Coming back, I was leafing through Julia Child's memoirs - 'My Life In France' - when I came across her experiences at the Cordon Bleu cookery school at Paris. Her teacher there, Chef Bugnard, demonstrated his technique for the perfect oeufs bruilles after being horrified by her brisk-and-vigorous approach to making scrambled eggs.
Chef Bugnard had a very different approach to plating up fluffy scrambled eggs, his style was gentler, and his recipe was different too. It struck me as sound, so off I went to the kitchen to experiment with the lone egg left in the fridge.
And guess what? Despite not following Bugnard's instructions to the T, I managed to whip up THE perfect scrambled eggs – OK, egg - and no sign AT ALL of any runny juices! Halleluljah!
I don't know if there are any copyright issues about sharing the recipe here - I mean, it is not Julia Child's recipe, it is her retelling of it - besides, it’s not even a recipe, more of a technique. So going by my judgment, I am sharing it here.
Chef Bugnard's Technique to the Perfect Ouefs Bruilles (Scrambled Eggs):
- Break open the eggs, season with salt-and-pepper
- Do NOT whip up into a froth - just gently mix the yolks and whites together with a fork
- Smear the sides and bottom of a frying pan with butter. Set it on gentle heat (lowest setting on your stove)
- Once the pan is heated (not too hot!), gently pour in the eggs.
- Do not stir/poke/scramble the eggs immediately. Wait till you see the eggs beginning to thicken into a custard.
- Once the eggs start curdling, GENTLY, start pulling the outer edges of the scrambles to the centre. Keep the curds "loose", do not pull them into tight clumps. Keep doing this - GENTLY - taking the pan on and off the flame - we do not want the eggs to keep on cooking while we're scrambling them
- Once the eggs are almost-cooked (the runny shiny white is almost dry) - add the butter/cream (as much as you like - the more, the tastier!). THIS STOPS THE EGGS FROM COOKING FURTHER (for some time at least)
- Take the eggs off the flame, plate them on a serving dish, garnish with parsley and serve
This technique worked perfectly for me - my scrambled egg was gorgeously just-set, a beautiful pearly, creamy pale yellow in colour and as for the taste - oh, all kinds of deliciousness! :D AND there was NO SIGN of the much-detested runny juices - even after 10 -15 minutes.
Oh, bliss!! :)