Julia's Kitchen Wisdom (18 page)

Steamed Lobsters

Approximate cooking times: 10 minutes for 1-pounders; 12 to 13 for 1¼-pounders; 14 to 15 for 1½-pounders; 18 minutes for 2-pounders. Fit a rack in a 5-gallon pot and fill with 2 inches of seawater, or tap water with 1½ teaspoons salt per quart. Cover and bring to the rapid boil, then quickly drop in 6 live lobsters headfirst. Cover the pot and weight down the lid to make a firm seal. As soon as steam appears, begin timing as indicated. A lobster is probably done when the long antennas pull out easily. But to be sure, turn the lobster over and slit open the chest to see the tomalley—if all black, cook several minutes more, until tomalley is pale green. Accompany with melted butter and lemon wedges.

Egg Cookery

“It behooves us to choose eggs carefully and to treat them right.”

Eggs appear throughout cookery not only as themselves—in their omelet, scrambled, poached, stuffed, and soft-boiled guises—but as puff producers in cakes and soufflés, as thickeners for sauces and custards, and, of course, as the stars and starters for those two noble and addictive creations, hollandaise and mayonnaise.

BUYING AND STORING EGGS.
It behooves us to choose eggs carefully and to treat them right. Because at room temperature they make a warm and comfortable home for evil bacteria, always buy refrigerated eggs, never buy cracked or dirty eggs, always bring your eggs home in a refrigerated container, and keep eggs chilled until the moment you are to use them.

MASTER RECIPE

The French Omelet

The perfect omelet is a gently oval shape of coagulated egg enclosing a tender custard of eggs. It can be a plain breakfast omelet flavored only with salt, pepper, and butter, or it can be a quick main course luncheon omelet filled or garnished with chicken livers, mushrooms, spinach, truffles, smoked salmon, or whatever the cook wishes—an attractive use for nice leftovers, by the way. And you can make an omelet in a number of ways, such as the scrambled technique, the tilt-and-fold method, and so forth. I have always preferred the 2-to-3-egg omelet made by my old French chef teacher’s shake-and-jerk system, as follows.

If this is your first attempt, go through the movements of the jerk—and note it is not a toss, it is a straight jerk toward you—and practice the unmolding technique. Serve the whole family for breakfast, so you’ll be making 4 or 5 omelets or more and will get the feel. It’s a very fast lesson, since an omelet takes only about 20 seconds to make.

For a 2-to-3-egg omelet, serving 1 person

2 jumbo or extra-large eggs, or 3 large or medium eggs

Big pinch of salt

Several grinds of pepper

1 tsp cold water, optional, for a more perfect blending of yolks and whites

1 Tbs unsalted butter

Have a warm plate at your side, as well as butter, a sprig or two of parsley, and a rubber spatula. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk just enough to blend them with the salt, pepper, and optional water.

Set the omelet pan (see box below) over highest heat, add the butter, and tilt pan in all directions to film bottom and sides. When the butter foam has almost subsided but just before the butter browns, pour in the eggs. Shake the pan briefly by its handle to spread the eggs over the bottom of the pan. Hold still for several seconds while the eggs coagulate on the bottom. Then start jerking the pan toward you, throwing the egg mass against the far edge. Keep jerking roughly, gradually lifting up by the handle and tilting the far edge of the pan over the heat as the omelet begins to roll over on itself. Push any stray egg back into the mass with the rubber spatula, then bang on the handle close to the pan with your fist, and the omelet will start curling at its far edge.

To unmold, rapidly turn the pan handle to your right and grab its underside with your right hand, palm up under the handle and thumb on top. Holding the plate in your left hand, tilt pan and plate toward each other, turning the pan down over the plate, and the omelet falls into place. Push the sides neatly in place with the spatula if necessary.

Spear a lump of butter with a fork, rapidly brush a little of it over the top, decorate with a sprig of parsley, and serve.

THE OMELET PAN.
To make omelets you must have a nonstick pan, and fortunately these are easily available. I highly recommend the professional nonstick aluminum shape with a long handle and sloping sides, 10 inches in top diameter and 7½ at the bottom. I use the Wearever aluminum, available in many hardware stores.

