April 21, 2012

Egg Pillows

This breakfast is simple yet magic.  Whipped cheesy egg whites create a soft meringue-like pillow for a creamy egg yolk.  Beautiful and tasty!





Makes 1 serving

1 egg
Parmesan Cheese, grated
Chives, finely chopped
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.  If you don’t have parchment paper, you can cook the egg pillow directly on a well oiled baking sheet, but be warned, it will stick and leave egg white stuck to the baking sheet, but you can still remove the pillow by carefully loosening the bottom with a spatula; you’ll just have a bit of a cleaning job with the baking sheet (warm soapy water soak will do the trick).  Perhaps you can use a piece of bread under the whites as a tasty barrier!  Oooh, I wanna try that.

Separate the egg being careful not to break the yolk.  Put the egg white in a small mixing bowl and the yolk in a separate small bowl.  Whip the egg white with a whisk until it’s white in color and soft peaks start to form which will take a few minutes (this requires some good arm power unless you use an electric mixer).  Gently fold the parmesan cheese, chives and a pinch of salt and pepper into the egg white, careful not to deflate the fluffiness.  Spoon the egg white onto the baking sheet in a rounded shape and make a shallow indent in the middle of the mound with a spoon.  Bake in the oven for 3 minutes.  Take the egg white out of the oven, salt and pepper the yolk and gently slide it into the indent of the egg white and bake the pillow for another 3-4 minutes, until the whites start to turn slightly golden brown.  Remove the pillow from the baking sheet and plate it, topping with more chives, salt, pepper and parmesan as desired.
IDEAS

Use different herbs or hard cheeses
Add bits of cooked bacon into the egg white

3 comments:

  1. Would the whisking of the whites be affected if the salt/pepper/parm was added prior to the whisking? I figure if it's added first then there wouldn't be a worry of deflating it once it's done

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  2. Good point, I'll try that soon and report back on the results. Maybe this time I'll get some parchment paper so the egg doesn't fuse to my baking sheet!

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    Replies
    1. I know its two years later but, adding anything with fat to egg whites will keep the whites from coming together and forming a merengue.

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