Eggs with Béchamel, Chocolate Mousse : LCB at Home : Lesson 3 : Part 1

Two less than stellar pictures; my own camera/phone was discharged - used a loaner.

First up was - Gratin of Hard-Boiled Egg : Oeufs à la Tripe
that would be "Eggs, Tripe-style"

Second was:

Chocolate Mousse with Hazelnuts and Whisky : Mousse au Chocolate aux Noisettes et au Whisky

Opinions were: Eggs needed more salt & that they resembled Eggs Benedict; Chocolate Mousse was very intense, could have been in servings half the size and a modern treatment would have been much lighter.

Onwards to ... "what I actually did"

Gratin of Hard-Boiled Egg : Oeufs à la Tripe

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 10 eggs (large, probably)
• 3 T butter (not margarine) [45 gr, 1.5 oz]
• 1 large onion, julienne [sliced thinly]
  

  Béchamel

• 3 T butter (not margarine) [45 gr, 1.5 oz]
• 5 T flour (white, all purpose) [45 gr, 1.5 oz]
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t white pepper, freshly ground
• 2 giant dashes of freshly grated nutmeg [1/4 of a nut]
• 2 C milk
  

Procedure

1. Hard boil the eggs, peel, hold in warm water (I did this way in advance)
2. 3 T butter into a pan - saute the onions - until soft but not colored (do this way in advance too)
3. Make the béchamel:
   1. 3 T butter onto a saucepan, melt
   2. add flour, whisk around for 3 minutes; not too hot - avoid coloring the "roux" [flour & butter mixture]
   3. whisking all the while, add the milk, bring to a boil, keep whisking
   4. simmer it well for 10 minutes, keep on whisking, although gently now,
   5. switch to a wooden spoon for stirring the béchamel and add the sautéed onions, stir for 5 minutes more
4. Pour a thin layer of béchamel into a gratin dish (or, in my case, 4 little ones)
5. Sliced the eggs thin-ish, lay out in the dish
6. Cover with more béchamel
7. Stick under a broiler until browned (not burnt [like half of mine did])

Done

Notes

1. Béchamel sauce is pretty easy to do, way way cheaper than store bought, and tastes distinctly better. Try it.
   • Béchamel is one of the basic "mother" sauces in cuisine. One you've got it down you can vary it to do loads of other interesting stuff
2. Hard boiling eggs: lots of ways to do it. Today it was boil some salted water, lower eggs into boiling water using a slotted spoon, bring water back to a boil, lower to a simmer for 9 minutes, run under cold water to stop the cooking.
   • Do 11 eggs because one is certain to crack horribly and leak 3/4 into the water.
3. If there's no real milk in house enhance each cup of skim or 2% or other fake milk with a couple of tablespoons of cream
4. All the whisking of the béchamel is to get it light a and fluffy and to avoid lumps
5. When the béchamel was ready I put it on hold by rubbing a patty of cold butter on the surface to prevent a skin from forming
6. I revived the béchamel when I was plating the eggs by stirring, over a low heat, and adding enough additional milk to thin it back to a "thick sauce" consistency.
7. After burning the béchamel while boiling on 2 of the little gratin dishes I peeled off the burnt "bech" and re-broiled them; no problem at all.

This post has taken quite a while to write; I'll publish it and get back to the thing about the Chocolate Mousse later.