This is a cloud egg
Half a million users have already dared with the dish in question, which was born with a clearly amateur idiosyncrasy. We will have to wait for the cafes and restaurants add them to your cards and your brunch , together to the eggs benedict and mimosas.
Here's a new way prepare eggs that is revolutionizing Instagram. We refer to the cloud eggs , either cloud egg (in the Anglo-Saxon panorama) . In Traveler we had already listed the 19 ways to cook them.
But the time has come to add a new modality to this huge list that continues to grow.
The furor has spread -as has been happening lately- through the aesthetic social network par excellence, where the photogenic dish is already the star of more than 5,500 publications with the hashtag #cloudeggs .
The vast majority come from personal accounts of foodies or culinary photographers, who put all their efforts into differentiating themselves from the rest and thus leaving their followers dazzled (and hungry).
But, What is the secret of your success? Are there recipes that have a special predisposition when it comes to revolutionizing the internet?
In an effort to simplify, we will say that the cloud eggs They combine perfectly with the demands of the millennials , who demand greater autonomy over their lives and care more than ever about what they eat.
That's why, that one of its hallmarks is the do it yourself He has finished conquering them. In fact, grace consists precisely in that.
Because the egg (in all its facets) is an affordable and easy-to-prepare dish : we can all cook it at home, then add our personal touch... et voila! And as if that were not enough, it is a healthy food (with only 160 calories), gluten-free, and loaded with protein, minerals, and vitamin A.
BUT HOW DO YOU PREPARE?
There is no official version, but most share some basic premises, which are then spiced up with the personal touch of each one. The first thing the cook must do is separate the white from the yolk , which will be reserved until later.
The next thing will be to beat the egg white until it acquires a more solid consistency, similar to meringue. Now it's time to add salt, pepper and, if we feel like it, we can include seeds, such as chia seeds.
To finish, we will sprinkle a few shavings of Parmesan or cheddar cheese. Some recipes also include chives, ham or bacon.
After spicing and adding extras to taste, it's time to place the solid egg white on non-stick paper in a baking tray.
Here we meet again different schools : some add the yolk at the beginning, others prefer to cook the egg whites for 2 minutes and then add the yolks -3 more minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees- to make them more liquid.
If you prefer the egg to be more toasty, you can leave it until 10 minutes are up. The important thing is that you check how it is being done, to avoid the dreaded 'cauliflower effect' which, as the name suggests, occurs when the egg looks more like the cruciferous plant than the desired cloud.
Once ready, it can be served with avocado or salmon, on toast, with salad and even with French fries. Similarly, they can be a nutritious breakfast , a brunch at noon or a light dinner. Or all three.
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
But, despite its aesthetic beauty and its benefits, the new gastronomic invention of the millennial generation is not so. Or so they say.
The magazine's culinary director Serious Eats , Daniel Gritzer, assured the radio station NPR that the dish in question dated back to 1651, the year in which the recipe was first published in the cookbook Le Cuisinier Francois . An elaboration that, according to Gritzer, the French know as **oeufs à la neige (snow eggs)**.
In this modern-age version, the food was cooked on top of a buttered plate, then baked on top of coals, while a tool known as a salamander heated it from above.
To top it off, a little sugar was sprinkled on top. Today, it is a traditional French dessert that is cooked with milk. Whether they are relatives or not, what is undeniable is that both recipes have always been colorful and fun..
However, it is not necessary to go back to the 17th century to find some vestiges of the fashionable dish. Returning to the present, the gastronomy website Bon Appetit made reference to a video that the British publication eHow had uploaded to YouTube in 2012, in which it was taught how to prepare cloud eggs.
For her part, the Spanish blogger Gloria Ytreats joked on her account Instagram about her visionary status: in early 2015, she posted on her blog a post with the recipe in question, in this case under the name of eggs in the air.
At the moment, the restaurant Bara Mein , from Cardiff (Wales), has been one of the pioneers in including it in its menu . In this case it is presented with guacamole and as a meal for the little ones.
The Chef Justine Huizinga , which also includes them in its catering service Beetroot and Bear , warns that these should not be confused with the French dessert. And in her recipe, pair them with red pepper pesto and hot buttered toast.
Now the big question is how long will it take to proliferate in our country . We hope they don't push themselves too hard. In the meantime, you can try making them yourself. If you do it right, you could become the new culinary guru of the moment.