Cold Eggs à l’Andalouse

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small saucepan for the Soubise
• •Wide saucepan for reducing the tomato
• •Wide shallow pan for poaching
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Mini blender or small food processor
• •Wire rack and rimmed tray
• •Four ⅓-cup (80 ml) oval silicone tartlet moulds
• •Cold oval serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Marinate the pimentos

   Lay the drained pimentos in a shallow dish and turn them in the olive oil and Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168). Cover and chill for 30 minutes. This cited marinade is a finished preparation, so reach for it cold and strained rather than rebuilding it here. Drain the pimentos thoroughly, blot away surface oil, and cut them into strips about 2 mm wide. Oily strips won't grip the glaze.

   Cut the strips with a sharp knife and a ruler’s patience. Their evenness matters because the lattice is the dish’s visible signature.
2. 2

   Prepare the aspic

   Pour ½ cup (120 ml) of the cold consommé into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over it. Leave it for 5 minutes, until every grain is swollen. Warm the remaining 1½ cups (360 ml) of consommé just until hot, then whisk in the bloomed gelatin off the heat until completely dissolved. Do not boil it, which weakens the set and dulls the flavour. Pour 1 cup (240 ml) into a shallow dish and chill until firm for the chopped white jelly. Keep the remaining 1 cup (240 ml) cool but liquid. If it sets before you need it, warm the bowl gently over hot water. Ça se rattrape.

3. 3

   Reduce the tomato

   Melt the butter in a wide saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring until it darkens slightly, then add the passata, ¾ teaspoon of the salt, and half the white pepper. Simmer steadily, stirring more often as it thickens, until reduced to exactly 1¾ cups (420 ml). A spoon drawn across the pan should leave a path that closes slowly. If you reduce too far, loosen it with consommé one tablespoon at a time; if it still runs like soup, keep cooking. Pass the purée through a fine sieve and cool it completely.

4. 4

   Make the Soubise

   Melt the butter in the smallest saucepan you own and add the sliced onion with the remaining salt and white pepper. Cover and cook over very low heat for 8 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the onion is tender and translucent without a trace of browning. Add the rice and chicken stock, cover again, and cook at the barest simmer for about 18 minutes, until the rice collapses under a spoon. Add the cream, blend to a smooth purée, and press it through a fine sieve. Measure ¼ cup (60 ml). If it is too stiff to pass cleanly, loosen it with a teaspoon of stock. Soubise should taste of sweet onion rounded by cream, not of browned onion.

5. 5

   Poach and dry

   Bring the water and vinegar to a bare tremble in a wide pan. Crack each egg into a small cup, slide it into the water, and poach without crowding for 3½ to 4 minutes, until the whites are fully set and the yolks feel softly resilient. Transfer the eggs to ice water, then trim away ragged strands of white with a small knife. Drain them on a folded towel, blot the tops gently, and chill uncovered for at least 20 minutes. The eggs must be cold and completely dry. Water left on the surface sends the glaze straight to the tray.

   For guests who are pregnant, elderly, very young, or immunocompromised, use pasteurized eggs and poach until the yolks are fully set.
6. 6

   Glaze and lattice

   Measure ¾ cup (180 ml) of the cold tomato purée into a bowl and whisk in the ¼ cup (60 ml) of Soubise. This preserves the book’s proportion of one full part Soubise to three parts tomato. Whisk in ½ cup (120 ml) of the liquid aspic, exactly half the volume of the combined sauce. Let the glaze cool to about 24 to 27°C (75 to 80°F), when it coats a spoon but still pours smoothly. Set the eggs on a rack over a tray and spoon the glaze over each until fully covered. If it slides off, stop: blot the eggs again and chill the glaze for 5 minutes before recoating. While the surface is tacky, lay three pimento strips diagonally across each egg, then cross them with three more strips to form a lattice. Chill until set.

7. 7

   Set the tartlets

   Brush four ⅓-cup (80 ml) oval silicone tartlet moulds very lightly with neutral oil. Whisk the remaining 1 cup (240 ml) tomato purée with the remaining ½ cup (120 ml) liquid aspic, using the same two-parts-tomato to one-part-aspic proportion for a clean but tender set. Divide the mixture among the moulds and smooth the tops. Chill for at least 2 hours. If the mixture begins setting in the bowl, rest it briefly over warm water and whisk until fluid again. Do not thin it with water.

8. 8

   Link the onion

   Slice the garnish onion crosswise into rings about 1.5 mm thick. Separate the best intact rings, soak them in ice water for 10 minutes to crisp them and temper the raw bite, then dry them thoroughly. Slit each ring once, thread it through the preceding ring, and tuck the cut ends together to make a loose chain long enough to encircle the tartlets.

9. 9

   Unmould and arrange

   Chill an oval serving platter. Turn out the tomato tartlets and arrange them in a circle; silicone should release with gentle pressure, but a stubborn mould can be wrapped in a warm towel for two seconds. If a tartlet softens, return it to the refrigerator for 10 minutes before moving it. Set one glazed egg on each tartlet. Arrange the onion chain around the circle, chop the reserved firm aspic into small crystalline pieces, and mound it in the centre. Keep the platter cold until serving. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Good canned passata is the honest tomato here. It gives even colour, no seeds, and proper concentration in every season; a pale fresh tomato only makes the glaze watery and weak.
• •Aspic must be firm enough to unmould yet tender under the fork. Weigh the gelatin if you can, since spoon measures and gelatin strengths vary. More is not safer. Too much gives the whole dish the manners of a rubber ball.
• •Keep the Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) to the measured spoonful. Its wine, vinegar, oil, and aromatics sharpen the sweet pimento, but a heavy hand would bury the egg and Soubise.
• •Serve the dish as a cold first course with Champagne, Crémant, or another dry sparkling wine. The acidity meets the tomato and aspic, while the bubbles keep the Soubise and yolk from feeling heavy.
• •Plain white onion is correct for the chain. Slice it very thin, soak it briefly, and dry it well; thick rings dominate the plate and wet rings leave puddles around the tartlets.

Advance Preparation

• •The aspic, reduced tomato purée, and Soubise can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and kept separately covered in the refrigerator. Warm only the aspic when assembling.
• •The eggs can be poached, trimmed, dried, and refrigerated for up to 1 day. Keep them on a towel in a covered container, then blot them again before glazing.
• •The tartlets and glazed eggs can be finished up to 8 hours before serving. Keep them separately chilled, then assemble the platter within 1 hour of the meal so the onion remains crisp.
• •Do not hold the assembled egg platter at room temperature for longer than 2 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 370g)