Soft Cooked Hen Egg with Caviar, Onions & Potato
Momofuku Ko is Chang’s tiny 12 seat, impossible-to-get reservations only, no menu, omakase-style restaurant created to showcase technique. Last summer, I had the chance to take three hours out of my day to have the Ko lunch menu, and if someone told me I’d be attempting to create their plates of perfection, I would have fallen over laughing.
The clean, sure, precision cooking that we saw behind the counter at Ko is not something I can recreate at home, but Chang does a great job of demystifying his Ko dishes.
One of his signature dishes is the amazing soft-cooked egg hen’s egg. The creaminess of the runny egg, the luxurious sweet butter-cooked onions, the salty caviar and the crunchy fresh made chips are fantastic together.
Chang has runny eggs down to a pat with his 5:10 method. Water is brought to a boil and eggs straight from the fridge are gently lowered in and cooked for exactly 5 minutes, 10 seconds, then plunged into an ice-bath and peeled underwater.
The egg is plated atop a bed of onion soubise, with a side of chips and herb salad. When you slice into the egg, a glorious mess of yellow yolk will spill out as a backdrop for the caviar.
It was really fun making this dish at home, and it’s definitely one of the more accessible dishes to make. It would make a nice fancy little one-bite appetizer if you topped chips with halves of soft-boiled quails eggs topped with a tiny bit of onion soubise, caviar and a leaf of parsley.
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Oh man. I was lucky enough to eat at Ko last spring, and this was probably my favourite dish. Reading this now, I might have to give it a try at home too. Thanks for the great (and inspiring) blog!
When I went to Ko, I didn’t have this dish, so I have no idea how it should taste in real life, but this was pretty amazing! You should give it a try for sure, it wasn’t too crazy too make. Let me know how yours turns out!
Wow, looks fabulous! From what I can see steph, your technique isn’t too shabby. Look great and super yummy!
Thanks Dan! It was pretty yummy!
Wow, looks beautiful! We recently made this dish as part of a 10-course meal inspired by Chang, which we wrote about here: http://servedraw.com/2009/12/faux-ko-a-riff-off-of-momofuku-ko-food-porn-capital-of-the-free-world/
Wow, a 10 course meal! That’s ambitious!
this looks AMAZING!!! and it makes me so hungry
Thanks!
That looks awesome!
Thanks Jeroxie, you should give it a try!
Looks good. When will you be posting your attempt to make the momofuku noodle bar ramen? I want to see how yours ends up before I try.
The Momofuku ramen was the first thing I ever made for this blog. You can find my first attempt here and my second attempt here.
Love it! Thanks for sharing the 5:10 method. I recently tried a 5-minute egg at a restaurant and I loved it. Beautiful plating and photography, as always!
Thanks Jen!
The 5:10 method is super easy; I love runny eggs and it’s nice to have a full proof method.
Ummm, I’m drooling over here! Amazing pics and description, you are so talented at turning food into edible art, thanks!
Thanks! I’m just glad the food tastes good and isn’t just pretty to look at!
I can only imagine how good it tastes! Eye candy for sure!
Ate at Ko nearly 2 years ago and this was probably the most memorable dish. I also own the cookbook and am totally impressed how closely your egg resembles Chang’s… like, almost down to how it cuts open! Bravo :)
Thanks! The cut was a happy accident. The first cut I made wasn’t deep enough and the second one ended up being a little jagged. It worked though!
I just adore the photo in the book of this, and yours is just as amazing! Yum! Can’t wait to try.
Thanks Julia, it was really tasty! I’m sure yours will turn out fantastic!
I love the eggs with eggs too!