Monday, March 9, 2009

Truffled Eggs



Reading Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr Latte as well as her column Eat, Memory in the New York Times Magazine has convinced me to try ingredients I would have never considered before. She's one of those food writers who I would read a novel length narrative about nothing but advice on boiling water. Her voice is just that riveting though often a tad more vapid than I would like at times. She borders the literary and the chick lit rather heavily, but everyone needs simple guilty pleasures. A person needs something to rest her brain on between bouts of Nabokov and Kafka.

After learning the vast difference between brown and French lentils for her Single Girl Salmon I trusted her taste enough to try some other things. This recipe combines two of them; truffle oil and crème fraiche.

Crème fraiche is a thick tart step above plain yogurt and adds a fabulous creaminess to whatever it's included in without adding a heavy flavor. In a lemon risotto the crème fraiche gives the simple crisp rice a sinful tongue coating cream that made me under stand the often tossed about phrase “better than sex” for the first time. It was the best risotto of my life and the first day I can have carbs again I'll be making that risotto while waiting for the artichoke Glass Nickel pizza I'll also be ordering.

Once while having extra crème fraiche around the fella insisted we treat ourselves to a $14 bottle of truffle oil to make the other recipe Hesser kept going on about that called for both. I was dubious about it. Surely it was just scrambled eggs with a weird oil I would never use for anything else slathered on it. Wrong. It is so much more, Hesser knows her stuff. These eggs are heaven in a skillet and oil only brings things to another level.

I treated myself to this super easy egg concoction this morning along with a left over chicken breast and it set a wonderful tone for the day. Still don't know what else to put the truffle oil on but it really made my day. It's so decadent that while I'm eating it I don't feel like I'm sitting in a chilly duplex in the Midwest while wearing sweat pants on my only day off.



Truffled Egg Toast


1 teaspoon of butter
3 eggs
2 teaspoons crème fraiche (1 tablespoon plain yogurt works in a pinch)
truffle oil for drizzling


Melt butter in tiny skillet over very low heat. In bowl whisk together eggs and crème fraiche. Season with salt. Pour into skillet and use whisk to stir making sure to cover entire bottom surface of pan with heating.


When eggs form soft curds and are loose but not raw (about 10 minutes) spoon out onto plate. Drizzle with oil. Let set a minute or so before eating.


The original recipes calls for eating this on a thick toasted slice of country bread which I highly recommend.


Original recipe from Amanda Hesser's Cooking For Mr Latte.

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