Raising your own chickens is lots of fun, but it also means I am left with an abnormally large number of eggs, so I tend to be a little more adventurous than most people who stick to boiled eggs or omelets. Let me show you 3 unique egg recipes from various European countries.
Polish Style Eggs:
- 4 hard boiled eggs left in their shell
- 1/2 sprig of parsley
- 1/2 sprig of dill
- 1/2 sprig of chives
- 2 oz butter
- A little salt
- 1 tbsp sweet pepper
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
- 1 oz grated emmental cheese
Preparation:
This is actually quite a hard dish as the eggs must be cut while still in their shell. My only suggestion is to use a large and very sharp knife. Once cut, extract both the egg whites and yolk carefully with a spoon. Mince the egg whites and yolks, along with the button, dill and chives.
Stuff the mince back into the shells, carefully. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and any remaining butter. Stick in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes on high.
Spanish Style Eggs:
These are basically fried eggs server on top of tomatoes. Different, but tasty none the less.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 1 lb ripe tomatoes
- 1 onion
- Pinch of salt
- 우리카지노 3 green peppers
- 125 ml of oil
Preparation:
Chop the onions and peppers up nice and small. Begin by frying to the onions in a little oil until they change colour, then add the peppers and grated tomatoes.
Season with salt, cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes.
When done, set aside and fry the eggs in the same pan. When the edges are golden brown, it is time to serve. Place the tomato and onion mix on top of the eggs and presto!
Russian Eggs:
These are a real treat and I'm not sure if I know of anything else quite like them! Gather together:
- 5 eggs
- 4.5 oz shellfish (lobs, prawn, crayfish etc)
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
Preparation:
Start by hard boiling the eggs, then when they've cooled enough to handle them, strip the shells off. Cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the yolk (don't discard, just set it aside).
Cook the shellfish with boiling water and salt. Remove the shells while they are still hot and set aside.
Make a mayonnaise sauce using the egg and oil, and season it with salt, pepper, vinegar and mustard. The mayonnaise should be nice and thick so it won't run later on.
Add the minced shellfish to the mayonnaise, mix thoroughly and stuff the egg whites, forming a pyramid at the center.
Traditionally served on a dish of minced lettuce, with the leftover yolk mashed up on top. Lovely!
"Egg yolks were terrible for you...that's where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is." We've all heard this statement before. But is it correct? This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!
By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you're essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients... it's not even worth trying to list them all. In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolk.
Even the protein in egg whites isn't as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.
Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids. And now the common objection to saying that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg..."But I heard that whole eggs will make my cholesterol skyrocket." This is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol, your body down-regulates its own internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.
Secondly, if you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of important functions in the body. And here's where it gets even more interesting...There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.
Thirdly, high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart disease is a disease...but high cholesterol is NOT. Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body and has vitally important functions... it is DEAD WRONG to try to "lower your cholesterol" just because of pharmaceutical companies propaganda. In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.
In a recent University of Connecticut study that one group of men ate 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study. However, another group ate egg substitutes (egg whites) and saw no change in either and did not see the improvement in good cholesterol that the whole egg eaters did.
So I hope we've established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body... instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.
And can we all please STOP with this sillyness about eating an omelet with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk... If you want real taste and real health benefits, we'd all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.
So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are superior, you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.