Lava Eggs

Eggs like hard boiled, but with creamy, runny yolks. Hmm..

You will love this one, and the best part is, its a great way to make old eggs disappear. Old eggs are good for lava-ing, and once you transform them this way, they will just disappear! 

“Eggs must be cold and old”

It all about the temperature, and once you find the right settings for your own kitchen, it will get easier and easier. 

Mise :

1. Eggs, cold and old (65 g, see below). 
2. A pot of boiling water, kept at a brisk boil
3. A sieve that will fit in the pan – or something that will hold the eggs off the hot bottom of the pan 
4. Some ice water and salt. 

On the eggs – you want them cold, and old. You want to use cold eggs, straight from the fridge, so that the center will still be runny. You want old, and not the freshest eggs, so they will peel easily (peeling can be a major issue). 

Cook : 

Remember that for this recipe, you are deliberately trying to cook the eggs unevenly, you want the outside white to set, while the yolk is runny. For this, you need cold eggs and briskly boiling water. The eggs should go straight from the fridge to the boiling water. 

This shock treatment means that some of the eggs might crack. One thing that really helps is some kind of sieve to hold the eggs in, so you can lower the eggs gently into the pot and keep them off the hot bottom. If you are doing a large number of eggs, a pasta pot with an inner liner would work! 

1. Place cold eggs into the sieve. 
2. Turn down the heat on the pot of boiling water just a bit. 
3. Gently lower the eggs into the pot. 
4. After a few seconds, turn the heat back up. You need to achieve a brisk boil (see picture). 
5. For the 65 g eggs that I use, I cook for 8 minutes. 
6. In the meantime, prepare some ice water
7. As soon as time is up, plunge eggs into cold water. 

Peel! 

Peeling the eggs can be an issue. It helps that you use old eggs, and after cooking, immediately plunge the eggs into cold water. It helps if you crack the eggs (gently!), and add salt to the water, and let them soak for a while. All these somehow help to loosen the shell from the egg.

Eat!

This is the easy part. They are great to eat as is, or if you like, you can marinate them in a soya sauce for a day or two. If you do this, dilute the soya sauce (wise the eggs will be two salty). Of course, add, sake, dashi, or other enhancements…. I am sure every Ramen place has its own secret marinate!

Ideally, you need to place the eggs in a plastic bag, fill the bag with the marinate, squeeze most of the air out, and suspend the bag in the fridge. All this is to ensure the most even marination of the eggs. A simple plastic container works too, if the liquid is sufficient for the eggs to float, and you rotate them once in a while (they will float with a bit sticking out).

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Notes : 

This recipe is very sensitive to a range of conditions – the size of eggs, the pot, etc. Use the timing as a guide. Experiment, keeping to a consistent source and size of eggs, the same pot – its something between 7 and a half to eight minutes. Stay consistent and you will get it!