Name: Duck Egg Bhurji
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: United Kingdom, India
Ingredients: 5 duck eggs (or 6 large chicken eggs); 45 g double or heavy cream; 4.5 g fine salt; 15 g cold unsalted butter, for the shellfish; 25 g cold unsalted butter, cubed, for the eggs; 20 g ghee; 1 green chili, deseeded and blitzed smooth (serrano or Indian finger chili, not jalapeño); ½ small shallot or onion, blitzed to a paste (optional); ½ tsp ground turmeric, scant; ¼ lime, juiced (optional); ⅓ cup chopped cilantro (a big handful); 150–170 g cooked lobster or crab meat, in chunks; Malabar paratha, warm, to serve

Method

Salt the eggs. Whisk the eggs (5), cream (45 g3 tbsp) and salt (4.5 g¾ tsp) in a roomy stainless or glass bowl. Rest 15 minutes; the salt loosens the proteins so the eggs set tender and don't weep. Use the time for the next steps.
Aromatic ghee. Warm the ghee (20 g1½ tbsp) over medium-low. Cook the shallot paste, if using, until glossy and the raw smell is gone, 5 to 6 minutes, with no color. Stir in the chili and the turmeric (½ tsp) and cook 30 seconds. Set aside; this is folded in at the end.
Warm the shellfish. Gently warm the lobster or crab in the butter (15 g1 tbsp) over low heat, just to heat through. Set aside off the heat.
Set the bain-marie. Bring an inch of water to a bare simmer: barely trembling, wisps of steam, no rolling bubbles. Set the egg bowl over it, clearly above the waterline.
Cook low and slow, whisking constantly. Whisk steadily, scraping the sides and bottom where the egg sets first. Add the butter (25 g2 tbsp) in three goes: a third at the very start; a third once it has lightly thickened and the whisk leaves faint trails, 4 to 6 minutes in; the last third just before it looks done, to stall the cooking. It should take 8 to 12 minutes in all. If it is moving faster than that, lift the bowl off for 20 to 30 seconds, keep whisking, then return it.
Fold in the flavor. Off the heat, whisk in the warm aromatic ghee and the lime juice. Pull it a shade looser than you want it; residual heat keeps setting it.
Plate. Fold the warm lobster or crab through. Spread flat on a warm plate, scatter the cilantro heavily, and serve at once with the warm paratha.

Notes

Before you start. Have the aromatic ghee, shellfish, lime and a warm plate ready. The dish must be served the moment it is done.
Doneness. It is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and holds a line drawn through it, and the whisk leaves ribbons that sit a second or two before melting back: thick, glossy and pourable, like loose pastry cream. By thermometer, pull it at about 70°C (158°F) for duck eggs. Below about 65°C it is not set; much past 75°C it turns rubbery.
If it thickens fast. Thick in under 4 minutes means too much heat: the water at a hard boil, or the bowl touching it. If it is smooth and glossy, serve it. If it turns grainy with thin liquid separating, take it off the heat and whisk hard with a knob of cold butter.
Chili. Blitzed raw jalapeño turns the eggs green and they stay green. For a pale dish, use a thin-walled serrano or Indian finger chili, or slit a whole chili, infuse it in the ghee and take it out before the ghee goes into the eggs.
Turmeric. A scant ½ tsp keeps it gold. More turns it bitter and muddy.
Lobster. Cooked, picked claw-and-knuckle meat is sweeter than tail. Frozen raw tails work too: poach 4 to 5 minutes until just opaque. Crab is the cheaper, more forgiving swap; use white meat, and brown meat only sparingly.
Paratha. Frozen Kerala parotta, pan-fried from frozen, is good here.
Butter and ghee. The ghee is for blooming the chili and turmeric. The eggs are mounted with cold whole butter because its water and milk solids help build the emulsion.
Cream. US heavy cream stands in for UK double cream. Don't use whipping cream.
Without seafood. Fold in morels sautéed in butter, other wild mushrooms, finely crumbled paneer, sweet corn, peas, or a little wilted spinach or fresh methi.