Wonderful Eggs

They thicken sauces and soups, froth into cloudy meringues, puff up souffles and delicately bind custards and creams.   But they shine equally as well on their own.  Hard boiled, over-easy, sunny-side-up, scrambled, poached, or pickled.  I can't think of another ingredient that's so versatile and fundamental in the kitchen.  Yes, the miraculous egg.  And for this edition of IMBB hosted by Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant we pay our respects to this shelled wonder.

My entry for this IMBB is a lemon cream from Pierre Herme.  I stumbled across this cream when I was baking the Riviera cake in Pierre's Desserts cookbook.  In the Riviera, this delicate lemon cream is nestled between layers of chocolate cake and creamy dark chocolate mousse and while the combination was good, I found that the distinctiveness of the lemon cream was overpowered.  So when I set out to make this cream again, I decided it would be better in a leading role and not sharing the stage.   

So I served it in custard cups dotted with fresh raspberries.  Wow!  This presentation showed off the cream perfectly.  The silky texture is immediately noticeable and the lemon flavor is clear without being sour or bitter.  It went well with the sweetness of the fresh raspberries and next time I'll be trying this combination in a tart.