French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [106]
ŒUFS MOLLET
There seems to be no really adequate translation of the word mollet in this context. Soft eggs mean to us soft-boiled breakfast eggs; ‘tender eggs,’ as I have seen them translated, is explanatory enough but somehow sounds odd. Perhaps it is best just to leave them in the French. They are cooked in boiling water until they are of a consistency midway between a soft-boiled and a hard-boiled egg; that is to say that the whites are quite set, the yolks still just runny. For the average egg 5 minutes is the exact time to allow from the moment the eggs are plunged into boiling water; as soon as they are taken out cool them under the running cold tap to prevent further cooking. For very small or very large eggs the timing must obviously be slightly adjusted. Owing to the time lag between the lowering of the first egg and, say, the fifth or sixth into the water, it is perhaps easier to pour the boiling water over the eggs in the saucepan, allowing for a few extra seconds’ cooking while the water comes back to the boil. Alternatively, there exists a useful utensil, usually obtainable at Woolworths as well as at good kitchen stores, in which 4 to 6 eggs are placed, the whole gadget being lowered into a deep pan of boiling water, so that the risk of the eggs cracking is minimised, and the timing greatly facilitated.
Once shelled as described below, the eggs can be kept ready, if they are to be served with a hot sauce, in a bowl of warm water. Œufs mollets are suitable, in fact preferable in many ways, for most dishes in which poached eggs are generally used, especially for eggs in aspic jelly.
To shell hard-boiled or mollet eggs, they should be plunged immediately they are cooked into cold water, to arrest the cooking, and to make them cool enough to handle. If it is not convenient to shell them at once they can be left until they are quite cold, but on the whole it is easier to shell them while they are still warm. Many people find this quite a difficult operation, particularly with mollet eggs.
The best way to set about it is to tap the egg gently all over, as soon as it can be handled, with the back of a knife, until the whole egg is mapped over with fine cracks. Hold the egg in the palm of one hand, and with the other start peeling, and both inner skin and shell should come off quite easily as you turn the egg carefully over. Of course, in the case of mollet eggs caution must be exercised or they may break, so do not try to do this operation in a hurry. Take your time over it, doing it with care and deliberation.
If there are little particles of shell adhering to the egg, it is easier to remove them by dipping the egg in cold water rather than picking them off by hand.
ŒUFS MOLLETS À LA CRÉCY
Scrape and shred 3 large carrots, melt a good lump of butter in a heavy pan and in this stew the carrots, covered, until they are quite soft. The flame must be kept very low or the carrots will burn. In the meantime prepare pint of thick béchamel sauce and cook 4 mollet eggs—that is, eggs boiled exactly 5 minutes, cooled, and shelled. Or, if you prefer, poach the eggs.
Season the carrots, place a spoonful in the bottom of each individual small egg dish, put the egg on the top and cover with the béchamel. Sprinkle very lightly with breadcrumbs and a little melted butter. Put the egg dishes on a baking sheet at the top of a very hot oven for 4 to 5 minutes.
LES ŒUFS DURS
HARD-BOILED EGGS
On the whole, the most satisfactory and the simplest way to hard-boil eggs is to put them in a saucepan in which they just about fit (you don’t want two eggs rattling about in a huge saucepan), cover them completely with cold water, bring them gently to the boil and then cook them 7 to 10 minutes. Drain off the hot water and run plenty of cold water over them so that they stop cooking