Easter Eggs
·Prepare the eggshells
Very carefully crack open 6 eggs. I tapped the top of each one with a sharp knife and peeled away the top quarter to a third of the shell. Tip out the contents and separate the yolks from the whites.
Clean them thoroughly
Pick out any bits of broken shell and rinse the eggshells well with water. Set them aside – I stood mine in a small paper egg carton.
Set up a water bath
Set up a double boiler: water in a pot with a bowl or second pot on top, as usual. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat so it just barely simmers.
Yolk foam
Put the egg yolks, cream and a pinch of salt into the top bowl or pot – just a small pinch, you can always add more salt later.
Whisk it up
Whisk continuously while heating gently. It takes quite a while, but the foam will thicken beautifully and the yolks shouldn't curdle. How can the yolks curdle? If the water boils too hard and you stop whisking.
Bacon foam
Fry the bacon in a dry pan until crisp. Drain on paper towel to soak up the excess fat, then let it cool.
Fold into the egg foam
Blitz the bacon into fine crumbs and fold it into half of the yolk foam. You shouldn't need to add any more salt to this one – the bacon will make it plenty salty.
Tip:
It's a good idea to fry all the bacon at once. Blitz part of it for sprinkling over the salad and eggs, and leave the rest whole for garnish.
Cress foam
Snip the cress from its growing pad, chop finely and stir into the other half of the yolk foam.
Scrambled eggs
Using a little of the fat rendered from frying the bacon, cook the scrambled eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Add the remaining cream and keep them nice and soft – careful not to let them set too firm.
Prepare the salad
Either toss the salad in a bowl beforehand with dressing, or simply drizzle it on the plate with olive oil and a light sprinkle of fine salt. Go with whichever method suits you best.
Fill the shells and plate up
Gently shape little nests in the salad to hold the filled eggshells steady. Fill one shell with scrambled eggs, another with the bacon foam, and the third with the cress foam.
To serve
Finish with a garnish of crispy bacon, maybe some quail eggs, and a very thinly sliced piece of bread toasted until crunchy.
