Amuse Bouche

A Big Fat Goose Egg

You have heard me mention Wicken Fen before.  I adore their eggs.  I stopped by Formaggio last week on my between Cambridge and create a cook and miraculously there was a parking space.  After doing a happy dance in my truck as I parked, I whizzed in for a quick dash and grab.  I had hoped to pick up some more duck eggs, which we have had and adored before, but this time all they had were quail and goose.  Really, really BIG goose eggs.

Look how big!

That egg on the left is a JUMBO egg from The Country Hen, that is as big as chicken eggs get.  That goose egg dwarfs it.  husband took one look at the egg and asked if I was trying to kill him with cholesterol.  I assured him this was a one off and I just wanted to try the egg to see how it tastes.
On Sunday I made him an egg, along with that Jumbo egg you see above.  The goose was for husband, the jumbo was for the pooper.  She gets 1 egg a week for her coat.

Just look at the two in the pan.

So, you ask, how did it taste.  Well, perhaps this method of cooking is not the best way to cook a goose egg.  The whites are rather, ummm, rubbery.  Very bouncy and rather thick.  In fact, you can literally remove the entire yolk from the cooked egg without it appearing to affect the white at all.  Having said that about the whites, the yolks taste fantastic!

I know that The Country Hen likely adds some sort of fish meal to the hens in order to get the high omega 3 ratings in the eggs.  This means the eggs don't exactly TASTE like fish, but they do have a slight undercurrent of fish to them.  Don't get me wrong, these are our go to, non-battery, free roaming, store bought eggs of choice, but they are a wee bit fishie.

The goose yolk, on the other hand, tasted amazingly good, much like the eggs we get from 'the egg lady' in Maine.  Her chickens roam about and peck and scratch and eat what they like and her eggs taste fabulous.  Would I repeat the goose egg?  not likely, but you can bet I will be back for the duck eggs, and maybe try the quail while I am at it.

Thanksgiving Breakfast

Here is part of the plan for our Thanksgiving morning breakfast.
Fresh duck eggs from Wicken Fen Farms in VT. courtesy Formaggio.

Eggs stuffed with smoked salmon and caviar

While we were coasting up the Maine highway I had in my lap a stack of Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Cook's Illustrated, Olive and BBC Food magazines. I was furiously flicking through pages and assembling a grocery list for the weekends festivities. We are always looking for noshies to take out on the boat for a light lunch or a cocktail hour cruise and these looked very interesting. My stepdad and i both love smoked salmon (most moked fish in fact) so I thought I would give these a try.
They are amazing! Very easy and no mayo which makes a really nice change for stuffed eggs.

Eggs stuffed with smoked salmon and caviar
*Adapted from the Bon Appetit August 2004 issue

3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons olive oil
11/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
12 ounces thinly sliced cold-smoked salmon, finely chopped (We actually used a chunk of smoked salmon from Ducktrap. I'm ususally a Scottish smoked salmon lover, but one thing we do have in Maine is good local smoked salmon)
1/4 cup salmon caviar
12 hard-boiled eggs, shelled, halved, whites and yolks separated
Additional chopped chives
Lemon wedges

Blend 3 tablespoons chives, oil, and lemon juice in medium bowl. Mix in smoked salmon. Fold in caviar. Chop 5 egg yolks (reserve remainder for another use) and stir into salmon mixture. Season to taste with ground black pepper. Pile 1 generous tablespoon salmon mixture in cavity of each egg-white half. Arrange eggs on prepared sheet. Cover with plastic; refrigerate up to 8 hours.
Sprinkle with additional chives and lemon juice.