Class 6: Dozens of Incredible Edible Eggs

Class 6 was devoted to cooking eggs in almost every way possible. Eggs are sold by grade, size, and how the chicken is raised. We scrambled eggs - the key is to not whip these up too much and to heat pan first. Our next egg prep was poached. The trick to the perfect poached eggs starts with a couple of dashes of vinegar in the water, which is then brought to a a simmer just below a boil. Before you put the egg into the water, you swirl the water to create a vortex so the egg stays together in the center of the pot. Poached eggs cook in a matter of 2-3 minutes. I was ecstatic that mine came out perfectly, because I love poached eggs but have always shied away from making them at home.

We moved onto omelets - the first we made was just a folded omelet. Again when prepping the eggs for the omelet, you don't want to mix up the eggs too much because you add too much air and end up with a souffled omelet. This one came out really well for me. Unfortunately, the rolled omelet didn't work out so well. Mine had tears all over it, stuck to the pan, and looked like a mess! I didn't want to see another omelet after this travesty, but chef had us step up our next omelets with a sauteed vegetable mix of tomatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic added in the eggs before cooking. I'm not a huge omelet fan so at this point my heart just wasn't in it. I was more then ready to move on to the next thing.

And so glad we did! Our next egg preparation was a spanish style tortilla with potatoes and onions. We started by cooking the onions in a lot of oil and then cooked potatoes in the same pan until they were very brown. We then mixed four eggs together and then added to the veggies. This is then added to a hot pan. Now the tricky part - flipping the tortilla! I didn't want to mess it up because mu partner and I were planning on having ours for dinner, so I took the easy flipping method by flipping it onto the plate then sliding it back into the pan to cook the other side. This tortilla was amazing. I am definitely going to make this at home. We made a fantastic tomato sauce to serve with this - We grated two plum tomatoes (which has the effect of peeling the tomato), then added sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a torn up basil leaf. This sauce was unbelievably good. I certainly will make this and the tortilla at home.

Our final eggs of the evening were amped up deviled eggs. We made mushroom duxelles with shallots, then mixed in a bechamel we made, and some hard boiled egg yolks. We then stuffed the egg white shells with the filliing and topped with a little gruyere and put them under the salamander (professional kitchen-speak for a broiler). I really wanted to try one of these because they looked wonderful. But after cooking about 2 dozen eggs, I just couldn't do it. I did get it on good authority from a nearby student that these were excellent. So, I'll have to make these on a less eggy day!

I liked this class. I think it is important to know how to cook eggs the right way, because they are easy to mess up and that can't be masked. I left class feeling eggsellent about the program so far. And when I read ahead to what was on the agenda next, I felt even better. Next up is pastry!