Lenten Eggs

Name: Lenten Eggs
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 125 g artichoke hearts (fonds d'artichauts); 6 hard-boiled eggs; 100 g truffle slices; 5 dL Nantua sauce (shrimp-based velouté); 1 low-form timbale crust; poached eggs; oval pastry tartlet shells; flaked salmon; caviar

Origin: Paris, France

Source: Auguste Escoffier, 1907

Ingredients

125 g artichoke hearts (fonds d'artichauts)
6 hard-boiled eggs
100 g truffle slices
5 dL Nantua sauce (shrimp-based velouté)
1 low-form timbale crust
poached eggs
oval pastry tartlet shells
flaked salmon
caviar

Instructions

HOT VERSION:
Slice and stew the artichoke hearts (fonds d'artichauts) in butter.
Hard-boil the eggs, then slice them into rounds. Prepare the truffle slices and Nantua sauce (a shrimp-based velouté).
Arrange the components in the baked timbale crust in alternating layers: eggs, artichoke hearts, truffles, and sauce. Finish with a final layer of sauce on top. Crown the dish with an elegant arrangement of truffle slices on the surface.
COLD VERSION:
Prepare poached eggs (cooked sur le plat) and allow them to cool completely.
Cut out oval shapes from the cooled eggs using an oval pastry cutter (à l'emporte-pièce ovale). Place a thin round of truffle on the yolk of each oval.
Arrange these on oval tartlet shells (croûtes de tartelettes ovales) lined with flaked salmon bound with Mayonnaise sauce. Finish by piping a delicate border of caviar around the white of each egg using a pastry cone (cornet).