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04 May 2015

Slow cooked egg (65C) with smoked salmon and fresh tomatoes

“Offer the lazy an egg and they’ll want you to peel it for them.” – Lithuanian proverb

My love for eggs continues. In a different shape and form. This time it is THE slow cooked egg - creamy and soft. Oh, and to top that - it is the most organic egg one can find - comes from a farm raised hen, who is free to wonder around in warm spring sun and peck on fresh grass and leaves. I'm so lucky I have a "source". I am still suprised each time I crack an egg open - the richness of that orangy yellow is one way to tell you have the good stuff on hands.



This egg was cooked sous vide, at 65 C degrees for 48 minutes. Sous vide in French means "under vacuum". It is a cooking method, when food is vacuum sealed and then immersed in a water bath and cooked at a precise and consistent temperature. When you see on a restaurant menu something like slow cooked salmon in 50 degrees, this translates to sous vide technique.

I could go on about this for a little while, please bare with me - I've been wanting to try cooking sous vide myself for quite a while now and now I have a chance! One amazing cook lent me this appliance for a little over a week. So I am doing quite a bit of experimenting in the kitchen. Yes, you do need a special appliance for this cooking method and yes, I do think it is absolutely worth having it at home. One very simple reason - it takes so little to learn how to make restaurant quality and super healthy meal at home. All you need to do is prep it and make sure the appliance does the rest of the work.

Ingredients:
* 2 farm eggs
* Sliced smoked salmon
* Fresh tomato
* Mustard with balsamic vinegar

Sous vide does mean "under vacuum", but the eggs are naturally gifted - they already come in a package. All you need to do is wash them properly and place in water bath at the right temperature. When deciding what temperature I wanted to cook at, google search helped, of course. I found this awesome egg calculator on ChefSteps. Choose the desired doneness of the yolk and the egg white and it will give you a suggestion for temperature and time.  



Cook it, carefully crack the egg - it seems quite runny inside (the one I cooked). I peeled it carefully to make the whole big enough for it to slide on the plate without damaging the yolk. Nothing can be worse than breaking it before it lands on the plate, where you want it!

Enjoy! I am making them again - tomorrow and probably the day after!




Bon appétit!