Baked Eggs with Cream, Parmesan, and White Truffle (Page 634)

RECIPE #1177

• Date: Saturday, July 3, 2010 -- 11am
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our New House!!!
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: B
  

I hadn't made this recipe yet because I couldn't find white truffle paste. Finally I just special-ordered some. This recipe was quick and easy, which was exactly what I was looking for last weekend, as the kitchen was still half full of boxes needing to be unpacked! To prepare this dish I stirred together some creme fraiche, grated Parmesan, white truffle paste, salt, and pepper. I divided the mixture between buttered ramekins. I broke an egg into each ramekin and set them in a baking dish. I filled the dish with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins, then I baked the dish until the egg whites were just set. I served the baked eggs with toast. This dish was tasty, but incredibly intense. The richness of eggs + creme fraiche + cheese was a little overwhelming. I was certainly glad the toast was there to cut the richness a bit. The recipe called for 1-2 teaspoons white truffle paste, or to taste. I put in 2 teaspoons, since my special gentleman loves truffles (plus since the truffle paste was hard to find, and expensive, I figured I would get my use out of it!). In retrospect, I wish I had used less. It had a great flavor, of course, but the mushroom flavor was so intense in the dish that it drowned out the cheese and overpowered even the egg. Half as much truffle paste might have been perfect. All that said, this dish tasted pretty good. One further warning: the dish was texturally a little weird: the creme fraiche melted and was quite runny, while the egg had firmed up nicely. But the egg white and the creme fraiche mixture were essentially the same color, so the different textures were a little off-putting.

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When my special gentleman and I were house-hunting I would walk in the front door of each house and head straight for the kitchen. I was open-minded about many aspects of our house search, but the kitchen wasn't one of them. I was partial towards kitchens that wouldn't have to be gutted and remodeled, but I would have done that if we had absolutely loved a house where it was necessary. The real problem was the houses where there just wasn't enough kitchen space, and no way to expand. There was one house we liked quite a lot along the way that was great except for a super-tiny kitchen. The kitchen was beautiful: granite counters, top of the line appliances -- it was very nice, but very small. I think we went through that house three times, trying to decide if there was a way to push out a wall to make the kitchen bigger. But the way the house was laid out nothing could be done short of moving the kitchen entirely, which I didn't feel up for. At the time I wondered if I was being too picky, if it was unreasonable to reject a house based solely on the kitchen.

Now, less than a week into living (and cooking!) in our new house I am so glad that we waited for the right kitchen (err, I mean house) to come along. My special gentleman had a lot of things he wanted in our house (walkable to work, an older home, hardwood floors...). My top priority was an open, airy kitchen with plenty of room for cooking with friends and storage for loads of kitchen equipment. In the end we managed to accommodate all of our priorities! I am totally loving my new kitchen -- it is a delight to cook in. I dare say, it may well be my favorite of all the kitchens I have ever cooked in (except, of course, the culinary school kitchens, which were pretty much awesome).

I'm so happy to be home!