Sunday, July 11, 2010

Egg-centricities

My thoughts have turned to eggs. Crazy, isn’t it? Yet, the humble egg is a wondrous food.

This season, Restoration Farm began offering an egg share from a local farm on Long Island. Every two weeks, I receive one dozen large eggs along with my vegetables from Makinajian Poultry Farm in Huntington.

That’s 120 eggs this season. Think of the possibilities!

Mick and Tina are the brother-sister team that runs the farm, along with a country store located at 276 Cuba Hill Road in Huntington. The eggs are hormone free, antibiotic free, and their feed is certified organic.

A little egg goes a long way. Chopped hard-egg is the perfect topping for a salad of fresh spinach leaves from Restoration Farm:

Three eggs make a light, frothy custard that blankets fresh-picked raspberries from Restoration Farm in this Raspberry Claufouti:

The sheer beauty and simplicity of farm fresh eggs, demands a preparation of simple elegance. Matthew – a fellow member at Restoration Farm – put it best. These are not the kind of eggs that one should indiscriminately scramble or beat into a frittata. The yolk should be seen and appreciated.

To be truly enjoyed, farm-fresh eggs should be fried. My friend John MacPherson – author of the Foster Harris House Cookbook – and a bit of a breakfast authority, offers the perfect technique – 1 egg, cooked in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat, untouched for 2 minutes.

An egg fried in olive oil is a study in contrasts. Rich and sunny, mellow, glossy, silky and succulent with a crispy, crackling undercurrent.
At the risk of sounding eccentric, the taste is eggs-traordinary!
©2010 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

12 comments:

Fresh Local and Best said...

I get more and more excited when I hear about the wonderful offerings of Restoration Farm. The raspberry claufouti is beautiful as is the egg fried sunny side up.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

The egg share from your CSA is a great idea, as is partnering with a neighboring farm. In my neighborhood, there are "Fresh Eggs" signs on every corner; the boxes of eggs often contain a mix of white, brown and blue eggs, from the different varieties of chickens raised. And you thought we Rhode Islanders only raise Rhode Island Red chickens, didn't you?!

Kalyn Denny said...

How lovely to get those fresh eggs every week. I do agree, eggs fried in Olive oil are spectacular!

Andrea Meyers said...

That clafouti is beautiful. We recently found a farm not far from us that sells their fresh eggs and have started purchasing from them. Nothing like really fresh eggs.

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

Farm eggs are the best. There's just something about their yolk that's so fresh compared to supermarket eggs. Your raspberry clafouti is gorgeous T.W.
Sam

~I AM Love~* said...

Wow, that sure is a whole lotta eggs! Your creations so far look wonderful, and looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season brings. If I may expand on your fried egg in olive oil... an omelet fried in olive oil is delicious: if the oil is hot enough, the egg gets all bubbly and crunchy at the edges. It's especially good when some fresh grated pecorino romano & chopped basil are added to it :)

Liz said...

OMG, I'm getting a half dozen eggs a week from my Harvest Moon CSA and I'm like some kind of egg-eating hamster on a wheel! Every thing I eat, I ask myself: "Can I throw a poached egg on top of that?" Many times the answer is yes (esp on top of the chard and white bean concoction I made last week), but others, not so much! (Bowl of Cheerios? No.) :)

tasteofbeirut said...

How wonderful for you to be able to get fresh eggs every two weeks! Here in the mountain we buy our eggs from the local (small) grocer with the some feather and dirt still attached; that to me is a sure sign that they come from the local hens. Your simple recipe of an egg fried in olive oil reminds me of our egg here, fried in copious amounts of oil. Yummy. True, the egg is a wonderful array of possibilities!

Lori Lynn said...

Eggs are so fun to photograph!

~~louise~~ said...

Just a suggestion T.W. but I can tell you this from experience. Remember Farnsworth? Pound Cake! Real Pound Cake! The glimmering color of pound cake baked with fresh farm eggs is egg-cellenta!!!

As kids, my father always made our eggs fried in olive oil. It was one of his indescribably delicious specialties.

P.S. I'll be sending you that info tomorrow...

The Food Hunter said...

fresh eggs are so awesome.

Chef Dennis Littley said...

I just bought some fresh eggs at our farmers market....what a difference an egg makes....wow
I can't wait to see some of the wonderful creation you make with those amazing eggs!