How to Blend an Egg
I was just over on the new gourmet.com website (which, I might add, is fabulous) and came across their featured recipe for white asparagus soup. Now, I have to tell you, this recipe intrigues me, and not because I love (green) asparagus soup. I am very interested in the preparation technique of soft boiling an egg and then blending it with the soup ingredients. I can only imagine that the boiling adds some level of food safety, but still produces a silky soup. I guess it makes sense, given that you never heat the soup itself, and therefore the egg would never get cooked if added raw. Readers, have you heard of or tried this technique? How does it turn out?
Whether you've tested this technique or not, you'll probably want to try this recipe. I know I do.
White Asparagus Soup
Ingredients:
1 soft-boiled large egg
1 jar Spanish white asparagus (about 500 g)
2 tablespoons mild olive oil
2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons chopped mint
1/4 cup sparkling water
4 very thin slices serrano ham or prosciutto, torn into pieces
2 fresh white asparagus, trimmed and thinly sliced on a diagonal
Mint leaves for garnish
Directions:
1. Cover egg with water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer 3 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water.
2. Drain jarred asparagus, reserving liquid; coarsely chop, leaving tips whole.
3. Blend chopped asparagus (not tips), egg, oil, vinegar, parsley, mint, sparkling water, and 3/4 cup asparagus liquid in a blender until smooth. Season with salt.
4. Chill soup, covered, until cold, about 20 minutes.
5. Divide asparagus tips, ham, and fresh asparagus among 4 shallow bowls, then pour in soup. Drizzle with a little additional oil.
Serves 4 as a first course.
--KitchenMaus
Fernando Colina on February 09, 2008 at 01:36 PM
It sounds great. I'm also surprised about the soft boiled egg; I'm not very concerned myself about the safety of uncooked eggs, and like Rocky I don't mind them raw. When I saw this I immediately went to my pantry to get the ingredients and... ¡Dios mio! No asparagus! I'll have to order some ASAP. In case you are interested, this is where I get them: http://www.tienda.com/food/products/vg-02.html.
In the meantime another surprise of this recipe is the sparkling water. No doubt after a vigorous blending and 20 min in the refrigerator any tanginess of the CO2 would have dissipated? Or is there another reason for using bubbly water?
Tom on February 10, 2008 at 07:31 AM
I think a soft boiled egg is akin to a coddled egg. Coddled eggs are an English breakfast dish and one can even buy an egg coddler into which boiling water is poured over the eggs and then left to stand for seven or eight minutes.
Based on my experience and the above recipe, you will cook a substantial amount of the egg white but not the yolk. If you simmer for three minutes as the recipe calls for, you will have alot of cooked white, too much I would think.
I coddle eggs when making a traditional caesar salad dressing. I boild the egg for one minute or a bit more and then plunge in cold water to stop the cooking. Add the egg to the vinagrette (olive oil,red wine vinegar, worstershire) and whip together. DOne.
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