Who doesn't love bacon and eggs, this is like the quintessential American breakfast. This dish takes that breakfast and takes it to a much more sophisticated level.
The first portion of this dish was to make the egg component. This is also the first point where this dish differs from the traditional dish. This dish used quail eggs instead of chicken eggs. I don't think there's much difference in the flavor, just that quail eggs are much cooler and fit on a spoon. The prep for this was poaching the eggs in water and a bit of white wine vinegar.
So I poached the eggs for just a few minutes until the whites were set and then trimmed the "tails" as the recipe called then. Basically, the whites that trailed behind the yolk when dropped into the water and solidified quickly.
Ya'll know exactly what bacon looks like, but this is glorious applewood smoked bacon from Fresh Market.
I cut the bacon into what are known as lardons which is basically just think strips and fried them up.
Isn't that a beautiful thing?
Every great cooking culture has a group of three vegetables that are fundamental to their cuisine. The french have the mirepoix which is onion, carrots and celery. New Orleans has the trinity which is onions, celery and green peppers. The French Laundry has the brunoise. Carrots, turnips and leeks.
I cut evenly sized strips of each of the three vegetables and reserved them for the garnishes.
Now that all the garnishes are complete it was time to prep the quail eggs for the final plating. In order to do that I took the eggs and heated them through in a partial stick of butter.
I melted the butter and then put the quail eggs in for a few minutes until they were heated through.
It's precisely dishes like this that make me glad I asked for these tasting spoons as part of our wedding. I put the poached egg in the spoon, and then poured a small amount of the butter sauch over the top then garnished with the bacon and brunoise. Then finally took the whole thing down in one bite. amaz.balz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I served this dish with ironically enough, a pinot noir. As a red wine you wouldn't necessarily expect to serve it with eggs. However, quail is a red mean poultry so if having quail meat you want a red win, so I guess it makes sense that the wine was red. I'm not a wino, but I really loved this one.
