[cooking sounds]
[percussive music ]
- I'm Hannah, and I'm a level one chef.
- Hi, I'm Gabrielle, and
I'm a level two chef.
- Hi, I'm Palak, and I'm
a chef at the Institute
of Culinary Education.
[percussive music]
- My scrambled egg recipe is very simple,
it's always the same every time,
and it's always very good.
- We are going to add in a
little bit of Asian flavor
into these scrambled
eggs, and serve them up
a little bit differently
than your traditional
breakfast-style scrambled eggs.
- My scrambled eggs has
a very unique technique
where the eggs never hit a pan.
You actually cook them
in a whirlpool of water.
You should be making your
scrambled eggs like this
because you'll never go
back to a pan ever again.
[chimes]
- So first step is to
get the eggs in a bowl,
get them mixed up, so I'll take an egg,
I'll use the side of the bowl to crack it.
- I typically like to crack
eggs on not quite so thin
of a rim, the thinner
it is, it may puncture
the egg shell a little bit more and leave
more little bitlets and
stuff, so I actually like
to really crack mine on
the corner of like a stove
or even the pan itself.
- Give it a good whack so
it definitely cracks through
all the way and then just peel it open.
Of course I did just
get a shell in the bowl.
I'm like hyper afraid of salmonella.
When I'm making eggs, I probably wash
my hands like 15 times.
- I'm pretty relaxed with
getting my shells out,
I have my hands washed, I'm very sanitary.
I like to break the yolks
first, you really want
to beat the heck out of them
so that a lot of the egg white
disappears, because
that's what's gonna make
the eggs really creamy
and fluffy and delicious.
- We are gonna take the scrambled eggs
and put them right back in the shell,
so in order to get a clean cut,
you need a little device,
it's called an egg topper
and you're gonna hold
it, pull up the lever,
and what that does is
it's gonna create a crease
right around the egg and then
with a sharp paring knife,
just kind of work your way
around and get a clean cut.
And before we can use the eggshell,
we have to sterilize it, so I
just have some boiling water,
drop that shell in there.
- Usually I make about two eggs per person
so let's say this is
for a breakfast for two,
if you know what I mean,
you add in the water,
you can add a pinch of salt.
- Some people really
don't like adding salt
into their eggs before
they cook because they say
it dehydrates it.
- And a little jush of pepper.
- My first ingredient is my mirin,
which is a sweet rice wine.
It's going to really nicely tie together
my soy and my ginger.
And then I have just a little bit of soy,
I really want to add in this soy now,
rather than later so that
it's nice and uniform
throughout my eggs.
My last ingredient is going
to be my fresh ginger.
It has such a nice,
delicious, pungent flavor,
so you really don't need a lot of it.
My rule of thumb is to go
at it for about 30 seconds,
maybe tilt the bowl a little
bit to get that whipping
in circular motion.
- It's been five minutes, my
eggshells have sterilized.
Now we have two perfectly
sterilized eggshells.
That's gonna be the vessel
for our scrambled eggs.
- I tend to make more cheese
than I need just in case.
You can never go wrong with cheese,
unless you're lactose intolerant.
- I'm gonna make a cucumber salad
with a little honey and rice vinegar.
I have my Persian cucumbers, which are
the little baby cucumbers.
- So next step is to
get the bacon started.
I like when the bacon
goes on and there's like
already that sizzle.
Probably should've waited
like a minute longer.
And I'm just laying them
vertically next to each other.
- So I'm just gonna like very quickly
chop the very end off, then
I'm going to take my mandoline.
Rather than individually chopping all of
these cucumbers and it makes
it really nice and uniform.
Thing about the mandoline
is you have to be really,
really careful with your
hands and your fingers,
so be careful, kids.
- Bacon smells so good.
Now I'm gonna go ahead
and add in my rice vinegar
and my honey.
I'm just going to combine
it until the honey
is pretty much totally
dissolved in the vinegar.
They're gonna have this little bit of
a pungent, acidic flavor.
Add a little bit of salt just
to kinda tie it all together.
- While that's cooking,
I'm gonna sort of prep
some of my chives.
- Chives.
- That's gonna add a bright green color
and a little bit of extra.
- Chive party.
- So now we're gonna make the
cream topping for the eggs.
We want to zest a whole Meyer lemon,
and then to that we're gonna
add some creme fraiche.
Creme fraiche has a little bit of tang,
and we're gonna mix this
with the whipped cream.
Season with a little salt.
Next I'm gonna whip my heavy cream.
I wanna start with cold cream so that
you wanna make sure it doesn't separate
when you're whipping it,
and go for soft peaks.
It's a decadent dish so
you need to work out.
- Watched bacon never cooks,
I think that's the saying.
- One of my other toppings
that I want to add
are some fresh scallions.
I think they taste great on anything.
They're a little pop of
flavor, pop of color.
