First Steps: The Egg

A few days before Christmas my beloved wife said that we had to go and collect some Christmas gifts that she had ordered on the web....for me!  

We walked over to our Post Box only to find that the gift weighed 53lbs, and the large shopping bag we had brought was not going to accommodate an 18 inch square 53lb box, even if we could carry it, which we couldn't.  So we took the two small packages and went back later for the Big One.

I was actually quite puzzled that she had managed to buy my Christmas gift without having any idea of its size, how can that happen?  I know how much earrings weigh.

So, you wonder, what was in the box.

This is the cookbook (set) that everyone has been talking about, and least those "everyones" that talk about cookbooks.  It is a bible on food and cooking as praised for its photography and for its wisdom.  I could go on and on and bore almost all of you, but for the interested here is the link to more details- modernistcuisine.com

And above you see the happy recipient.  

In those little boxes we could carry were some of the kit one needs to do some of the unusual cooking.  Between Christmas, when we were busy together and with friends and family, until now, I was only able to do the odd bit of reading.  I should say I also received 5 other cookery books to read, so I have a backlog.

However today I decided to have a better look at the wilder side of modernist cooking.  I started with a spreadsheet of my new ingredients.  

This is quite important as playing with these ingredients is more like "doing" chemistry than cooking, unfortunately something of which I have had too much experience!  These are not our usual or usually combined ingredients, and many are tasteless, just there for the effect!  So I decided some homework was necessary.

Having done that, and remembered very little, I decided it was time to give it a go!  

I had some left over coconut milk in the fridge, and had been wondering what to make with it.  I had also seen a few years ago a chef making sweet "fried eggs", but do not remember who so cannot give credit.  I decided this might work and my DVD that came with the supplies gave just such an example, almost.  It was yogurt not coconut milk, but otherwise looked fine.  

The "egg yolks" were sweetened pureed mango, and the egg whites were coconut milk, sugar, water and kaffir lime leaf infusion.  The white was set with agar agar, and the yolks contained calcium lactate and were set in a bath of sodium alginate. 

And this is how they turned out...the better ones, there were a few less attractive specimens that I ate.

I put them in a black fry pan for effect.  On white plates they hardly showed. The liquid is just water, and they are, of course, cold.

I decided to smush them with a fork so you could see how runny they were.  

So, bottom line, how did they taste?  Well, I am not a big runny egg fan, but the yolk was very good.  However the white was a bit rubbery, the lime was a nice addition but the coconut wasn't quite robust enough for the mango.  

I am wondering how I can get the white softer without loosing the look, I know I can add freeze dried coconut powder to kick up the flavor.  I am also considering adding some "toast" to give a crunch.  Would crispy grilled pineapple work?  Finally I want to put a couple of slices of my home made bacon along side, but I will cure it with a lot of molasses to make it very sweet (as Blumenthal does with scrambled egg dessert accompanyment: short video, click here)