February Chocolate: The Mighty Heart and the Almighty Egg

In a conventional nod to Valentine's Day, I posted a survey of the (chocolate) heart on Serious Eats this week.

In a less conventional nod, I would like to take a moment, here, to reflect on what I believe is an equally valuable ingredient this time of year: the egg. The egg will save your soul when it's Sunday night, it's three degrees outside, you have friends coming over for dinner, and you haven't restocked the fridge in two weeks: just whisk together all the eggs you can gather up with some breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan, that spaghetti squash you forgot about, half a Spanish onion, half a bag of Spinach, a handful of pine nuts, and that two-week-old goat cheese, and you've got it--a grand frittata. And when you're spending Valentine's Day writing three different papers at once, then all you have to do is whisk an egg yolk together a tablespoon of sugar, one and a half teaspoons of flour, and a pinch of salt; heat one third of a cup of milk and six tablespoons of heavy cream (use more milk if you're out of cream) to just below the boiling point; slowly add the hot milk and cream to the egg mixture, whisking constantly; return the custard to the pot and simmer, still whisking, for a minute or so until thickened; remove from heat; add an ounce and a half of chocolate; let stand for a few minutes; whisk to combine; pour into a jam jar; wait a few hours; and eat the stuff right out of the jar. (I got this recipe from Gourmet and it's very versatile: you can add cacao nibs or ground nuts, or any liqueur or extract, when you add the chocolate; and if you're sharing, just multiply all of the ingredients by the number of guests.)