A Cook’s best friend.
Although egg yolks are infamous for having lots of cholesterol, recent studies have suggested that actually eggs do not affect your cholesterol level too much as it is not dietary cholesterol but saturated fat which bumps up your unhealthy cholesterol. But whatever the truth is, it’s still best to eat them in moderation!
But enough digression, let’s get back to the main point – cooking with eggs! Besides all these methods of cooking an egg, they are important parts of other dishes. For example, eggs are a very important ingredient in pastries such as soufflés or cakes, and also the yolk is used to emulsify and create many kinds of sauces.
The type of cuisine plays a heavy role in how it is used as well. Such is their prevalence that you will normally find an egg dish being mentioned as one of a country’s famous dishes. That is where you get to see the true diversity of eggs used in cooking!
Here are some of the famous eggs dishes of countries around the world which I shall introduce this month:
Ever tried whipping up a frittata? In Italy, eggs are actually not commonly cooked as a dish because they are normally used to make egg pasta but there is one standout dish – the frittata.
The frittata.
Picture by Tham Jing Wen
This is basically a thick omelette which is first started on the stovetop and then finished inside an oven. It also differs from the typical French omelette, as the ingredients are mixed with the eggs instead of folding it around them. This is a great and easy dish to cook for a family meal. I’m sure you won’t go wrong this extremely simple recipe from my humble kitchen. Do have fun customising your very own frittata!
I’m not sure if you know that the Japanese are well known for their tamago-yaki dish. Anyway, here's my version of this great side-dish. Although the tamago-yaki is also folded like the French omelette, instead of folding after cooking the Japanese fold their omelette many times in the process of cooking, creating a rolled-up omelette of many thin layers.
Hungry for a fluffy tamago-yaki?
Picture by Tham Jing Wen
A well-cooked tamago-yaki will be light, fluffy, and with a slightly sweet taste. FYI In the past, this was used to determine the skill of a sushi chef by seeing the quality of their tamago-yaki first before ordering other sushi.
Now instead of talking about the French omelette, I’ll mention a traditional French egg dish called oeufs en cocotte, or eggs in ramekins.
Oeufs en cocotte, or eggs in ramekins.
Picture by Tham Jing Wen
These are basically eggs that are oven-baked in a ramekin with cream, which gives firm whites but a semi-solid yolk. This dish is typically served for breakfast, with a large number of extra ingredients placed at the bottom before the eggs, ranging from herbs, tomatoes, smoked salmon or bacon. Confident enough to try this dish out?
That’s all I have for you this month! I’m sure you totally agree with me on the astounding number of ways eggs can be used in the kitchen! As much as I love to eat good food and try out new recipes, nothing beats sharing what I have with friends. Be sure to drop me a comment below if you have more to say about eggs. Have an egg-citing day!
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Stil not sure what to do with essential ingredients like eggs, tomatoes, etc? Check out other articles at OpenRice Ingredients where you can find out more on how to cook up a storm with these essential ingredients! Have fun!
Find favourite local breakfasts here
Favourite Western cuisine by foodies