Poached Eggs à la Bohémienne

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Four 3 1/4-inch (8 cm) removable-bottom tartlet tins
• •Rolling pin
• •Baking parchment and baking weights
• •Small light-colored saucepan for the glaze
• •Medium heavy-bottomed saucepan for the sauce
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wide poaching pan
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pâte brisée

   Combine the tartlet flour and salt, then rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few small flakes of butter remaining. Mix in the yolk and enough ice water for the dough to hold when squeezed. Press it together without kneading, flatten it into a disc, wrap, and chill for 30 minutes. If it still crumbles, add water one teaspoon at a time; if it becomes sticky, chill it rather than working in more flour.

2. 2

   Reduce the glaze

   Pour the 1 cup of rich unsalted chicken stock into the smallest light-colored saucepan you own. Simmer steadily until it reduces to about 2 teaspoons and coats a cold spoon with a shiny, lightly gelatinous film, watching closely during the final minutes. This is the home equivalent of the white-meat glaze once waiting beside the brigade stove. If it becomes too sticky but has not scorched, dissolve it with a teaspoon of water and reduce again. Measure out 2/3 teaspoon for the salpicon and reserve the rest.

3. 3

   Bake four tartlets

   Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Roll the chilled dough about 2 mm thick and line four 3 1/4-inch (8 cm) tartlet tins, pressing the pastry into the corners without stretching it. Trim the rims, prick the bases, and chill for 10 minutes. Line with parchment and baking weights, then bake for 12 minutes. Remove the weights and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, until the bases are dry and the shells are evenly golden. This cuisson à blanc, or blind-baking, must stay: a pale shell softens beneath the egg and sauce. Cool the shells in their tins before lifting them out.

4. 4

   Start sauce hongroise

   Melt 1 tablespoon of the sauce butter over medium-low heat and add the onion with a small pinch of salt. Cook gently for 5 minutes until soft and translucent, never browned. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the paprika for 15 seconds, then immediately add the wine. Paprika scorches quickly and turns bitter, so the wine follows at once. Return the pan to medium heat and reduce until about one-third of the wine remains and the onion smells sweet rather than raw. Strain, pressing the onion lightly, and reserve the paprika-wine reduction.

5. 5

   Build the sauce base

   In a clean saucepan, melt another 1 tablespoon of the sauce butter. Stir in the sauce flour and cook this roux over gentle heat for 2 minutes without letting it color. Whisk in the 1 1/4 cups of chicken stock a little at a time, making each addition smooth before the next. Bring it to a bare simmer and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, whisking occasionally, until it coats the back of a spoon without tasting of raw flour. Whisk in the paprika-wine reduction, simmer for 2 minutes, then season with the remaining salt and white pepper.

6. 6

   Bind the salpicon

   Warm the measured 2/3 teaspoon of white-meat glaze with the 1/3 teaspoon of truffle essence in a very small pan just until fluid. Remove it from the heat and whisk in the cold binding butter a few pieces at a time. Let this sauce cool until warm rather than hot, then fold it gently through the diced foie gras and truffle, using only enough to cohere the salpicon without crushing its clean dice. If the foie gras begins to soften into paste, stop and chill the bowl for 5 minutes. Ça se rattrape: once the butter firms slightly, fold once more and leave it alone.

7. 7

   Finish sauce hongroise

   Strain the sauce hongroise into a clean pan and adjust its body over gentle heat. It should nap the back of a spoon and flow in a broad ribbon, thick enough to cling to an egg but loose enough to pool around the tartlet. If it is thin, reduce it briefly; if tight, loosen it with a spoonful of stock. Remove it from the heat and whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of cold sauce butter until glossy. If the butter separates, take the pan completely off the heat and whisk in 1 tablespoon of cold stock. Hold the finished sauce over warm water, never direct heat.

8. 8

   Poach the eggs

   Bring a wide pan of water about 3 inches deep to the gentlest tremble and add the vinegar. Crack each egg into a small fine-mesh sieve for a few seconds so the loose white drains away, then transfer it to a cup. Slide in one egg at a time and poach two at once for about 3 minutes, spooning a little water over the exposed white, until the white is set and the yolk remains fluid. If the white feathers through the pan, lower the heat immediately and gather it toward the yolk with a spoon. Lift each egg with a slotted spoon and drain it on a folded clean towel until its underside leaves no wet mark.

9. 9

   Assemble without delay

   Set one warm tartlet shell on each warmed plate. Divide the foie gras and truffle salpicon among the shells, keeping it level so the eggs sit securely. Place one drained poached egg on each tartlet, then spoon the glossy sauce hongroise over the egg, coating it generously and allowing a little to pool around the pastry. Serve at once, while the shell is crisp and the yolk still flows. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose a firm foie gras terrine or torchon, not mousse. Chill it thoroughly and cut it with a warm, wiped knife; clean dice make a salpicon, while soft smears disappear into the binding sauce.
• •Good preserved whole black truffles are the honest classical pantry answer when fresh winter truffles are unavailable. Reserve their natural juice for the truffle essence. Truffle-flavored oil has no place here; perfume without the truffle's earthy depth makes the whole dish taste hollow.
• •Use sweet Hungarian paprika with a fresh red fragrance, never smoked paprika. Sauce hongroise wants sweetness, wine, and gentle warmth, not smoke.
• •The reduced stock must begin unsalted. Commercial broth reduced to a glaze can become fiercely salty before it gains the gelatinous body the original white-meat glaze supplied.
• •Pour a dry Champagne or a firm white Burgundy. The wine needs enough freshness to cut through foie gras and butter without quarreling with the truffle.

Advance Preparation

• •Bake the tartlet shells one day ahead, cool them completely, and store them airtight at room temperature. Rewarm for 4 minutes at 325°F (165°C) before assembling.
• •Make the reduced white-meat glaze several days ahead and refrigerate it covered, or freeze it in teaspoon portions.
• •Prepare the sauce hongroise through the straining stage one day ahead. Reheat it gently and whisk in its final butter shortly before serving.
• •The eggs can be poached up to 4 hours ahead, transferred immediately to iced water, covered, and refrigerated. Rewarm them for 45 to 60 seconds in barely trembling water, then drain them thoroughly before assembly.
• •Dice the chilled foie gras and truffles earlier the same day, but bind the salpicon no more than 1 hour before serving. Keep it chilled and let it stand for 5 minutes before filling the warm tartlets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)