Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Eggs

I’ve always been fond of eggs. They are so versatile: soft or hard boiled, omelettes, scrambled, with some smoked salmon, fried – sunny side up – raw, in a fresh beef tartar, Scotch eggs, in home-made mayonnaise, or as a binding element in a meatloaf or meatballs. 

 

I regularly serve hard-boiled quail eggs as an appetizer and they look really cute and tasty as fried eggs on top of a salad. On several occasions I have used them to make mini Scotch'eggs as a starter. People never guess what they are when you serve the one inch ‘meatballs’ on a salad with some good olive oil, salt pepper and a dash of lemon juice.

 

Why am I writing about eggs today? Simply because my cleaning lady, who comes in once every fortnight, brought me some free-range eggs from her chickens. They weren’t exactly a present, because she charges 0.10 euro per egg. She claims to be the ‘cheapest’ of the non-official egg suppliers in our village. But, after tasting one of the eggs yesterday for breakfast, I’m willing to pay the double. These eggs are sooooooo good!
 2013-egg1  
Until now I have been buying ‘cocorette’ eggs, free-range eggs from Northern France, which are really good too. And I wouldn’t mind buying them again in the future, when my cleaning lady’s chickens are taking their annual break.

 2013-egg2

In the meantime however, I’m looking forward to these extra fresh eggs … which really come in all sizes …

11 comments:

chm said...

I like eggs too. My favorite are sunny side up, but preferably, poached eggs over a toast with a slice of ham and a slice of Gruyère cheese or over a Meurette sauce. Yummy.

Nick Morgan said...

You can't beat real free range eggs. Much better than commercial "free range eggs". I forgot what eggs tasted like until we got our own chickens six years ago. No going back now!

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

We love eggs too!! BUT I do not like "scotch eggs" eggs inside sausage meat .. or RAW eggs

Is this what you mean by Scots eggs??

Niall & Antoinette said...

Free range eggs are great :-) We get ours from a farm just up the road. Had an 'uitsmijter ham/kaas' for lunch today.

Craig said...

I'm with you Martine - I adore eggs. Lightly poached on buttered thick toast is comfort food at it's best.
I'm trying to talk Clive into having a few hens so we could have fresh eggs but I don't like my chances!

VirginiaC said...

Sounds like you've got your egg supply all sorted out for a few more months...enjoy.

GaynorB said...

Soft boiled with marmite soldiers for me from a local farm shop.

Jean said...

We love eggs too, and eat a lot of them.
We get them free range from the nearby farm at £1 per half dozen, which is about 1.20 euros. I had to chuckle at the size difference in your eggs - we have the same thing. We actually weighed the eggs in one box and the biggest weighed twice as much as the smallest! Which can make baking a bit tricky sometimes! But they are so fresh and delicious it's a real treat to eat them.

Have you had any double yolks yet? We had two boxes, one after the other, where all the eggs had two yolks. I believe there is a good reason for this but can't remember what it is !!

Bob said...

my favorite are fried eggs, but i like any kind of eggs. recently had some fresh duck eggs, large and delicious. down south in the US we eat fried eggs with grits and ham and maybe with some gravy.

Louise said...

I too am a great fan of fresh eggs. And fortunately my new neighbours have moved their five "girls" in with them for six months...I am sharing mangoes from my tree, and they fresh eggs...and all of this in an inner suburb in Peth city! A wonderful way to chat with neighbours I think.

ladybird said...

Chm, I like poached eggs too, but they are so tricky to make ... when you want to do it the traditional way.

Nick, Welcome to my blog and thanks for posting a comment. Take good car of those chickens!

Anne, Yes, I meant 'scotch' - thanks for pointing out my mistake? They aren't a Belgian dish, so I was a bit lost :)

N&A, Love an 'outsmijter'. In Belgium it is called a 'croque madame'. Explanation on request! ;)

Craig, Try to talk Clive into keeping chickens. I'm sure Boris will love herding them!

Virginia, I've already placed in my next order. And the chickens are happy to oblige.

Gaynor, I've heard about and seen jars of Marmite ... but what is it?

Jean, The big egg in the photo had just one yolk. But I've seen eggs with double yolks in the past. They are not common though.

Bob, Can you get free-range eggs where you live and have you ever considered getting some chickens?

Louise, Mangos in exchange for free-range eggs!!! What a lovely deal!