How to boil an egg

After quite some time I am reporting back... with a quite simple topic [so it seems]. Hot to boil an egg.
But how have I heard it so often in cooking shows [like MasterChef and TopChef] - the most simple things, demand perfection... please throw the first stone, who does think, that he/she can boil the perfect egg!

No? I am totally unscathed - that means most people out there do have some issues to boil the perfect egg.

So what are the options:

• Traditional boiled egg
• It is very difficult to pull off the right consistency
• It is almost impossible, to peel the egg perfectly, without totally blemish its service
• Especially if you are intend to cook a hard boiled egg, the egg white will be rubbery and smells like sulphur.

• Sous Vide egg
• One of my favorites
• It takes pretty long - around 45 minutes
• The egg yolk it perfect [depending how you like it].
• The egg white, is fluid, and usually you are inclined, to eat yolk only.
• It is not possible, to peel an traditional egg from the result [white is simply not stiff enough]
• Sous vide isn't the most accessible equipment out there [however it becomes better and better

• Pressure cooker
• Very fast method 
• It needs a steaming basket
• Eggs are looking boiled traditionally.
• The egg peel can be perfectly removed

• Rice cooker
• Needs also a steam insert.
• Same as pressure cooker just slightly faster

I have seen last two versions and it made click! Duh - not the pressure made the egg peel better [like theorized on many websites] - it is the steam! Look water can boil only at 100ºC. However steam can be far hotter. That means the membrane in the egg expends due to the higher temperature.
But the egg white doesn't get overheated [and rubbery] due to the fact, that it doesn't boil usually long enough - and as the membrane builds an insulating air barrier [speaking of theories- this is mine.

That means, you don't even need a rice cooker or pressure cooker - you just can steam in a normal pot.

This having said I still would not boil a hardboiled or medium egg through steam. Because you don't end up with a perfect result, and the egg white might just be too hard. What do you think about a combination - short steam [e.g. pressure cooker] about 2 minutes [with another steamer you might need to steam the eggs longer], dropping the eggs into an ice bath.
Then throwing them into a water bath for another 30-40 minutes at the temperature, you prefer the egg.

The result is the perfect egg - the yolk [nectar of the gods] is perfect - and the egg white is nice, solid and shiny. Additionally it peels perfectly.

This type of egg, you could bread and fry [shortly - maybe you pass the sous vide step, due to the fact, that the frying oil will anyway warm up the egg enough]. Or you make a perfect [runny] Scotch egg. Or... sky's the limit!

Delicious: Egg Yolk Butter

I like butter. No - wait, that doesn't do it justice: I love butter.

Real butter. Best is when it is French. And made out of cured milk.

Besides of being a meat addict, I could really live without it for a couple of days, when I would have fresh bread and good butter.

Everything is better with butter!

I also like eggs. And it is "more than merely likelihood when it comes to poached eggs.

And when it comes to eggs, there is only one progression to poached egg: a sous vide egg [or also called 63ºC egg]. Now if you keep the egg for 45 minutes or so, it is perfectly runny, but with an insane luscious texture - more like the most amazing sauce.

But what if you are forgetting the eggs in the waterbath and "cooking" for several hours?

Then you end up with the most amazing hard boiled egg.

Only - it isn't hard boiled. It is solidified. But perfectly smooth [not these grey, dry, crumbly Easter eggs, you know]. 

The best: you can spread these egg yolks on bread [the egg white is partly watery - but partly also solidified - however if you know sous vide eggs, you are dismissing the egg white - give it to your bodybuilder friend... and let him shut up].

It makes mayonnaise on bread obsolete. Because mayo doesn't taste so rich and intense like egg.

But there is one problem: if you are spreading the egg yolk on bread, what are you doing with the butter?

Everything is better with butter!

So I thought: why not squish both things together. And add some medium coarse sea salt [don't salt, or salt less, if you are using salted butter]. And maybe some spices - I really like shichimi togarashi - so I used it.

And? It is amazing. You have the buttery taste with the richness and amazing "egginess" of the yolk.

Don't tell your doctor. Seriously don't - he/she will not let you leave, before you are promising him/her, that you won't do it again. But - you will. Promise!

The funny thing is, that nobody yet had the idea, to do this kind of cold and solid hollandaise. At least I haven't found anything in the limitless internets...

So what would be better than butter with egg yolk?

Maybe if you add meat butter! Yes, bone marrow - would make it ridiculous. And even unhealthier. 

As I don't have bone marrow at this point, it is just speculations. Delicious speculations soon to be tested...

Chinese chicken cabbage rolls with tofu

One of my all-time favorites dishes of German cuisine are Kohlrouladen - cabbage roulades.

These are minced meat farce [my mother always used beef] stuffed leaves of white cabbage braised and served nicely browned. They are really tasty.

Anyway - I wanted to do something new - and looked for an Asian dish - and I found several references for Chinese cabbage rolls.

Usually the Chinese variation, is just poached in broth. And instead of making a farce with egg and breadcrumbs they use tofu.

So I minced my chicken with my knives [more work - but the irregular and larger meet pieces are much better than the meat mash], added soya sauce, sautéed brunois of garlic, scallions, carrot, mushrooms and also added it to the mix and besides of seasoning [salt, pepper and some homemade Chinese 5 spice], I also added tofu. Mixed everything properly up and voilà.

I blanched the whole head of cabbage, to get easier the leaves off - and I shaved off the middle rib of the cabbage leaves, to make it easier to roll. Then I filled the leaves with the farce.

Instead of using butcher twine [which is quite a pain], I rolled them into cling film, and made a bonbon out of it [and knotted together the twirled ends of the cling film].
Then I put them into my sous vide hacked rice cooker and poached them for 1.5 hours at 63ºC.
After that I put them into a ice water bath to chill them down fast.

Momofuku Ko's Ginger Scallion sauce
via Tastespotting blog

Off course - if you like to have something tasting really great, you need to utilize the Maillard reaction (which normal people would call browning] - hence you would need to undress the cabbage rolls out of  their cling film sleeve, dry them [don't throw the liquid - put it into your sauce, it is tasty], and fry them in a smoking pan with peanut oil [or any other heat stable oil like corn oil].

Cut one open to try; delicious!

As a dish, I thought to serve it on fragrant rice, with slightly thickened miso sauce and David Changs scallion ginger sauce.

Do you need sous vide here? No definitely not, but it makes live easier - you don't have to watch over it, that it doesn't start to boil.
Well - the recipe is a go. let me see, if I will be able to make the whole dish, without eating one after the other delicious roll...