Learning to cook something new!
Until recently, I’ve never really been an egg person. I mean, I guess I enjoyed an egg from time-to-time but I rarely had the desire to get out of bed in the morning and whip up some eggs for breakfast. On the rare instances when I did, it was usually a scrambled egg or omelet that I craved. The runnier eggs like soft-boiled and poached eggs used to skeeve me out.
Well, that is, until I ordered this amazing breakfast sampler while on vacation in Siesta Key, Florida two years ago that came with … poached eggs. The brunch place that served the dish was a cute breakfast cottage in close proximity to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world; the restaurant was the kind where people wait on line for an hour just to get a table. Maybe it was the salt water in the air, but for some reason I ordered a dish with poached eggs, which was far from the norm from me. When the waitress brought out the plate, the poached egg looked so regal on the plate. It was cooked to perfection, expertly seasoned, and the yoke oozed out perfectly when cut. And it tasted amazing.
Since that time, I have found myself ordering poached eggs for breakfast at any diners or brunch place that I frequent. I told myself that I would try to learn how to make poached eggs at home in my own kitchen at some point. But with my crazy pre-pandemic schedule, it never happened. To be fair, I did read a few recipes and watched some Youtube videos on the subject, but it always seemed too complicated and time consuming.
Fast forward to the lockdown in March, when we all suddenly had all of the time in the world. Especially in the beginning weeks, like many of us, I was trying to keep myself busy and focused on things other than this widely spreading pandemic. It couldn’t have been a better time to finally focus and learn how to make a poached egg. It was actually one of the first things I accomplished in the early part of the lockdown. Although it took a lot of trial and error, I felt incredibly accomplished when I finally made the perfect poached egg. (I small feat to many, but a large feat to me during this pandemic.)
There was definitely a lot of experimentation involved until I got it right. I tried using sauce pans, non-stick frying pans and even the microwave. Upon researching online via Google and YouTube, I realized there were hundreds of ways to poach an egg. The three items that many of these how-to videos and recipes had in common were:
- Using the freshest eggs that you can find;
- Adding a little vinegar to the pot;
- Using a strainer/sieve to remove the watery parts of the egg whites.
After much experimentation, I found a method that seems to consistently produce restaurant quality poached eggs. Here is the recipe tutorial that worked the best for me:
Her steps are super easy to follow and deliver the best results; and if I can poach an egg anyone can! As we are heading into the second phase of this pandemic, I think it’s time to learn how to make another dish!