Poached Eggs à l’Aurore

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch (30 cm) wide sauté pan or shallow saucepan for poaching
• •2-quart (1.9 L) saucepan
• •Large rimmed baking sheet
• •3½ by 2½-inch (9 by 6 cm) oval cutter or paper template
• •Eight small cups or ramekins
• •Balloon whisk
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Bake the Feuilletés

   Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment. Keep the puff pastry cold, rolling it only enough to smooth the creases and leave it about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Cut eight ovals measuring roughly 3½ by 2½ inches (9 by 6 cm), then prick the center of each three times while leaving a ½-inch (1 cm) border untouched. Beat the egg with the water and brush a thin film over the tops without letting it run down the cut edges, where it would glue the layers together. Chill for 10 minutes, then bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until deeply golden, crisp underneath, and visibly layered. If a center domes too high to hold an egg, press it gently with the back of a spoon while the pastry is still warm. Ça se rattrape.

   Pale puff pastry is underbaked pastry. Give the Feuilletés their full deep-gold color so the inner layers are dry enough to stand beneath the egg and sauce.
2. 2

   Build the blond velouté

   Reserve ¼ cup (60 ml) of the stock for adjusting the finished sauce. Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat, add the flour, and stir constantly for 2 minutes. This is the roux blond, a pale butter-and-flour foundation: it should smell faintly of warm biscuit but take almost no color. Add the remaining stock in three portions, whisking each addition smooth before the next. Bring to a bare simmer and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, whisking around the corners, until the velouté nappes the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through it leaves a clean track. If lumps persist, pass the sauce through a fine sieve and return it to the clean pan. Never apologize for a rescued sauce.

3. 3

   Finish the sauce aurore

   Whisk the tomato purée into the velouté and simmer gently for 3 minutes, just long enough to cook away its raw edge. Add all but the reserved tablespoon of cream, ¾ teaspoon of the salt, and the white pepper. Simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the sauce is pale coral, glossy, and thick enough to mask an egg without sitting like paste. Remove it from the heat and monter au beurre, mount it with the cold butter, whisking in one cube at a time. If the butter forms an oily rim, the sauce was too hot; whisk in the reserved cold cream a teaspoon at a time until it gathers again. If the sauce is too thick, add reserved stock by the spoonful. Cover and hold it warm, never boiling.

4. 4

   Poach in two batches

   Set the bowl of ice water beside the stove. Combine the poaching water and vinegar in a wide 12-inch (30 cm) pan and bring it to a bare tremble, about 185°F (85°C), with small bubbles on the bottom but no rolling boil. Crack four eggs into separate cups, keeping every yolk intact, then lower them into the water one at a time. Nudge any loose white toward its yolk with a spoon and poach for 2½ minutes, until the whites hold but the yolks remain very soft. Lift the eggs into the ice water with a slotted spoon and repeat with the remaining four. Ragged edges are cosmetic, not failure; trim them neatly once the whites have set.

5. 5

   Rewarm and drain

   Lower the poaching water to the gentlest tremble. Drain the chilled eggs, return all eight to the hot water, and rewarm them for 45 to 60 seconds. Lift each onto a clean folded towel and blot the underside carefully. This drying matters: water carried onto the plate thins the sauce and turns the Feuilletés soft. Stir the sauce and check its consistency while the eggs drain; loosen it with a spoonful of reserved stock if it has tightened.

6. 6

   Mask and serve

   Arrange two warm oval Feuilletés on each of four warmed plates. Set one drained egg on every Feuilleté, then spoon the sauce aurore generously over each egg, masking the white while leaving the golden pastry border visible. Serve at once, while the yolks still flow, the sauce gleams, and the pastry answers the fork with a clean crisp bite. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use the freshest eggs you can find. Their thick whites cling to the yolks in the poaching water; if your eggs are older, let each raw egg sit in a fine-mesh sieve for 10 seconds so the watery outer white drains away before poaching.
• •Choose puff pastry made with butter. The frozen sheet is the honest home equivalent to a pastry station laminating dough, but pastry made with vegetable fat leaves the Feuilletés waxy and dull.
• •Smooth canned tomato purée is exactly right here. A good preserved tomato gives reliable sweetness and color without seeds or chunks, and the brief simmer removes its raw canned edge.
• •Use a light, clean chicken stock rather than a dark roasted one. Sauce aurore should glow coral and taste delicate enough to leave the eggs in command.
• •Pour a dry Champagne or a crisp Chablis. Both have enough freshness for the cream and butter without trampling the tender eggs.

Advance Preparation

• •Bake the Feuilletés up to 6 hours ahead and keep them uncovered at room temperature. Refresh them for 4 to 5 minutes in a 350°F (180°C) oven before serving.
• •Prepare the sauce through the addition of tomato and cream up to 1 day ahead. Cool it promptly, cover, and refrigerate; reheat over gentle heat and monter au beurre only at service.
• •The eggs may be poached up to 4 hours ahead, transferred directly to ice water, and refrigerated in fresh cold water. Rewarm them for 45 to 60 seconds in barely trembling water, then drain them thoroughly before plating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 295g)