Last week I went grocery shopping. Among my purchases were frisee lettuce, potatoes, bacon and organic eggs. These ingredients expressed a sincere desire to become a Salade Lyonnaise and, for the most part, that is actually what they turned out to be. Except that I didn't feel like crisp-iying the potatoes, so I just used some of the chicken I roasted over the weekend instead (I know, not the same at all). While the finished dish was quite tasty, let's take a moment to discuss the perfection of poaching I managed to do. I tried a new method: put giant ladle in sauce pan, crack egg into giant ladle. The water looks murky in this picture because I didn't have any white vinegar to firm the egg up, so I used red wine vinegar instead (do with what you have, dontchaknow).
The result? I mean. Look at it. It is globerrific, just bursting with yolky yumminess. It is, as far as I am concerned, exactly what anyone should look for in a poached egg: firmly together, a distending oval of oozing yolk, hidden by shiny white-ness. You wonder about the oozing?
Behold! Oozing! But not so much oozing that the whites weren't cooked all the way. No clear white icky for me. My faux Salade Lynonnaise was just so happy making. I can't even begin to tell you how long I have been trying to poach an egg just right, well, I could begin to tell you: years. I have been trying for years. Putting eggs into funny little contraptions that only bore hockey puck eggs, coralling eggs into saran wrap and tying them with butcher's string or rubberbands, hoping that the plastic wouldn't melt into the egg or leach toxins into the finished product. Years!
I have not tried to recreate this experience, so scared am I of a possible set back on what I am still deeming an absolute triumph of poaching will. What? I'm pleased, is all.
The result? I mean. Look at it. It is globerrific, just bursting with yolky yumminess. It is, as far as I am concerned, exactly what anyone should look for in a poached egg: firmly together, a distending oval of oozing yolk, hidden by shiny white-ness. You wonder about the oozing?
Behold! Oozing! But not so much oozing that the whites weren't cooked all the way. No clear white icky for me. My faux Salade Lynonnaise was just so happy making. I can't even begin to tell you how long I have been trying to poach an egg just right, well, I could begin to tell you: years. I have been trying for years. Putting eggs into funny little contraptions that only bore hockey puck eggs, coralling eggs into saran wrap and tying them with butcher's string or rubberbands, hoping that the plastic wouldn't melt into the egg or leach toxins into the finished product. Years!
I have not tried to recreate this experience, so scared am I of a possible set back on what I am still deeming an absolute triumph of poaching will. What? I'm pleased, is all.
4 comments:
Wow if I hadn't already had supper, sort of...well don't ask, I would run in the kitchen and get out my favorite big ladle and do this poaching!
One of my sort of successful attempts involved using one of the ball jar canning lid ring things, but I had to remember to put a little oil or something in the water so the egg wouldn't get stuck in the grooves of the ring and then that seemed to defeat the no fat aspect of a poached egg...Congrats!
oh my gosh
i love poached eggs
lovveeee
this was probably a bad post to read when i'm hungry and trying to read before i pass out.
i feel this deserves a congratulatory note.
so, congratulations :)
now if only *i* can achieve this!
btw, loved your last writing prompt entry. i can't put my finger on why i connect with your writing - i think, like a lot of things, it's in the details. like specifically mentioning qdoba, or calling his brother a "pompous jerk", or "the feel of my hands on his shoulders." makes me feel so "oh wow, i'm there now!" and brings the story to life.
Thank you all, I am quite pleased with myself and the meal.
NC Catherine: I didn't add greasing surface to the ladle, but the water was at such a low simmer that the egg never really stuck to it. If that makes sense.
idwsj: A poached egg will always do a body good, morning or night time. That is a proverb in the making. Maybe.
j, foodie: Well thank you kindly. I'm glad you're picking up what I'm writing down.
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