Tuesday, June 12, 2007

What to do with three dozen eggs

So people keep going on vacation and leaving me their extra food. The latest drop-off (in addition to a dog and a cat, both strictly not for eating) was three dozen eggs. And while I enjoy many dishes that incorporate eggs, I have no idea how I'm going to get through so many. I'm not a hard-boiled egg snacker or a scramble-for-breakfast person, so these eggs are going to have to find their way into dishes.

Things you'd think would have a lot of egg in them but don't:

  • Pasta (the recipes I'm looking at seem to average about three measly eggs)
  • Quiche (The Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes call for only two to four eggs)
  • Claufoutis (The Tartine Cookbook recipe uses three eggs)

Souffles seem promising, and like the sort of thing that's good to experiment with if you've got an excess of ingredients, but I don't have a soufflé pan, nor anything that I could substitute for it.

This is also a chance to experiment with shirred eggs. I'm not sure if it's a vague memory of the taste, the promise of cream, or simply that I like the word "shirred", but lately I've been drawn to descriptions of how to make shirred eggs. The only problem there is that I don't have the right size ramekins. Why are egg dishes so hardware intensive??

I can also use some of the eggs to make ice cream. I've been wanting to try to make honey ice cream and salted caramel ice cream, and it's getting warm enough that I think it's time to make another batch of my summer favorite, fresh mint ice cream (steeped mint leaves) with chocolate. If I wasn't hosting vegans tomorrow night I'd start the ice cream custard right now. Instead I'll wait until closer to the weekend, recruit some willing eggs-and-dairy enthusiasts, and get cooking.

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