- Ooh, we got some popping bacon, yummy.
- Be careful of flying
oil, I feel like every time
I eat eggs, I get injured.
- Throw some sesame in a dry pan,
and you know, and then it
gets this nice golden color
and it adds a nice little
crunch nuttiness to the dish.
- All right, so I've got my bacon done,
I'm gonna go ahead and put
it on some paper towel,
just let some of the grease dry off there.
Four beautiful bacon slices.
- Now I'm gonna add one
more ingredient to this,
and that's vodka.
I'm just not trying to be fancy,
there is a purpose for this.
The vodka helps stabilize
the cream mixture,
plus there's caviar in
the dish, I need vodka.
Take the creme fraiche,
and you want to gently
fold it into the whipped
cream because you just spent
all that time adding
air, so you don't want
to deflate your cream.
Little cayenne, because why not?
I'm gonna put it into a pastry bag.
This makes it easier to
pipe the cream mixture
on top of the eggs.
- Finally we're at the
eggs, the main event.
We're gonna drop a little
square of butter on the pan.
- I'm going to add in
ghee rather than butter,
tying in again more of the Asian theme.
- And while that's cooking, I'm just gonna
mix up my eggs a little more.
Sometimes the like,
the salt and the pepper
can separate a little and we want it
to be like really together
when we start scrambling.
You don't wanna make too
much of a sizzle sound,
I feel like every time I pour the eggs in
and it's like actively sizzling, it burns.
- The secret, in my opinion,
to great scrambled eggs
is cooking them low and slow.
It cooks so quickly, you
don't wanna overdo it
too quickly or they're
gonna dry out and be gross.
- Eggs cook really fast and you don't want
to overcook them so I would rather have
a lower heat for longer than
just fry the crap out of them.
- Once it kinda sets around the edges
a little bit, I'm gonna
start pulling it in
so that the egg kinda
fills in all the places
where it's already cooked.
Ooh, I can smell the ginger.
- I really break them up a lot
instead of just having
sort of an omelet-like egg,
flipped over.
- I want to make sure that
I'm not overcooking them
because they're gonna
do the rest of their job
as I plate them.
- You don't want a rapid boil, you do want
a very gentle boil.
You're gonna take the back of a spatula
and just clockwise, create a whirlpool.
Once I take the scrambled egg mixture
and put it with the hot
water, those pockets of air
are just gonna expand and the egg size
is gonna double.
Lid, count to 20.
- Gonna go ahead and
grab my cheddar cheese,
mix that in a little bit, let that melt.
I just love cheese so
much so I'm gonna add
a little bit more, but that's
totally your preference.
These are starting to look really good,
starting to smell really good,
I feel like we're almost there.
- You can smell the ghee,
you can smell the mirin,
you can smell the soy,
everything is actually
already kind of incorporated.
- When you get to the end,
just put it through a strainer.
They're just so soft and
airy, that's the fastest
scrambled egg you'll ever make.
- So for my side I have a piece of toast.
I do like two eggs a
person so I put about half
on this plate, going to
sprinkle a few of the chives
over that, go ahead and
grab my bacon slices.
- I'm actually going to be serving mine
with some white rice.
It's adding a little bit more than just
your typical breakfast toast.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and put this
right on top of my rice, I'm going to give
my cucumbers one more stir,
and then I'm just going
to go ahead and sprinkle a few on top,
sprinkle my scallions
on, last but not least
my toasted sesame.
- Take a little of that
fluffy scrambled egg,
some finishing salt, this
will give it a nice texture
and it's a milder salt, a
little bit of olive oil,
our cream mixture, the decadent part,
little bit of chives, and
last but not least, caviar.
Because you know, every day is special.
- And here are my scrambled eggs.
[camera clicks]
- And here are my scrambled eggs.
[camera clicks]
- And that is your fancy
everyday scrambled egg.
[camera clicks]
[calm music]
- Okay, moment of truth,
let's see how this went.
- Let's go for it.
Oh my gosh.
- That tastes exactly like
they taste every single time,
which I love, very consistent,
they're like that friend that's always
gonna pick up the phone.
- It has a lot of great
balance, you have salty,
you have a tiny bit of
sweetness, you have the ginger
and the cucumber and a crunchiness,
so I'm really happy [laughs].
- The eggs are the
heaviest part of this dish
and then when they hit the cream,
you get a burst of citrus and then
the saltiness from the caviar,
and then a little pop of chive.
- This is perfection.
- Eggs are one of the most versatile
and functional ingredients in any dish,
whether as an addition
or a main ingredient.
Let's see how each of our
chefs scrambled theirs.
[percussive music]
- Hannah took four eggs and cracked them
directly into her bowl and used a fork
to mix together with a little water.
Be careful when you do
this, since you might
crack part of the shell into your eggs.
