Wild Garlic Twice Baked Cheese Souffle

This dish for The Egg Award 2013 was entered by food blogger and artisan jewellery designer Vivienne Aldred.

Vivienne writes the Favourite Recipes From Pine Flat Place food blog plus designs and makes an extensive range of hand made jewellery, consisting of semi-precious stones, glass and crystal.  Her company Sprungli Bespoke Jewellery sells to retail outlets, Museums, Galleries, and also attends Trade Shows, Selling Fairs and Show Events throughout the year.



Details for entering a dish in The Egg Award 2013 can be found by clicking on this link

WILD GARLIC TWICE BAKED CHEESE SOUFFLÉS

INGREDIENTS

Serves 8-12

50g Wild Garlic Leaves washed well and finely shredded (Vivienne picks hers fresh from the nearby woods)

70g butter

75g freshly grated Gruyére cheese

75g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

400ml whole milk

50g plain flour

4 large Free Range eggs separated (Vivienne's eggs are from her neighbours hens)

Just less than 400 ml seasoned double cream. Salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to taste.

METHOD

Pre-heat oven to 200° C, 400° F Gas 6

1. Butter 8 large or 12 small ramekins well with butter from allowance.

2. Put the wild garlic in a pan with the milk, bring to the boil and set aside'

3. mix the remaining butter with the flour incorporating it well, then add the milk and wild garlic and cook until thick and smooth, stirring constantly. Cool for a short while.

4. Beat in the salt, pepper, nutmeg, Gruyére and then the egg yolks.

5. Whisk the egg whites in a very clean bowl until they form stiff peaks and then fold into the cheese mixture.

6. Spoon into the ramekins and arrange in a deep baking tin with boiling water halfway up the side of the dishes.

7.  Cook in the pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, allow to cool for 15 minutes and then turn out of the ramekins. (The soufflés can be frozen at this point until needed)

8. Arrange in a shallow oven-proof dish buttered and sprinkled with half the grated Parmesan cheese.

9. Pour the seasoned cream over the soufflés, sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and bake again for 15 to 20 minutes until well risen. Serve at once.

Chocolate Orange Meringues

This dish for The Egg Award 2013 was entered by Kupkuchen food blog

Click this link for details on how to enter your recipe

Chocolate Orange Meringues with Seville Orange Curd, Creme Fraiche and Cocolate Ganache




Irish food blogger 'Kupkuchen' keeps her own hens so her eggs couldn't be any more fresh or local, perfect for this The Egg Award entry!

"I’m lucky enough to have a fairly constant supply of fresh free range eggs courtesy of Guinness, Pepper and Buffy, my three back garden hens. The quality of ingredients really does affect the finished recipe – use free range eggs and you will notice the difference!"









The Seville Orange Curd (River Cottage recipe) is delicious and following on the River Cottage theme of pairing orange curd with meringue I decided to put the left over egg whites to good use making chocolate orange meringues with Seville orange curd and creme fraiche filling.

Meringues

Ingredients: 

4 egg whites (from free range hens!)

200g white caster sugar

50g good quality dark chocolate broken into small pieces from 100g bar.

Zest of 1 orange

Filling

Ingredients: 

About 8 Seville oranges, enough for 400ml of juice, strained

Finely grated zest of 1 navel orange

75g cornflour, sifted

4 egg yolks

250g caster sugar

Method:

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff (and yes I do test with the upside down bowl method!). Continue whisking and add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time until all the sugar is incorporated. Gently fold in the broken chocolate pieces and orange zest to mix well.

Spoon or pipe the meringue mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper (use little dabs of meringue mixture to stick the paper to the tray) – roughly 5-6cm wide circles – a good heaped tablespoon per meringue.

I use a fan oven and for mine I find heating to 140°c then dropping down to 120°c to work well for meringue – if you like them to stay white try the temperature a bit lower – pop the meringues in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 120°c – bake for about 1 hour.

Once baked allow to cool completely and gently peel off the baking paper.

Sandwich the meringues together with a spoonful each of thick creme fraiche and orange curd. Drizzle with chocolate ganache (melt the remainder of the chocolate and whisk through a couple of tablespoons of cream).

Enjoy!

Welcome to The Egg Award 2013

The idea for The Egg Award 2013 was hatched (I know, I know but there'll be a lot more) after Croft Organic approached Edinburgh chefs and food bloggers Just Love Food to help them promote their fresh, country, certified organic eggs.  After much consultation it was decided to initiate a competition that would spread the word to the public and trade about local produce.





