This morning Hugo and I enjoyed poached eggs (from a small farm upstate) over sourdough toast (from Hawthorne Valley at the Greenmarket), and bacon (from Flying Pigs Farm, also purchased at the Greenmarket). Ollie had a few tastes of bacon and seemed to like it a lot. We also had baked apples with raw cream as a special brunch dessert. For perfect poached eggs, crack eggs into tea cups, then slip into gently boiling water and cook in gently bubbling water for exactly 2 minutes 20 seconds. Remove carefully with slotted spoon and allow to dry off briefly on paper towels. For baked apples, I wash and core them, then bake covered in a glass dish with a little water in the bottom and plenty of cinnamon - about 30-45 min. at 350 degrees.Notes: Be sure to reserve the cooking water (which is like a cinnamon-apple syrup) to use as a light sweetener on yogurt or ice cream! Also the fat from high-quality bacon like this should be saved for frying potatoes and potatoes, or to be used as the shortening in Yorkshire pudding.
hannah, my mom loves poached eggs and i'd love to make them for her, but i think that they are harder than you make them out to be! what does "gently boiling" water mean, exactly?
ReplyDeleteThey are truly easy - don't be alarmed by the term "poached"! This is the same idea as making a hard or soft-boiled egg (only it's actually easier than the latter).
ReplyDeleteFollow these easy steps:
1) put a small pot of water on to boil (there should be about 4 inches of water in the pot when making 2 poached eggs; if making many poached eggs at once simply use a bigger pot, still with several inches of water)
2) while the water is heating, crack your eggs into separate little bowls or teacups so you can easily slip them into the water (this is for the beginner - once you are familiar with poaching you will just crack the eggs straight into the hot water)
3) after the water has boiled simply turn down the heat to medium-low, so that the water is still bubbling gently
4) slip the eggs from their little dishes into the water; don't be alarmed by the way some of the egg white gets a bit stringy, this is not a problem
5) after 2 minutes 20 seconds have elapsed, remove each egg from the water with a slotted spoon and allow to dry on a little bed of paper towels or a cloth dish towel
I guarantee you will get perfect poached eggs every time!!
ok hannah. i'm going to try this this weekend and report back my friend... thank you!
ReplyDelete