I've been working on this riff on an Asian noodle soup. As the final garnish, I want to drop an egg yolk in the middle of the individual serving bowls of soup, to warm for a couple of minutes in the boiling hot soup and to burst with the first stir. Sounds simple, right? It's giving me a problem though.
I use the whites in the soup. I need to separate the eggs at least about 10 minutes before I drop the yolks. Separated yolks are really touchy, they want to break before their time. That they are at room temperature (for reasons that should be fairly obvious) doesn't help. I've been holding the yolks in little custard cups. I've tried putting a little water (hot and cool) in the cups, I've also tried broth from the soup. Even doing those things, the yolks break as I try (ever so gently) to drop them onto the soup.
Any ideas?