The Egg Award 2013 then, is borne out of community love for local egg farmers and producers to promote the difference in flavour between a freshly laid organic egg and a commercially produced product.  So no matter whether it's a large farm or a local neighbour whose hens lays fresh eggs every day, as long as their fresh organic eggs and not supermarket bought it's time to get cooking!




The Egg Award 2013 will be for everyone from professional chefs to home cooks and school children to create and cook an egg recipe using locally sourced fresh, organic eggs, whether hen, duck or any other!  The award will be promoted using social media in order to raise awareness with as many people as possible.  Needless to say, the nature of Twitter and Facebook means that the competition has global potential 




Professional chefs entering will be encouraged to serve their egg recipe using their locally sourced eggs in their cafe/pub/restaurant and promote it as they see fit.  The Egg Award will promote them on twitter using the hashtag #BestEggyChefRecipe

All approved recipes whether professional or home cooked will be featured on The Egg Award 2013 blog.


Conditions for entering a recipe:

Your egg recipe will have to use locally sourced eggs.  When submitting please add 1: Where the eggs come from. 2: Who is producing them and their ethos. 3: A photo of the farm, the birds or the eggs.

You'll need to add 1: A list of ingredients. 2: The method. 3: A photo of the finished dish.

Initially recipes will be judged on the ethos of the egg sourced, creative use of the egg and on reaching the final cook off, flavour.

The final date for entries will be the 31st July 2013.

The winner will be announced 10th August 2013

The prize for the best recipe will be a unique hand carved, driftwood egg, a set of Blackrock Ceramic Knives, a fine art print donated by Armadillo Central  and of course the ensuing promotion and press coverage.  Please note there is no cash prize involved, purely the fame and satisfaction of knowing you've helped your local community producers.

You can send your entry to the organisers by email to..... 

TheEggAward@mail.com

justlovefood@hotmail.co.uk

You can also post your entry on Twitter using the hashtag #EGGrecipe2013

All entries will be published on this blog and promoted on Twitter.

The prize list (which is being added to all the time) is as follows:



Prizes.....


Blackrock Knives

The winner of The Egg Award 2013 will be presented with a unique trophy of a hand carved driftwood egg which is in the process of being created right now.  In the meantime those lovely people at Blackrock Ceramic Knives have donated a set of their knives!



You can find out more about Blackrock Knives by clicking on this link.....



Sousvidetools.com

The lovely people at sousvidetools.com have donated a PolyScience® Smoking Gun

They're the UK's leading supplier of sous vide and vacuum packing equipment. Based in the North West of England they are a family run business that distributes all over the UK, Ireland and Europe to aspirational chefs and foodies who enjoy cooking, who strive for consistency and accuracy whilst always looking to further refine their cooking skills. At sousvidetools.com their portfolio of products offers everything you would need for sous vide cooking commercially or domestically, from sous vide water baths, thermal circulators, vacuum sealers, vacuum packing machines and vacuum pouches.


You can learn more about sousvidetools.com by clicking on this link




Armadillo Central



Another addition to our list of prizes is this fine art print 'Two Steps Forward One Step Back' by Juliet Kepes (1919-1999) - painter, illustrator, sculptor and children’s book author, born in London in 1919.  The print has been donated by Armadillo Central who publish original writing alongside fine art and photography.


You can find out more about Armadillo Central by clicking on this link.....







Judges and competition organisers can be followed on Twitter and are.....



@justlovefood 

Food blogger/chef and The Egg Award 2013 Organiser.

@fruitbatwalton 

Music/food blogger, Twitter celebrity, Jack Russell and The Egg Award Promotions Team.

@R_McCormack 

BBC Radio 4 panelist on The Kitchen Cabinet
and The Egg Award 2013 Judge.

@alectomasso 

BBC 1 Masterchef contestant, head chef of The Cheese Kitchen and The Egg Award 2013 Judge.

@erniechef 

Head Chef at 2AA Rosette Etrop Grange Hotel, Manchester and The Egg Award 2013 Judge.

@FoodByJMarsh

Trained with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir, worked with Simon Rimmer and now head chef of his own pop-up restaurant in Manchester and The Egg Award 2013 Judge.


@markgreenaway

Chef patron of Restaurant Mark Greenaway in Edinburgh and Scottish Great British Menu contestant for Red Nose Day.