VARIATIONS

• FINES HERBES.
  Mince chives and parsley, or tarragon, or chervil, whisk ½ tablespoon into the eggs as you make the omelet, and sprinkle a bit on top for serving.
  

• FILLED OMELETS.
  You can either cut a split lengthwise in the finished omelet with a knife and spread on a heaping spoonful of filling, or you can spoon the filling onto the eggs in the pan, just as they coagulate enough to hold and before you start the final rolling—this takes a little special maneuvering but you will work out your own system.
  

Some Suggested Fillings and Garnishes

1- Creamed cooked
chopped spinach
, or cooked
chopped broccoli
, sautéed in butter

2- Quartered or sliced mushrooms, chicken livers, or scallops sautéed in butter with shallots and seasonings (cook as for the
scallops
)

3-
Creamed lobster, shrimp, or crab

4- Pipérade—green and red peppers
sautéed with onions, garlic, and herbs

5-
Potatoes—sautéed diced potatoes
, to which you could add bacon and onions

6-
Tomato—fresh tomato fondue

CREAMED LOBSTER, CRAB, OR SHRIMP.
For about 1 cup, enough to fill or garnish 4 to 6 omelets. Briefly sauté 1 tablespoon finely minced shallots in 2 tablespoons butter until softened, then fold in 1 cup cooked shellfish meat cut into ¼-inch pieces. When well warmed through, season lightly with salt and pepper, and boil for a minute or two with 2 tablespoons dry white French vermouth, then briefly with ½ cup heavy cream, until nicely thickened. Correct seasoning, and, if you wish, fold in a sprinkling of minced fresh parsley.

Scrambled Eggs

We so often think of scrambled eggs served only with bacon or sausage for an everyday breakfast, but they make a fine fancy breakfast or even luncheon dish with baked tomatoes, sautéed potatoes, asparagus tips, and all manner of garnishes. Scrambled eggs are also good cold, as you will see later on, but I don’t think these do well when mixed up with other things. I like them to stand alone and be garnished on the side.

For 8 eggs, serving 4 people. Scrambled eggs should be soft, broken curds, and the more gently and slowly you cook them, the more tender and delicious they will be. Choose the same 10-inch heavy nonstick pan used for the preceding omelets. Have warm but not hot plates at hand. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl just to blend whites and yolks, adding ¼ teaspoon salt (or to taste) and several grinds of pepper. Set the pan over moderate heat with 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and when it is melted, swirl the pan to cover bottom and sides.

Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the eggs into the pan, turn heat to moderately low, and start slowly scraping the eggs from the bottom of the pan as they very gradually coagulate into soft curds. This will take several minutes. When they are thickened as you wish, remove pan from heat and, to stop the cooking and cream the eggs, fold in the remainder of the beaten egg. Taste, and correct seasoning. If you wish, fold in a tablespoon or so of soft unsalted butter or of heavy cream. Serve at once.

ADDITIONS AND VARIATIONS

• SUGGESTED ACCOMPANIMENTS
  (other than crisp bacon, ham, sausages, and so forth)
  

  1- Buttered toast points—neat, small triangles of white toast
  

  2- Tomatoes Provençal—tomato halves baked with seasoned
  bread crumbs
  

  3- Cooked asparagus tips warmed in butter
  

  4- Any of the garnishes
  suggested for the omelets
  

• COLD SCRAMBLED EGGS IN A TOMATO SHELL.
  Fold pipérade into the just-scrambled eggs. Season well, mound into hollowed-out halves of fresh ripe tomatoes, and chill.
  

• COLD SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH DILL.
  Season the just-scrambled eggs with chopped fresh dill, chill, and serve with smoked salmon.
  

Poached Eggs

The versatile poached egg! Serve it hot in an artichoke cup, or crowned with béarnaise atop a tenderloin steak, or glittering in aspic, or gracing a curly endive salad, or buried in a soufflé, or dressed as a Benedict, or simply sitting on a warm, crisp, buttery piece of toast for breakfast. It’s a graceful oval, whose white is softly set and whose yolk is thickly liquid. If we could have them fresh from the hen they would literally poach by themselves, since a really fresh egg holds its shape when dropped into simmering water. But most of us have to take certain steps to assure success, using either vinegared water or oval metal egg-poachers (which you can buy in some cookware shops).