Gukked Egg

Digging deep into Deep Lore, but at the same time, my own childhood. First and only mentioned in Barbara Humbly's Children of the Jedi, Gukked Egg was something that always puzzled me. What exactly was it? It's not a specific species' egg. It's specifically a preparation. Here's the selection from the book it's from:

“I do hope you’ll find this acceptable. . . . Selection was rather limited, and those items for which you expressed preference were not to be found. I chose alternates with the same proportion of protein to carbohydrate, and more or less the same texture.”

“No-uh-this is great.” Ordinarily Luke wouldn’t have touched gukked egg, but he’d been so long without food that anything sounded good. “Thank you, Threepio.”

I always, for some reason, thought it sounded goey, almost like a sunny-side up egg improperly cooked. But inspiration hit while watching a historic cooking show (Royal Upstairs Downstairs) where they were preparing an egg dish involving foie gras and aspic jelly. My focus, however, was on the egg itself.

They had separated the white and yolk, mixed each with some cream and salt, cooked within a little cup immersed in boiling water, and cooled in an ice bath. The result looked almost like something that would have come from a can, doesn't look very appealing by itself, and cold egg would definitely have a slightly unnerving texture to it.

So for my purposes, I'm thinking we give it a try.

Ingredients:

• Four eggs

• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream

• Green food colouring

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• ½ cup (1 stick) melted butter

• Salt

Directions:

1. Carefully crack your eggs, separating the yolks into a separate bowl.

2. Beat the cream, dye, and salt into the bowl with egg whites until homogenous.

3. Pour your mixture into a straight edged metal cup or can.

4. Carefully hold the cup into boiling water with tongs, being careful not to let any water in. Your goal is to essentially make a rudimentary double boiler.

5. Once the egg is firm all the way through, remove and place immediately in an ice bath.

6. Take the yolks and heartily whisk the lemon juice in until thickened and doubled in volume.

7. Reduce heat on the water down to a simmer and continue to whisk over it, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water.

8. Carefully add the melted butter into the mixture, continuing to whisk until the sauce has thickened and the volume has doubled.

9. Remove from heat and add in a pinch of salt.

10. Slice the egg yolk into pucks, plate, and drizzle the sauce over it.