Main Ingredient: Eggs

My last blog was about learning new cooking techniques, and included some stuff on poaching eggs.  That got me thinking about the diversity of the egg.  The incredible edible egg.  Think of all the things you can do with an egg.  Seriously.

You can bake it, poach it, scramble it, fry it, hard boil it, soft boil it, put it in ceasar dressing or a cake, a pie, custard, bread, and cookies.  Heck, you can even eat them raw if you are really feeling brave.  Eggs are a very diverse ingredient. 

Do you ever watch Iron Chef?  They pick a main ingredient and then the two chefs (with their culinary teams) battle it out, making 3-5 dishes for the judges.  Imagine if the main ingredient were eggs.  What would you make the judges?

Now imagine the other discerning judges in your life.  Your husband, your wife, your kids.  How do they judge your cooking every day?  They don't mean to, but a smile and second helpings is a lot more appealing than a barely eaten plate.    So what do you make for them?  Is it simple, or complicated?

I'm quite sure those Iron Chef's are given a heads up on the main ingredient ahead of time.  How else would their prep team and sous chef's know what they are going to make as soon as the main ingredient is revealed.  The dishes they make are pretty creative and complicated sometimes; I know I couldn't whip up five dishes based  on the incredible edible egg without some thought.

Off the top of my head, some of my favorite egg dishes include: quiche, poached, frittata, spaghetti carbonara, deviled eggs, scrambled, fried, strata, french toast, omelet, Easter eggs, mayonaise, souffle, and even baked eggs.  I suspect there are about 600 plus specific recipes for all these different ways to use eggs.  I know I haven't mastered that many of them, but there are a few favorites that are worth repeating.

Chicken eggs are probably the most common egg used.  Although, I"ve suffered through a raw quail egg once on some sushi (talk about gag reflex).  And I've heard of people using eggs from ducks, Ostrich, emu, seagulls, guineafowl, geese, and pheasant.  Not sure about you, but these are not easily obtained local ingredients.  Although, I'd be happy to try them out to see what its like to cook then, and eat them.

Don't forget the Century egg; also known as a hundred-year-old egg.  These are preserved by coating an egg in a mixture of clay, wood ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with a comparatively mild, distinct flavor.  Not sure how these would taste, and quite honestly I'm not adventurous enough to try one.

So what are you going to do this weekend with the incredible edible egg?  Are you going to make your normal french toast for the kids, or a quiche for your girl's bruch.  I suggest, if you've never made it before, to make Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner one night.  That's an amazing use of eggs.

For any egg recipe suggestions let me know.  I'd like to know how your main ingredient egg is cooked in your house this weekend.