How to Cook Eggs in Aspic

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 3 hours

Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients needed to make Eggs in Aspic:

• 4 eggs, poached and chilled
• 3 egg whites
• ½ small carrot, chopped
• ½ leek, chopped
• 6 fresh parsley sprigs, chopped
• ½ rib celery chopped
• 3 bell peppers, cored, deseeded and chopped into ½’’ cubes
• 3 fresh tarragon sprigs, chopped
• 1 ½ tbsp unflavoured gelatin powder, dissolved in ½ cup cold water
• 1 ½ cups chicken broth
• 3 tbsp port
• Canola oil, as required
• Kosher salt to taste
• 2 tsp peppercorns, crushed
• Baby greens, for garnishing

Cooking instructions for Eggs in Aspic:

• Pour the chicken broth into a 1 quart saucepan and whisk in the egg whites until well combined.
• Toss the carrots, celery and leek chunks into the pan and stir them well together along with the chopped herbs and peppercorns.
• Heat the mixture until it starts boiling, while stirring it relentlessly, for about 5-10 minutes, until the egg whites curdles and forms a soft crust.
• Simmer further over slow flame, undisturbed, for about 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, spread a coffee filter onto a sieve and place the latter over a bowl.
• Tip the simmering broth into the strainer and get rid of the residue solids.
• Whisk in a bout of port, followed by the gelatin mixture, until the latter dissolves and sprinkle a dash of salt to season.
• Place the bowl with the above mixture into the fridge to chill it; don’t let it set.
• Lightly oil 4 aspic molds, each of 4 oz capacity, and pour a couple of aspic mixture into each of them.
• Refrigerate them for about 10 minutes or until they are almost set and scatter 6 pepper cubes over each serving.
• Spoon another 1 tbsp aspic mixture on top and return them to the fridge to chill until they are set properly.
• Place the eggs on top of a piled-up layer of paper towels and slice off the irregular corners of the whites.
• Place one egg into each aspic mold and cover ¼ of it with rest of the aspic mixture.
• Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours or until they are set properly.
• Remove the aspic from molds and run a sharp knife along the edges of each aspic to loosen it up.
• Place the molds in a shallow bowl with hot water and let it stand briefly for 5 seconds.
• Flip each mold onto a serving plate to remove the aspic on it and scatter salad greens around them.
• Serve immediately.

 Image credit: Wikimedia Commons