The Dairy Fairy

So today's cooking endeavor actually started yesterday with help from the Dairy Fairy. My goal was to make crème fraîche and the perfect slow poached egg. My inspirations were from the Alice Waters cookbook Simple Food and another Momofuku recipe from David Chang.

I've never made either before. I never really understood the allure of crème fraîche, but I'm starting to get it. (Although it's always cool to use words that have lots of ridiculous accents. Anyone know some good recipes with umlauts in them?) Alice Waters does a superb job explaining the ins and outs of all her dishes in this book, and this recipe no exception. For one thing, the cream doesn't separate out with crème fraîche as it does with sour cream, should I decide to cook with it. It's tangier and has a richer, more complex flavor than plain heavy cream. The recipe is simple. Add a tablespoon or two of cultured buttermilk (which I got from the supermarket) to a cup or two of heavy cream. Alice Waters says not to use ultra-pasteurized, but that's all they had, so I gave it a whirl.

Turns out that it works pretty good! I left it out for 24 hours and behold! Crème fraîche! A little bit of magic from the almighty Dairy Fairy. The "cultured" buttermilk is what turns the heavy cream into a thicker, yogurt-like consistency. I wonder what happens if I add more buttermilk? Does that change the consistency? Or the flavor? Does it speed up the process? I don't know if I'm always going to be patient enough to wait 24 hours...

I noticed that when I put it in the fridge and took it back out that a little bit of water separated out. I assume this is normal... Alice, where are you?

The other attempt I made was with a slow-poached egg. And David Chang explains the slow poached egg in such a way that one can't help but want to make/eat one. I like his instructions too. Phrases like, "be resourceful" or "I thought the crazy Japanese had altered the egg with technology..." always make me smile.

The idea behind the slow-poached egg is kind of brilliant. It's all of the simplicity and elegance that one would expect from the Japanese. They poach the egg IN THE SHELL. How cool is that? The thing is, you have to monitor the temperature of the water bath pretty frequently. Being that I'd never poached an egg before and am still figuring out the nuances to my stove (gas), it was a bit of a gamble. Plus, I didn't do a great job following the directions. Chang says to get the biggest deepest pot I have with water. What Mr. Chang doesn't know is that I have a HUGE restaurant size pot that a friend of mine (ex-chef) gave me as a house-warming gift when I moved into a house owned by... a chef. So, my brain had this mental image of a GIANT water bath with a single egg in it. Not really eco-considerate. Plus, I didn't want to spend forever waiting for the water to boil.

I chose a much smaller pot (2-qt sauce pan) and added just enough water to cover the 2 eggs I was willing to gamble with. I made a little square out of tin foil to act as a buffer from direct contact with bottom of the pot (where it's hottest). I used my new insta-read thermometer to try and maintain a balmy 140-145° F. I had to keep adding ice cubes to bring down the water temperature, even though the burner was on low. Chang describes it as a warm bath, but that was pretty damn hot to me. I am very sensitive (sniffle). I was starting to see why a larger pot might have been a better idea though... too hot = no poached egg.

Eventually, after 45 minutes, I cracked open one of my two eggs and found... that it wasn't quite done. WTF? Here I was worried that it was too hot, but the egg white was too runny and the yolk was basically uncooked. I threw it away. BUT, I saved the second egg for today.

This morning in the wee hours of the dawn, with the guidance and help of the elusive Dairy Fairy, I cranked up the same pot of water, plopped the egg in and 3 minutes later, pulled out an egg-ceptionally well poached egg. I dipped some day old bread in it, sprinkled some salt, thanked the dairy fairy, and found the egg to be most delicious. I found delight in cracking what looks like a raw egg and finding an awesome poached egg sliding out into the bowl. You still have to separate out a little bit of the egg white that doesn't congeal, but it's fun to use slip the egg back and forth to the piece of shell before the egg ends up in a bowl or in a meal.

Dearest Dairy Fairy,
Thank you for not giving me salmonella. And thank you for turning my heavy cream into crème fraîche. Now I get to use all sorts of cool accent symbols when I type. And I need to think of some dishes to use with the crème fraîche. You're the best Dairy Fairy!
Your Friend,
Manthony