then I've never had to make such large quantities of the sauce so I use a quick method which is fail proof using a blender.                                                                                                                    
                    I've outlined the techniques and methods to this dish below in order of execution .
70C SOUS VIDE EGG YOLKS- For the yolks I lightly beat the yolks breaking the membrane up and then seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. I then placed the yolks into a sealed piping bag and in a 70 degree C. water bath for 17 minutes but after cutting the tip of the bag and trying to pipe the yolks were still runny so the piping bag was sealed again and placed in for another 30 minutes at which I achieved the texture of fudge.
POACHED WHIPPED EGG WHITES- In a mixing bowl I placed some egg whites with a little seasoning and using the electric whisk, I whipped the whites to a soft peak before adding a little cream of tartar and whipping to a stiff peak. Using two dessert spoons I made quenelles and placed them gently into an 85 degree C. water bath to poach, turning over after 2-3 minutes and then removing with a slotted spoon.
HOUSE HOLLANDAISE- This is my quick, fail proof easy blender version and not the traditional over the stove whisking until your arms drop off in hope through the whole 10-15 minutes that you don't split it and ruin your work. So here goes on the stove I gently melted 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter without letting to much liquid to evaporate off the butter. In a blender I placed 3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, a pinch of both salt and cayenne pepper, blending on a medium speed until the mixture becomes lighter in colour about 30 seconds. The friction from the blades heats the yolks up a bit and the blending motion adds air making the mix light and fluffy. I then turned the blender to low and drizzled the melted butter in slowly while the blender was running, continuing to blend for further 5-10 seconds until the butter incorporates. Store beside the warm stove top until ready to serve.
CRISPY PARMA HAM- I placed thin slices of the parma ham on to a lined baking tray and baked the ham lightly on both sides in a 160 degree C. oven until crispy.
MAPLE BACON CURLS- To make these which give a sweet element to the dish I simple rolled maple cured streaky bacon and fixed them with a tooth pick before basting in maple syrup and pan frying until caramelised and crispy, removing the tooth pick to serve.
TOASTED BREAKFAST MUFFIN- To make this I simply sliced thin slithers of the muffin, rubbing them in the rendered fat from the bacon and maple syrup, before lightly toasting both sides under a grill.
OLIVE HERB & TARRAGON- Both these herbs make the perfect match for egg dishes and were both harvested from our veggie garden to be used as finishing garnish for this plate.

' 64.C poached & fried EGG with ASPARAGUS .'

64 C. poached & fried Free range Hen egg, French Tarragon infused Asparagus ribbons, Crumbled croutons, Balsamic vinegar reduction, Fresh Tarragon and Viola flower.

              The night temperatures have dropped quite rapidly here at the moment but our hens are in their first season and are laying strong through the start of our winter. Hence the egg recipe, which is in fact a recipe from the great Eddie Shepperd, award winning vegetarian chef in the U.K. I chose to use, (copy what ever you may call it) Eddie's recipe because of his use of techniques in making the dish, the simple egg cooked in a way you can really appreciate eating it and accompanied by the perfect pairings. We got our three girls going on 3 months ago now and if there was an eighth day in the week we would get 2 dozen eggs. We couldn't be happier, they couldn't be happier and its a great mutualistic  relationship. Free ranging is a different story, almost everyday the Isa brown gets out and I'm having to go and retrieve her from next doors backyard, the park or half way up the street where she's foraging on someones front lawn. Anyway below I've listed the techniques to this tasty vegetarian breakfast of asparagus and egg with crouton and balsamic reduction.                                                                          
            To begin with I started with the asparagus, setting my sous vide machine to 85C. I then vacuum sealed asparagus spears with a little butter and some fresh tarragon from the garden. The sealed asparagus was then placed in the water bath and cooked for 15 minutes before being removed and placed in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Once the asparagus was cool enough I sliced them into halves or ribbons and dressed them with a little olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a little salt and pepper to season, these were then stored in the fridge and warmed gently before serving. I then set the sous vide water bath to 64C. and carefully placed the egg in the bath with the shell on, cooking the egg for 1 hour. Once the egg was ready I broke the egg into a frying pan, frying the egg for a 30 seconds on one side only before removing and plating immediately. While the egg was cooking I prepared the balsamic reduction and the croutons, beginning with the reduction I placed some balsamic vinegar into a saucepan with and brought to slow simmer, reducing the vinegar by a third. This was then set aside to thicken up. Next I prepped the croutons by tearing up some good quality white bread and frying the pieces in a little olive oil and garlic until golden in colour. I the crumbled the croutons up lightly and seasoned them with salt.                                                                                                                            
               To plate I placed the warmed asparagus in the centre of the plate in a loose bundle letting them sit where they naturally fell. I then placed the hot poached then fried egg on top of the asparagus and seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper. I then scattered the crumbled croutons in a rough line starting from the top of the egg out to the edge of the plate. Delicately dotting the thickened balsamic to make an arch around the egg and finally garnishing with a fresh viola flower and a sprig of fresh french tarragon from the garden.

