NEW POTATOES TOPPED WITH QUAIL EGGS
WHAT ARE THEY?
Mouthfuls made of boiled new potatoes, filled with tartare sauce and topped with a poached quail egg and grilled bacon, served cold.
TIME TO MAKE
Preparation: 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes
Cooking: 45 minutes
EQUIPMENT
Parisienne scoop or melon baller
Pastry brush
Piping bag without nozzle
Skimmer
VARIATION
Top the potatoes with chive crème fraîche, then salmon roe.
ADVICE
Check the egg white during cooking: when it is firm, you can plunge the egg into cold water. The bacon slices should be only lightly browned. They will crisp up as they cool.
TECHNIQUES TO MASTER
Poaching an egg
WHY ADD VINEGAR TO THE EGG COOKING WATER?
Adding the vinegar to the saucepan of water reduces the pH of the water. This acidity will assist with coagulation of the egg proteins and thus help the egg white retain its shape and encase the yolk.
ORGANISATION
1 day before | Cook and prepare the potatoes and the tartare sauce.
On the day | Poach the quail eggs, fill the new potatoes.
MAKES 30
1 POTATOES
15 medium new potatoes of uniform size pinch of coarse salt, plus extra to taste
2 TARTARE SAUCE
1 egg yolk
20 g mustard
2 g salt
pinch of pepper
5 g apple-cider vinegar
150 g sunflower oil
1 bunch chives
40 g (1 whole) salad onion
3 FILLING
30 quail eggs
50 g white vinegar
6 slices streaky bacon
30 leaves of flat-leaf parsley
fleur de sel
50 g olive oil
1 Wash the potatoes. Place them in a saucepan of cold water with the coarse salt. Bring to a vigorous boil and cook for 15 minutes. Check if they are cooked using the tip of a knife. Drain and allow to cool.
2 Cut the potatoes in half, then hollow out a little using a melon baller or a parisienne scoop, leaving 3–4 mm of flesh. Season lightly with salt. Set aside in the refrigerator.
3 Make the tartare sauce (mayonnaise).
4 To cook the eggs, prepare a bowl of iced water and bring 1 litre water to the boil in a high-sided saucepan with the white vinegar. Break open five eggs and empty them into the saucepan one at a time at the centre of the boiling water so that the white is lifted around the yolk. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1–2 minutes.
5 Transfer to iced water using a skimmer. Repeat the process with the remaining eggs.
6 Transfer the eggs to a cutting board and trim them to neaten them up. Set aside on a clean tea towel in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.
7 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lay the bacon slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with a second sheet of baking paper, then another baking tray. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.
8 Cut the bacon into 2 × 1 cm rectangles.
9 Transfer the tartare sauce to a piping bag without a nozzle. Cut the end off the bag and fill the potato halves.
10 Gently place a parsley leaf to one side, place a quail egg in the middle, season with fleur de sel, brush with the olive oil, then top with a piece of bacon. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
