French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [108]
The great advantage of eggs cooked in this way is that you are always sure of getting your eggs hot; also the risk of the eggs breaking as they are transferred from pan to dish and from dish to plate is eliminated.
ŒUFS SUR LE PLAT (2)
In that beguiling book Cooking in Ten Minutes,17 Dr. Edouard de Pomiane suggests a dish which is a happy compromise between œufs sur le plat and our own eggs and bacon, a dish much admired in France. ‘Take two very thin slices of bacon. Melt some butter in the fireproof dish. Lower the gas. Lay the 2 slices of bacon on the butter, cut in two so as to cover the bottom of the dish. When the fat is transparent break two eggs into the dish. Turn up the gas. The white sets immediately. Break it here and there so that the surface white also cooks. Whatever happens do not touch the yolk. As soon as the white is cooked put the dish on a plate. Salt very lightly. Pepper with discretion.’
ŒUFS SUR LE PLAT (3)
This recipe should prove very useful to those whose kitchens lack a proper supply of fireproof egg dishes, and the method certainly produces, as the author says, very good results.
‘To obtain perfect œufs sur le plat, they must be cooked over steam. If you have a stew or some vegetables cooking, replace the lid of the saucepan with a plate, or a china dish, according to how many eggs you have to cook. Put to melt in this dish, over the steam from the saucepan, a piece of fresh butter. When it is melted, break your eggs one by one into a saucer, taking care not to break the yolks. When all the eggs are broken, slide them gently into the butter in the dish and put the saucepan lid over them. They will cook evenly, the underneath of the plate being heated by the steam, and the yolks will be covered with a transparent white veil. Salt lightly, without letting the salt fall on to the yolks.’
B. RENAUDET:
Les Secrets de la Bonne Table
ŒUFS SUR LE PLAT BERCY
Two eggs per person cooked in butter in flat fireproof egg dishes, each dish garnished with 2 little fried chipolata sausages and a ring of tomato sauce made from skinned and chopped tomatoes cooked almost to a purée —3 tomatoes making ample sauce for two people. A very good and simple little dish, but all the same not so easy because of the problem of cooking the three different ingredients separately, all at the same time; so it is best to cook the sausages and the sauce first and keep them hot in the oven while you cook the eggs; and be sure to keep these covered while they are cooking so that the yolks come out with a nicely veiled appearance instead of having a hard yellow skin.
ŒUFS FRITS
By fried eggs the French usually understand eggs fried in deep fat or oil, one at a time; they puff up like fritters, are taken out with a perforated spoon and laid on a folded cloth to drain. The operation requires a little practice and dexterity, but fried like this the eggs are delicious served on a bed of spinach, potato or sorrel purée, with sausages, or with fried bread and a tomato sauce. Here are the directions given by the famous Cuisinier Durand of Nîmes, published in 1830.
‘Break an egg into a plate; season it with salt and pepper, and put it into the frying-pan in boiling butter or oil; during the cooking tilt the handle of the frying-pan, so that the oil, flowing all to one side, completely surrounds the egg; have a care to sprinkle it with the same oil so that the white envelops the yolk, after which you remove the egg; do likewise with all the eggs you wish to fry, and when they are done, pour from the pan part of the oil; leave only enough to make a sauce; put into it a well-chopped shallot, season with salt, pepper and a thread of vinegar and pour it over the eggs.’
ŒUFS FRITS AU BEURRE NOIR
This is one of the most delicious