' 64 deg . C EGG YOLK CROQUETTES .'

64 degree C. Sous vide cooked Egg yolk croquettes with Pecorino cheese sauce , Micro greens and truffle salt.

                         This little dish is a take on those creamy spanish croquettes that are served at the many tapas bars. I remember vividly as a child, mum would make beautiful creamy corn croquettes and they were to die for and always a welcomed item at the dinner table. The idea to use egg yolks as the filling came from the molecular recipe website, where they used the method of cooking the yolks sous vide to achieve a gelled structure that can't be achieved by boiling or soft boiling the egg. This dish looks very simple but requires great dexterity and technique when handling these delicate egg yolks. By cooking the eggs sous vide gives us the control and guarantees the perfect temperature of 64 degrees the temperature at which the protein livetin denatures and causes the egg yolk to gel and form a creamy custard like consistency as apposed to boiling where the outside of the egg cooks quicker than the yolk leaving us to guess the condition of the yolk and depending on the size of the eggs an extra 30 seconds too long can turn a soft yolk to a hard boiled before your eyes. The recipe I went off called for the pairing of a nutty flavoured gruyere foam, instead I opted to accompany the croquettes with a cheese dipping sauce made from pecorino cheese, which I think is just as nice.                                                  
                          I first cooked the eggs in their shells in a 64 degree sous vide water bath for one hour. The recipe called to cook the yolks on their own floating in the bath for 45 minutes, turning them at 25 minutes. This method can get fiddly and messy if one ruptures during the cooking process. Once the eggs were cooked I de-shelled them rinsing the unset whites from the yolks carefully under running cold water, these were then placed into a bowl of room temp water until ready to be crumbed. As our pullets have just started laying over the last few weeks, I lost a few yolks to what they call blood spots or meat spots in the yolks, this will be less frequent as they get a little older. But at least I'm assured of fresh free ranged organic eggs at our disposal with vibrant yellow yolks from the supplemented leafy greens in their diets. In a bowl I whisked a whole egg with a pinch of salt, this was for the egg wash. I then seasoned some flour in another bowl and in the last bowl I placed some bread crumbs seasoned with salt and some Dorrego pepper leaf. Using my hands I carefully dusted the yolks with the flour, dipping them into the egg wash and then coating them with the bread crumb. In the mean time I heated some light olive oil, enough to cover the croquettes, in a saucepan to 190 degrees cooking the croquettes one at a time for about 2-3 minutes until they were nice and golden in colour. Bringing the oil back up to 190 degrees each time to assure a perfect shell of crumb around the yolk centres. To make the sauce I heated a little butter in a saucepan and sweated off some finely chopped onions. Once they were clear and translucent I removed them from the pot adding some more butter and a little flour I made a roux to which I added gradually milk to form a white sauce. This was seasoned with truffle salt and grated pecorino cheese was added to complete the cheese sauce.                                                      
                           To plate I smeared the cheese sauce on the plate arranging the croquettes on top and garnished with some micro greens. I seasoned the croquettes with a little truffle infused sea salt.

' WHITE TRUFFLE & EGG CUSTARD .'

Savoury Custard of Hens egg yolks & White summer Truffle , White Truffle oil , Fresh Water hyssop , Black caviar , Smoked salmon mousse and pea greens.

                  I love this dish, a delicate hens egg shell and within a rich, velvety, aromatic and decadent custard. In this case a summer dish using oil infused with summer white truffle as the flavour but I've seen this dish served in many different ways. For my dish i've used smoked salmon mousse for the base to hold the egg shell cup upright and along with the pea greens makes a great accompaniment to the custard. Keeping with the egg theme I topped the custard with a little lumpfish caviar.                                
                 To make this I first cracked a couple of eggs using a sharp knife carefully, leaving about two thirds of the bottom of the shell in perfect shape. This is a rather hard thing two achieve, with the eggs I separated the yolks. I then whipped the yolks with some whit truffle oil and adding to this some cream, milk, and sherry vinegar . Whipping until mixed together I poured the mixture into a small saucepan on low heat I cooked the custard until thick and creamy before removing from the heat to rest. I then cleaned the inside of the shell removing any membrane and trimmed the rim as best I could.                      
                To serve I placed three quenelles of smoked salmon mousse in the centre of the plate which was made by simply blending smoked salmon with cream cheese to a paste. In the middle of the salmon mouse quenelles a placed the the egg shell and carefully spooned the custard to fill the shell. I drizzled white truffle oil over the custard topping with black caviar and fresh water hyssop. I placed a section of fresh pea greens in front of the egg and mousse to garnish the dish.