RECIPES: Wylie Dufresne's Egg-Sellent Take on Breakfast

April 10, 2009 -- After a dazzling young career that took him through kitchens from New York City's Jean Georges to Las Vegas' Vongerichten's Prime in The Bellagio, chef Wylie Dufresne opened his own top-rated, award-winning restaurant, wd~50, on Manhattan's Lower East Side in April 2003. Frank Bruni of the New York Times awarded wd~50 three stars in March 2008, and in the Michelin Guide's inaugural American edition in 2006, wd~50 received one star, which it has retained through 2009.

Dufresne's cuisine continues to evolve in terms of technique, utilizing ingredients and equipment that have created a menu notable for its innovation as well as flavor. Check out his take on a few breakfast favorites below. On page 1: Scrambled Eggs, Smoked Eels, Fried Potatoes. On page 2: Slow Poached Egg, Parmesan Broth, Tomato Powder. On page 3: Eggs Benedict.

Scrambled Eggs, Smoked Eels, Fried Potatoes

Recipe courtesy of Wylie Dufresne

Ingredients:

2 eggs

10 grams butter

100 grams smoked eel, diced (or substitute with the smoked fish of your choice)

20 grams cream cheese

5 grams freeze-dried onion (available at Whole Foods)

5 grams fried potatoes, diced

Chervil

Instructions:

Season the eggs with salt and cayenne. Heat a medium pan over medium heat and add the butter and eggs and stir vigorously. After one minute, add the cream cheese and the eel. Allow the cheese to melt and heat through, take off the heat and place in a bowl. Top with the freeze-dried onion, potato and chervil.

Serves one.

Slow Poached Egg, Parmesan Broth, Tomato Powder

Recipe courtesy of Wylie Dufresne

For the parmesan broth:

2 pounds of parmesan rinds

2 carrots

1 onion

4 stalks celery

4 garlic cloves

pinch of salt

1 bay leaf

2 quarts water

Instructions:

Roughly chop the vegetables and place in bottom of a medium sized stock pot. Wrap scraps of parmesan in cheesecloth and secure with string. Place on top of vegetables and cover with water. Add bay leaf and pinch of salt, bring to a boil and simmer for two hours. Strain and allow to cool. Remove fat cap that rises to surface and store in fridge or freezer.

For the dish:

4 organic eggs

½ cup sev (chick pea noodles)

1 tablespoon tomato powder

Small handful baby chives

1 teaspoon parmesan oil

6 ounces parmesan broth

Instructions:

Bring a small saucepan up to 145°F and place eggs inside. Leave to cook for one hour. Crack the eggs into four separate bowls, season with salt, sev, tomato powder, and baby chives. Ladle the warm parmesan broth around egg and drizzle parmesan oil in bowl.

Serves four.

Eggs Benedict

Recipe courtesy of Wylie Dufresne

For the egg yolks:

10 egg yolks

salt

cayenne

Instructions:

Season yolks to taste with salt and cayenne. Fill a 1x12-inch plastic sleeve with the yolks and tie the top with string to secure. Let stand upright for two hours to allow any air to rise to the top. Cook the yolk-filled sleeves upright in a water bath for 17 minutes at 70 degrees Celsius. Then, ice down and portion the yolks into inch-long pieces.

For the fried hollandaise:

Part I

2 grams Hexaphosphate (also called sodium hexameta phosphate)*

.6 grams citric acid*

3.5 grams gellan gum or low acyl gellan**

170 grams water

Instructions:

Blend everything together and bring to a boil in a small pot and pour into a container and cool until completely set.

*available at http://www.le-sanctuaire.com

**available at http://www.terraspice.com

Part II

110 grams water

10 grams Ultrasperse M

Instructions:

Mix together well and reserve.

Part III

60 grams gelatin, bloomed

640 grams butter, melted

Instructions:

Dissolve the gelatin into the melted butter.

For the fried hollandaise production:

100 grams egg yolk

Salt and lemon juice to taste

Instructions:

Place the ingredients listed in Part I and the 100 grams of egg yolks into a blender and mix well. Then, slowly pour half of the gelatin/butter mix from Part III into the blender as you would with a classic hollandaise. Then, using a bowl and a whisk, blend the ingredients from Part II into the remaining half of the gelatin/butter mix from Part III.

Add the ingredients from the bowl to the ingredients in the blender. (Your blender should be running throughout all of these steps.) At this point a thick and creamy sauce should have formed. Adjust the seasoning with salt and lemon juice. Pour the sauce out into a shallow baking tray lined with plastic and allow to chill overnight.

Serves four.