The shell is a complex
of calcium carbonate,
deposited in a protein matrix,
which is harmless if
eaten but not digestible.
- It happens to the best of us.
- Water creates steam, making
very tender scrambled eggs,
but it's not necessary if your eggs
are cooked correctly.
She added salt during egg preparation,
which isn't recommended
since salt is a coagulant.
It can make your eggs less tender.
It's better to add salt just
prior to eating your eggs.
She used brown eggs which are
no different from white eggs
when it comes to structure
and functionality.
Brown eggs simply come from red hens
while white eggs come from white hens.
Gabrielle used a whisk to mix her eggs.
A whisk adds more air than
the fork that Hannah used
because of its structure
due to its special design.
Forks can mix ingredients thoroughly
but a whisk is designed to
create a more smooth texture
as the whisk moves through the bowl.
The viscosity of egg whites in particular
helps them to cling to
the tines of the whisk,
allowing the protein
structure to trap more air,
creating a lighter, fluffier egg.
Palak was very careful to use fresh eggs.
- My eggs are fresh.
- One indicator of
freshness is the thickness
of the albumin or egg white.
The thicker it is, the fresher the egg
due to the presence of a
protein called ovomucin,
which degrades and becomes
thinner as the egg ages.
She kept her shells
intact for later service,
but sterilized them by boiling
to reduce the levels
of potential pathogens
such as salmonella or
campylobacter jejuni.
[percussive music]
Hannah and Gabrielle
both used nonstick pans
to scramble their eggs.
Hannah used whole melted butter
which includes the milk solids
while Gabrielle used ghee,
which has the milk solids removed.
Ghee can get hotter than whole butter
yet won't burn.
- It's a better alternative
than regular butter.
- Both slowly cooked their
eggs over medium heat
and used a spatula to stir.
Hannah had some marbling
when she initially
mixed her eggs, which means the egg whites
and the yolks were not completely blended.
- You don't want to overmix it 'cause then
it will be just like too tough.
- Since they coagulate at
different temperatures,
she may have some uneven
cooking in her eggs.
Coagulation at lower temperatures
yields a soft, tender egg, so medium heat
works very well here.
The approximate temperature of coagulation
of whole eggs is 176 degrees.
Gabrielle added mirin, ginger, and soy
prior to cooking.
The soy will raise the
temperature of coagulation
and season the eggs along
with the complex blend
of mirin, which is a low
alcohol, high sugar rice wine,
and ginger imparting
an acidic, sweet, salty
and slight spiciness to the eggs.
Palak poached her eggs very
quickly, only 20 seconds.
- 20.
- This is so interesting and unusual.
Just being in water prevents
burning and crust formation
and keeping the water below boiling point
keeps the egg from being
torn apart by turbulence.
Because she left the lid on her eggs,
she created a closed steaming vessel
which heated the eggs from
the top and the bottom,
making eggs that were extremely tender.
[percussive music]
Hannah went classic with
cheddar cheese in her eggs
and a side of bacon and toast.
Additions like cheese may raise
the coagulation temperature
of eggs because added fat has the impact
of increasing the heat
stability of egg proteins.
- This cheese can't fit
in the bowl, so I'll just.
- She used a toaster which
is a radiant heat source
that crisps and browns the bread
and served them with butter.
As an extra step, she added chives
which are bright green with
a hint of raw onion flavor
from the compound allicin.
Gabrielle served her soft scrambled eggs
over white rice, which is
a starchy and satiating
complement to the
high-protein eggs she made.
She topped her eggs with sesame seeds,
which are nutty in flavor
and add a subtle crunch
to her dish.
She served her eggs and
rice with a side of crunchy,
sweet, and sour pickled
cucumbers, sliced perfectly thin,
giving her dish an added depth of flavor.
Palak carefully spooned
her soft scrambled eggs
back into the sterilized eggshell,
which makes a beautiful presentation
and she topped it with
olive oil which adds
a layer of richness.
She also made an indulgent whipped cream
by blending creme fraiche,
which is a fermented,
high-fat dairy item with heavy
cream and Meyer lemon zest.
Meyer lemons from
California are large, juicy,
and sweeter than other
varieties of lemons.
She used vodka and cayenne
pepper to flavor this cream.
The vodka may look like water,
but it's mostly alcohol
so it doesn't hydrate
the other molecules in
this complex emulsion.
The vodka also breaks down fat
and prevents it from separating.
The cayenne pepper adds
heat and color to the cream.
Bowfin caviar is salt-cured roe.
It's expensive and decadent
with a wonderful taste.
Maldon salt is English sea salt.
It's flaked so it adds crunch,
as well as a very pure salt taste
and the perfect way to
finish her scrambled eggs.
Whether you're making
breakfast, brunch, or dinner,
eggs offer many possibilities.
Each of our chefs took a different take
on this staple dish with
three very different
but delicious outcomes.
