Stocks to Stock

Eggs, eggs and more eggs. Our Chef instructor was a breakfast cook in a former life, so class started with a demo of "eggs any way." He showed us scrambled, poached, sunny side up, over easy, omelets... you name it, he could cook it and flip it! We started by trying to mimic some of these techniques by making poached eggs, eggs over easy and an omelet (crepe style) with Gruyere cheese. Everything was tasty and relatively easy to make. I even managed to successfully flip my eggs over easy. The Chef taught us a neat "vortex" trick for making poached eggs in which you take 180 degree water and swirl it until a whirlpool type vortex forms. Then, you crack the egg into the vortex and the force forms it into a cute little egg package. You could almost tie a bow around the top.

After the egg experiment, Chef showed us an omelet "Basquaise" which is more scrambled than flat. It makes the eggs really fluffy and nice. We filled it with tomato, onion and bell pepper.

Then the real fun began. Instead of making "Oeuf Cocotte," which is an egg baked in a dish with cream, we made a "Tortilla Espanola," which is like an omelet but finished in the oven. This started by frying hand sliced potatoes and onions (separately) in a pan. The potatoes and onion slices are then combined and mashed up (by hand) with the eggs, chorizo and salt, pepper and fresh parsley. The egg mixture is then started on the stove in a small non stick pan, flipped and put into a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes to finish. On the side, we make a tomato mixture similar to bruschetta with tomato, sherry vinegar and garlic as a dipping sauce. This made a pretty good dinner.

The final dish was the real test. The Chef instructed us to make 6 hard boiled eggs, a Bechamel sauce and then from that, a Mornay sauce. Other than that, no instructions! I had to think back to sauce class to remember how to make the Bechamel. We also sweated some finely chopped mushrooms and shallots in butter. I made the Bechamel while my partner worked on the eggs and mushrooms. At first the Bechamel didn't thicken enough which I found quite irritating but I made some more roux and fixed the problem. I added Gruyere cheese to make the Mornay sauce. By this point, my partner had passed the egg yolks through a strainer and we combined the yolks, mushrooms and Mornay into a stuffing like consistency. We piped the mixture into the hard boiled eggs and finished with a drizzle of Mornay and Gruyere cheese in the oven. This dish takes the concept of "deviled eggs" to a whole new level and will definitely make an appearance at Thanksgiving this year!