Tuesday, March 30, 2010

on the subject of eggs and baskets...

its getting close to easter and its time to talk about the egg. more specifically, the egg white. in my debut post, when i disclosed my fear of returning to earth as such, a friend wrote to me and said, "hey! what's wrong with egg white? add a little sugar, whip and voila- you've got meringue!"

now clearly, here is a man who knows how to treat an egg white. unfortunately, meringue isn't high on my menu wish list and egg whites don't meet such a fate (it likely doesn't get any better for an egg white than sugar and whip) in my home.

an advocate for whole foods, i must explain why i am dealing with egg whites to begin with. as with previous posts, this is where i hold my 10- month- old son accountable. imagine! pointing the finger at a small, beautiful, innocent child....

one of finn's first solid foods was egg yolk. rich in iron, vitamin a & d and a range of essential fatty acids, the egg yolk is a glowing orange-ish orb of happiness. egg
whites however, contain a number of proteins which make them a potential food allergen and therefore not the best beginner food for a wee babe (although in typical nutritional fashion, this can and will be debated from source to source). i often do nutrition by intuition and am still serving the yolk straight up.

herein lies the problem. to serve an egg sans white, it means a separation must occur. it means that finn eats the yolk, and i eat the white. sometimes. not often. ok, i've thrown it out a couple of times. my toes just curled as i wrote that and my mind's eye re-reads the bumpersticker i saw today: "where are we going? and what am i doing in this handbasket?"

given the precious resource that food is, and the massive disparities that exist in its distribution, food waste feels criminal. icky. needless. shameful. thankfully such ill feelings have a way of helping me to transform my not-so-pretty habits into something more gracious.

adios boiled egg. hello fried in butter egg.

in hindsight, a change in cooking technique is obvious. being somewhat of an egg novice however, i had to make the following discoveries through trial and error : boiled egg gives way to slimy gelatinous wiggly wobbly gaggy egg white. fried in butter egg makes for crispy, add a little sea salt and call it good eatin' egg white. eating boiled egg white causes slurping noises because even though its cooked, somehow its still runny (ew, ew ew). fried egg white can be chewed normally and its still just as easy to separate the white from the happy orange-ish orb. as a bonus, finn likes it better too.
(nutritional disclaimer: we're sure not to fry the heck out of our precious egg and we only use a heat stable, good quality fat like butter, ghee or coconut oil).

i offer my sincere and humble apologies to those who could have made better use of my disrespected egg white and wish an enjoyable easter to you all. oh, and in case you need somewhere to put the eggs you collect, i do have an extra handbasket.

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