THE EGG YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEED – PART I, CARBONARA 2.0

This is the part where I say, even Asians, or us, sometimes don’t do cured duck yolks justice.  There are, of course, already some ingenious applications, oh yeah, for sure, like placing it inside sweet pastries to give them that pop of salty and intensified core of flavors, or blending it with butter as a molten filling inside steamed buns, or crumbling it to be stir-fried with vegetables.  But, there’s more to it than that.  For the next couple of posts, I will be sharing my ideas on how to expand its horizon in your own kitchen, using cured duck yolks as an egg-booster if not the new MSG, as in every time when you think about an egg-dish, think how much more it can be with a shot of adrenaline, an egg-dish… like the classic Italian signature – carbonara.

Many would tell you that a dish like carbonara is as much about the pasta as it is about the quality of the eggs that, literally, is the sauce.  They are mostly people from regions with exceptional eggs, the kind with orange yolks squeezed out from the asses of happily worm-fed, Tuscany-roaming hens who don’t have a boyfriend problem.  We hate them.  So what we don’t have the best, sexiest, Beyonce of eggs?  We can still make an extraordinary, perhaps even more perfect, and all at the mean time, available and economically feasible carbonara, simply by blending the cured duck yolks into the custard.  I’m not going to elaborate too much on the technique of making carbonara, which is everywhere on the internet and that’s not my point today.  My point rests purely how this humble ingredient injects seasoning, depths, and an indescribably richness to the sauce that is as luxurious in texture as it is in flavors.  The difference is subtle, but firm.  Relax, it’s not going to taste like carbonara from Mars.  Still on earth, just better.  Richer, creamier, with more… compressed souls, it’s carbonara 2.0.

Really, for my thighs’ sake, you should try this.