On Sunday I spent some time working on our "Béarnaise Egg" for the New Years Eve Menu. I even ended up having some marginal success, off to a good starting point, now just a matter of refining the process and polishing each step.
The Basic Breakdown is hard boil your eggs, preferably arranged standing elongated side up, and shock them in ice water. Peel the eggs as you would a normal hard boiled egg. Cut off the bottom quarter inch so the egg has a base to stand on. Cut off the top one inch of the egg (which is hopefully through the top third of the yolk). Hollow out the yolk, plus a little bit beyond the natural pocket to allow for extra sauce. Make a Béarnaise that has been stabilized with a touch of dijon and/or mayonaisse. Measure the Volume of Sauce and disolve enough gelatin to set it medium-hard (about 1.25-1.5 sheets per cup, bloomed in ice water first of course). Fill the egg 'vessel' with the sauce to just below the rim. Dissolve 2 sheets of gelatin into one quarter cup of water (after blooming) and paint the gelatin on as you would use a glue stick. Put the egg's top back on and set in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Once set the top should be firmly attached to the bottom, with no sauce leaking, if there is a leak, you can reapply a little bit more of the gelatin "paint" and reset. Carefully dredge the egg in seasoned flour, and then coat in tempura, drop into a 300 degree deep fryer until the crust is golden brown, and the inside is warm, but not hot (I can't remember exactly how long, but I'm thinking ninety seconds or so). Be careful as not to overheat the egg and 'break' the sauce inside (I unfortunately got a final picture of one that had been overheated, update tomorrow, promise). Let the Egg rest thirty seconds and plate, once broken into you should see a pool of your wonderful Béarnaise Sauce spill out. We are serving this with our Filet course on NYE, but it is good enough to be eaten by itself. Here's some pictures of the process.
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