Coeur à la Crème

I saw this on a cooking show a while ago and have wanted to make it for some time. Mostly because I couldn't imagine what it tasted like (and that rarely happens). It's basically a cream heart that tasted like fortified whipped cream, with the consistency of maybe a baked custard, with just a tiny bit of lemon and lots of lovely vanilla. You must not skimp on the vanilla bean!

I made it with my mom when my parents were visiting. We used this recipe, but had strawberry sauce instead of the raspberry.

You do need some special equipment, namely a heart-shaped mold that acts like a sieve.

The cream has to sit overnight and drain so it kind of packs down and begins to set together. It turns from a thick whipped cream to something you can cut and serve with a spoon (i.e., it holds its shape). I was out of cheesecloth but a thin cotton (no terry cloth) kitchen towel worked just fine.

It's pretty sweet but depending on what kind of sauce you make, you can cut that sweetness with sour.

Poached Eggs

I have never made nor have I ever eaten a poached egg. I stick to scrambled. But gws wanted eggs Benedict for his birthday and, since he doesn't ask for much, I had to oblige. I don't have a fancy egg poacher or even one of those silicone poach pod thingies, so I had to do it the old fashioned way: drop an egg into simmering water and, with great speed and delicacy, push the white over the yolk to make a graceful little pillow. To my great surprise, I only screwed up the first one. I spent too much time futzing around with the whites and THEN started the timer for 4 minutes. That yolk was cooked solid by the time it was done. The others were much easier and I received a great big thumbs up when gws cut into his egg and a golden gush of yolk spilled out.

What I didn't realize is that you can kind of make all the components to this dish, save the toasted English muffin, ahead of time. I cheated and made the Hollandaise sauce in the blender because I just couldn't be bothered with another possible failure. But the eggs can basically sit in cold water until they're ready to be reheated (in a bowl of salted hot water). And you can reheat the Hollandaise sauce too. So really, just toast the muffin, throw the ham or Canadian bacon on the skillet for a few minutes, and assemble everything. Not too shabby. I had one to try too and it wasn't that bad! I thought of it more as a sauce rather than a runny egg yolk.

*Both the poached egg instructions and blender Hollandaise sauce are courtesy of Madame Child. Merci!