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Fried Eggs (Marseilles Fry four very fresh)
(Marseilles.) Fry four very fresh eggs in olive oil, drain them, add to the oil in the pan 1/2 cup of consomme, 1/2 a green pepper, chopped and free from seeds, and 6 mushrooms. Cook this carefully, and pour around the eggs.
A two-line Provençal egg dish that depends almost entirely on the oil being hot enough and the sauce being reduced before it meets the eggs. Everything else is assembly.
- The hinge: hot oil, frilled edges"Fry" in olive oil here probably implies a more generous, hotter fry than a gentle American sunny-side-up, though the recipe does not say. Use enough olive oil to pool a quarter-inch deep, bring it to shimmering, and spoon the hot oil over the whites so they set at the edges while the yolks stay soft.
- ConsommeA clear, well-reduced meat stock. Half a cup of good low-sodium beef or chicken stock stands in; if you use commercial broth, reduce it by a third first or the sauce will taste thin and salty at once.
- Make the sauce in the same oil, but pour some offAfter four eggs there will be more oil in the pan than the half cup of stock can absorb. Pour off all but a tablespoon or two, then add the pepper and mushrooms, or the sauce will break into a greasy slick.
- MushroomsSix mushrooms here means small cultivated mushrooms, roughly 3 oz. Slice them and let them give up their water and start to color before the stock goes in, otherwise they will water the sauce down.
- Green pepperHalf a green bell pepper, chopped fine. It needs five to six minutes in the fat to lose its raw edge; the eggs will be waiting, so start the sauce first, or cook the sauce, hold it warm, and fry the eggs last.
- "Cook this carefully"Simmer until the stock has reduced by half and just coats the vegetables, two to four minutes. It should be a spooning sauce, not a broth, or it will flood the plate and slacken the eggs.
- Yield and servingTwo servings as a light lunch or supper, one as a substantial plate. Serve on warm plates with bread to take up the oil and sauce, and salt the eggs only after they leave the pan.
The Marseilles label points to the Provençal habit of frying eggs in olive oil rather than butter, a plain regional distinction worth naming after a city. The brevity here is typical, the assumption being that a cook already knew how to fry an egg and needed only the local trick. The combination of sweet pepper, mushrooms and a spoonful of clear meat stock also suggests the professional French kitchen, where a small reduction of consomme could turn a few vegetables into a sauce without flour.