Egg

This is a very simple taco, common throughout Mexico, that I ate at whatever local market was nearby on almost all of my mornings there. It was always accompanied by copious amounts of orange juice freshly squeezed with a portable juicer at a neighboring street cart. They are a great way to start a day and one of my longtime favorites. Consider this recipe a tasty base for ingredients—whatever sounds good to you. Green chile powder is a nice addition, as is chipotle powder.

Of the three types of meringue, Swiss meringue is perhaps the easiest for the home cook to master. This recipe is by no means as simple as the Easy Chocolate Buttercream on page 432, but it is a good next step on the way to more involved icings such as Italian meringue. You begin by combining egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl and then whisking them over a pan of simmering water. Because the heat is more gentle, you won’t have to use a candy thermometer. Once the sugar has melted, and the egg whites are warm, the bowl is transferred to an electric-mixer stand and the mixture whipped to stiff peaks. When the mixture is completely cool, softened butter is beaten in piece by piece, to create a silky smooth icing. It is ultrarich and delicious, and can be used on cakes that run the gamut from homespun to oh-so-fancy.

The squash filling in the recipe can be replaced with virtually any precooked vegetables you like. You can also omit the goat cheese and sprinkle on more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago, or use Gruyère cheese instead.

In this recipe, the eggs are paired with a heady sauté of shallots and morels—wild mushrooms prized in French cuisine for their distinctive taste and rarity (they grow largely in areas recently stricken with forest fires). They are in season during the spring months; substitute other wild mushrooms, such as oysters or chanterelles, if morels are unavailable.

Coddling, which in cooking terms means to heat food in water that is just below the boiling point, is a gentle steaming method that yields a tender egg. The traditional way to prepare and serve these eggs is in coddlers—special cups with tight lids that trap in steam when the cups are placed in a pan of simmering water. Buttering the coddlers and adding a bit of heavy cream impart richness. For a garnish, sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs, such as fines herbes (a mix of chives, chervil, parsley, and tarragon), finely diced red onion, or crumbled bacon. Soldiers (toasted bread cut into batons) are the traditional—and sole—accompaniment.

This three-egg omelet is strewn with fresh herbs for the simplest of fillings. See the variations below for other ideas. If you’d like an omelet with a bit more heft, add another egg.

The secret to light, fluffy scrambled eggs is to cook them over moderate heat and to move them fairly constantly; this will ensure that the eggs do not take on any color. Also, cook the eggs just until they form plump, soft curds with no more runny parts in the pan (the curds should appear slightly wet, not dry) and immediately remove them from pan, as they will continue cooking.

The secret to light, fluffy scrambled eggs is to cook them over moderate heat and to move them fairly constantly; this will ensure that the eggs do not take on any color. Also, cook the eggs just until they form plump, soft curds with no more runny parts in the pan (the curds should appear slightly wet, not dry) and immediately remove them from pan, as they will continue cooking.

This dish was originally named for the tomato and chile sauce it was served with; now it is often topped with any chile-spiked salsa, such as the tomatillo version on page 179. Start by heating the salsa in a skillet with a tablespoon of sunflower or other neutral-tasting oil.

Unlike when poached, eggs that are fried are intended to brown ever so slightly, with a hint of a crust around the edges that contrasts wonderfully with the soft, runny yolk. That’s the hallmark of eggs prepared “sunny side up.” When a fresh egg is cracked into a skillet, the thickest part of the egg white clings around the yolk. To ensure that the white sets throughout, you need to break the thick albumen sac, and distribute the whites evenly. Fried eggs are often served on toast or as a component of a heartier breakfast dish such as Huevos Rancheros.

This elegant dish is perfect for brunch. The artichokes resemble flower petals, with the eggs, hollandaise, and thin slices of smoked salmon their centers. See page 296 for how-to photos of trimming artichokes.

Because they are cooked in water, with no oil or other fat added, poached eggs are a healthful alternative to eggs cooked by many other methods. But their true appeal is in their texture, the ideal being a still-runny yolk surrounded by a just-set white. Their no-fat cooking method also suggests that the eggs might benefit from being served with a rich, flavorful Hollandaise Sauce (see page 96), as in eggs benedict. But they are also delicious on a slice of toast, which soaks up the yolk. A bit of practice is required to prevent the egg white from dispersing into the water, causing the edges to become frayed. Some cooks prefer to add a drop of white vinegar to the water to help the white coagulate; others swirl the water vigorously to create a whirlpool (technically a vortex, which traps the egg inside) just before sliding in the egg. Generally, though, you should not have a problem if you heed these suggestions: Use very fresh eggs; keep the water at a bare simmer (it should hardly move); gently slide the broken egg into the water; and spoon the edges of the whites over the egg as soon as it is in the pan.

Hard-cooked eggs should never actually be boiled for any length of time, or they will turn rubbery and dry. Instead, follow the directions below for gently cooking eggs—the whites will be tender and yolks still slightly soft in the center. These eggs would be perfect for sprinkling with salt and pepper and eating whole, halving and scooping out the yolks to make deviled eggs, or cutting into wedges for salads. They are also the starting point for making the classic mayonnaise-based egg salads. Soft-cooked eggs are classically served in their shell in a cocottier (small egg cup), with a tiny silver spoon and toast points (triangles) or soldiers (baton shapes) for dipping into the still-soft yolks. The eggs are also delicious scooped out of the shells and served on slices of toasted buttered rustic bread.

In the Pizzeria kitchen we refer to this as the “breakfast pizza” because of the traditional combination. We don’t cut through the egg because the whole egg looks pretty in the center of the pizza when we bring it to the table. And that way our customers can have the thrill of breaking the yolk themselves.

This fluffy cooked meringue makes the best pie topping. It is easiest to beat the mixture with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

This meringue works well for piping shapes. Using the whisk attachment to beat the egg whites in the final stage works best; warming the egg whites helps dissolve the sugar, giving the meringue greater volume.

The easiest way to coddle eggs is to place them in egg coddlers, special containers with tight-fitting lids, but you can also use ramekins or custard cups covered tightly with foil. Fines herbes is a combination of chopped fresh herbs, most often those below, but sometimes including others such as marjoram or savory.