Symbol for the origin of life, for fertility and fragility, also indispensable in the home kitchen – from breakfast to cake.
Austrians don’t just love eggs on Easter Sunday. We eat a whopping 2 billion pieces of it every year. This works out to four to five eggs per week or an average of 236 eggs per year per person. Keeping cages is forbidden in this country, around 60 percent of the more than 7 million chickens in Austria live in barn systems, the rest enjoy more space in free-range or organic systems. More than 90 ideas of what can be conjured up in the kitchen with eggs of all kinds are collected in the “Austrian Egg Cookbook”.
Taliman Sluga: “The Austrian Egg Cookbook”, 22 euros, publisher Anton Pustet
Scotch eggs
Ingredients: 250 g minced meat, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs, 1 small diced onion, 1 diced clove of garlic, 1 pinch mustard, nutmeg, ground salt, pepper, 4 eggs (cooked, peeled) oil
Preparation: For the casing, mix the minced meat with the egg yolk, breadcrumbs, finely diced onion and clove of garlic. Season with mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into 4 portions and cover each with 1 egg. Fry the “Scotch eggs” in a deep fryer or in a pan with plenty of oil, remove after a few minutes and serve immediately.
Variation: try with poached eggs or waxy eggs.
Grandma Rosa’s egg salad
Ingredients: Eggs, hard boiled, peeled, chilled, 4 tbsp oil, 3 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tsp mustard, 1 small diced onion, 1 pinch sugar, 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley, 1 tbsp finely chopped chives, salt, pepper, 1 dash Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce, 2 tablespoons dry white wine, 2 radishes for decoration
Preparation: Mix the yolks of the boiled eggs with the oil, vinegar and mustard and puree with the blender to a creamy consistency. Stir the onion, sugar, spices, sauce and some wine into this cream. Cut the egg whites into small cubes and fold them in as well. Finally, decorate with radishes and optionally sprinkle with other fresh herbs.
Eggs Benedict
Ingredients:
Hollandaise sauce: 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp white wine, salt, pepper, nutmeg and chili powder, 2 egg yolks, 100 g butter, diced, 2 tbsp vinegar
4 eggs, 4 slices of cooked ham (approx. 3 mm thick), 1 tbsp butter, 4 slices of white bread, chives, finely chopped, for sprinkling
Preparation: First boil down the vinegar and wine for the sauce in a casserole and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg (possibly with a little chilli powder) to taste. Stir in the egg yolks with the whisk in the saucepan on the stove and gradually work in the butter cubes. As soon as everything is combined into a creamy sauce, taste again and season if necessary.
For the eggs, boil water in a tall saucepan and add vinegar. It is best to poach the eggs one after the other, using a wooden spoon to stir up a strudel in the cooking water. Place the eggs in it and let it simmer gently for 3-4 minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon, drain on some kitchen paper if necessary and keep warm in the oven at around 60 degrees.
Fry the ham briefly on both sides in a little butter and place on a plate on the bread slices that have been toasted in the meantime. Place a poached egg on top of each and cover everything with the sauce. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.
Wild garlic soup with quail egg dumplings
Ingredients quail egg dumplings: 8 quail eggs, 250 g floury potatoes, 2 egg yolks, 80 g non-slip flour, 30 g butter, salt, 1 pinch nutmeg, spinach leaves, 2 tbsp nut butter (brown butter), 2 tbsp fine white breadcrumbs, finely chopped parsley, salt
Wild garlic soup ingredients: 100 g fresh wild garlic, 2 tbsp butter, 80 g finely chopped onions, 100 g floury potatoes, peeled and diced, 750 ml clear vegetable soup,
250 ml whipped cream, salt, white pepper, oil for frying
Preparation: Boil the quail eggs for about 2 minutes, then immediately cool them in ice water. For the dumplings, boil the potatoes, peel and press through the potato ricer. Mix in the egg yolk, flour, butter, salt and nutmeg to form a dough. Shape the dough into a roll. Briefly blanch the spinach leaves in salted water, rinse in ice water and leave to dry on a kitchen towel.
Shell the quail eggs, wrap each egg in a spinach leaf and coat with the potato dough. Form dumplings and simmer them in gently boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes.
Heat the butter in the pan, toast the crumbs and parsley and lightly salt. Take the dumplings out of the water and immediately roll them in the toasted breadcrumbs.
Wash the wild garlic, cut into smaller pieces except for 4 beautiful leaves. Froth the butter in a saucepan and sauté the onions until golden. Add the wild garlic and diced potatoes, pour in the soup and cream, season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the potatoes are soft. Mix until fluffy with the hand blender. Arrange the soup and dumplings in deep plates and serve garnished with wild garlic leaves fried in hot oil.
Instead of the quail egg dumplings, a hard-boiled quail egg can be added to the soup.
Source: Nachrichten
