101 Things to do with an egg… Sex up your Nog!
December 15, 2011
So the Sex and the City girls did it for Cosmopolitans. The Mad Men revived the Old Fashioned. Vodka Martinis are inseparable from James Bond, Miles from Sideways championed Pinot Noir, and Homer is the poster boy for Duff beer. Even White Russians sound tempting when The Dude is drinking them. But who is campaigning on behalf of egg nog? Why is this transatlantic nutmeg-sprinkled yuletide drink so out of favour? I mean, what’s not to like? It’s creamy… sweet… protein filled… and 3 or 4 of them will have you dragging pretty much anyone under the Christmas tree. Clearly what egg nog needs in a new, elegant, hard bitten, ice cool detective to kick start its PR campaign. Someone with the silky smoothness of perhaps Denzel Washington , the curvaceous qualities of a girl like Christina Hendricks and the homely bourbon pathos of say, Steve Buscemi. Step forward… David Mitchell?
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs, separated
- 50–75g caster sugar
- 100ml rum or bourbon
- 200ml full-cream milk
- 150ml whipping cream
- Freshly grated nutmeg, to serve
Method
- Whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar for a few minutes with an electric whisk until pale, light and fluffy. Now whisk in the rum or bourbon a little at a time, then whisk in the milk. (The mixture will separate over time, so it may need to be whisked again.)
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold the boozy egg mixture into the whites, slurp by slurp. Finally, whip the cream until it just holds its shape and fold that into the mixture as well.
- Ladle into punch glasses and serve with a dusting of nutmeg. Mmmmm.
There’s a New Hen in the Roost!
September 28, 2011
Yes it’s true, there’s a new chicken in the coop, producing a dazzling quality of egg. Hannah Robinson joins Muckle Hen and comes to us with a mountain of fantastic experience as a writer and director of real creativity and quality.
The movie which ignited her passion for film was the chemistry comedy THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, and she has had a lifelong interest in stories which involve scientific themes. She won the American Screenwriters’ Association Grand Prize for her co-written feature FIREWORKS and was recently commissioned by Scottish Entrepreneur Shaf Rasul (of Dragon’s Den) to write POINT OF NO RETURN, a conspiracy thriller which wove in both an examination of global warming and the lifecycle and neurotropic properties of the Ergot fungi! Her work is usually comic in tone and she continues to work as a screenwriting consultant for the comedian and writer Lenny Henry. (To be honest – we are quite hoping he might make an appearance in the coop himself one day soon.) She has directed numerous short films – her half hour NIGHT SWIMMER won the Grand Prix at Vendôme Film Festival and IN THE MOOD – a comedy about a tap-dancing German spy starring Kelly Brook – was a festival hit internationally.
She has also worked as a writer and director on corporate and commercials for clients as diverse as RBS, Glasgow Caledonian University, The London Fire Brigade, Bosch, Plan International, John Menzies and Scottish Enterprise. She is hugely talented and Muckle Hen are delighted to welcome her to the fold.
However as one chicken enters the coop, so another one must leave to make room and it is with a tear in the eye (although that may just be the onions in my Panini) that we bid farewell to Creative Director Andrew Macintosh after 6 years. He is off to work in a comms role for G2G3. We wish him luck.
101 Things to do with an Egg: Throw it at a Politician!
September 23, 2011
That John Prescott Punch
Firstly, we are in no way advocating that you should throw anything at anyone. Eggs are far too precious here in the chicken coop to be wastefully exploded on the heads of hapless politicians. However there does appear to be something of a tradition of using eggs as the weapon of choice when deciding how to inconvenience the political classes.
And however much, you might assume this is a recent development in the usage of eggs – you’d be wrong. It goes back hundreds of years…. honestly. If you don’t believe me… have a look at the answer to this question: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=217280 . Now there’s a person with too much time on their hands!
A Yolky Baroness Warsi
There have been many memorable incidents in recent years where the humble egg has become the centre of the story. The John Prescott egg retaliation moment will live long in the annals of the egg as political agitator.
Actually you don’t have to throw eggs at politicians. There is a World governing body for egg throw events (How far can you throw and have safely caught a raw egg – the record is over 300 feet!! 300!!) Anyway, you can find out more about that here
Was that an ostrich?
Happy Hurling!
Summer is upon us, the beach is calling and us chicks are desperately trying to look our best.
So, as part of our ongoing series ‘101 Things to do with an Egg’, we decided to give the organic egg face mask a try! Why I hear you ask? Well eggs contain protein, vitamins and minerals, which will not only nourish, but will also cleanse and tighten the skin.
Warning – Eggs may carry salmonella bacteria. So be careful not to get raw egg in your mouth, eyes, or nose.
So here are the 7 eggy steps to more beautiful skin.
Step 1 – Separate the yolk and white into different bowls.
Step 2 – Beat the egg white until frothy, then spread over the face.
Step 3 – Wait 15- 30 minutes for the mask to dry , you should feel it getting tighter.
Step 4 – Wash the mask off with warm water, this will in turn open your pores!
Step 5 – Beat the egg yolk and repeat step 2 .
Step 6 – Wait 15-30 minutes
Step 7 – Wash off the yolk with cold water, as this will close the pores, pat dry with clean towel.
And there you have it 7 steps to The Magic Muckle Mask! Let us know if it worked as well for you as our radiant creative director…
The Perfect Poached Egg
Poached eggs are without doubt one of the great ways to eat eggs – but no one makes them because unless you do them in one of those little metal moulds suspended in boiling water (which is completely cheating by the way) they fall apart in the water and end up as a stringy mess. UNTIL NOW!
In the first part of our ongoing series 101 Things to do with an Egg, we tell you how to poach an egg.
The first and most important thing you need to ensure before you poach an egg is get fresh eggs. Fresh eggs stay together much better when you pour them in the water. If you break an egg on a plate and the raw egg white holds together and doesn’t spread across the plate, then the egg is fresh and perfect for poaching. If it does spread thinly across the plate then the egg is older, and while pretty ropey for poaching, is great for baking.(But we’ll come to that later).
So now you have your 
fresh egg – pour it from your plate (if you bothered with that bit) or break it into an espresso cup. Then add a slug of vinegar to a pan of water and bring it to the boil. (The vinegar helps the egg hold together. ) Once your water is boiling, turn off the heat, at the same time as whisking the water to create a vortex. Slip the edge of the espresso cup into the water and tip out the egg into the middle of the vortex. (You turned the heat off so as not to burn your hand, and you don’t need to keep heating the water anymore anyway.)
Now you can just cook the egg in this water, but what if you’re making poached eggs for loads of people for a big family breakfast. Well in that case have a bowl of cold water standing by. After a minute the egg should just about hold together. You can now take it out of the vinegary water and put it in a bowl of cold water, which will stop it cooking. (You can at this point cut off any stringy unsightly bits if you want – but there shouldn’t be many of them).
Repeat the process above for as many eggs as you need, heating the water to boiling between each egg. Once you have part cooked all your eggs, throw away the water with the vinegar in, and put on a pan of salted water and bring that to the boil. Place your part cooked eggs in that water (You can put them all in together), and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Serve on a big thick bit of hot buttered toast. They should be firm on the outside, with a lovely runny yolk.
