Laura RaposaI have no idea who makes these decisions but apparently March is Egg Month – 31 days to celebrate the white and the yolk. But when it comes to eggs, I’m a big chicken.
Something bad must have happened with an egg and me early on – even my mother can’t put her finger on it. I think it’s a texture thing. But taste runs a close second.
That quiche better have a lot of cheese and vegetables in it for me to take a bite. I can’t be in the same room as a deviled egg. And hundreds of egg salad sandwiches have sent me fleeing out of lunchrooms – like I had seen a mouse or a spider.
Call me ovophobic. Or call me crazy. It doesn’t matter. I’m still not making you poached eggs on toast.
And there lies the rub. What kind of cook am I if the only eggs I’ll prepare are in a quiche, omelet or a frittata? What will I do if I open my fantasy breakfast/lunch spot someday and a patron has the audacity to want two eggs over easy? Or, gulp, a hard-boiled egg?
When I was holed up in a California hotel room two years ago waiting to compete in FOX-TV’s “MasterChef,” I wasn’t watching the Food Network, doing yoga or making hotel iron quesadillas like my fellow contestants. I had Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook” DVD — Disc 2; Lesson 5 “Fish and Eggs” — on a constant loop. I figured if I watched the French Chef prepare a perfectly poached egg 200 times a day, I’d learn by osmosis.
So maybe it was a good thing Gordon Ramsay and his cranky cohorts sent me packing in the first round. I was saved from being further humiliated on national TV.
Tonight, I will not attempt poached eggs, but I will crack at least eight organic large ones for a quiche.
I received the April/May issue of Fine Cooking last week, and faced with a dozen or so eggs left over from last Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day Brunch, I’m going to make good use of Joanne Chang’s “Quiche, Customized” recipes.
The article demonstrates that a quiche, made with a flaky pate brisee crust, is a good receptacle for all the odds and ends in the fridge. I have some Irish bacon, leeks, fresh thyme, potatoes, and, yes, cheddar as well as fromage blanc. Do check back next Friday on betterafter50.com to see what eggs-cellent entrée I whipped up for tonight’s supper. But I can’t promise to eat it!
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