Success: Poached Eggs

Don't ask me why I've never made or even eaten a poached egg before yesterday. I have no good excuse! It's just never come up.

 

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, but last weekend I accidentally bought an extra dozen eggs thinking I'd forgotten to buy some, and then I only ended up using a third of what I thought I'd use. In short, I didn't touch either of the new cartons and had 24 eggs to eat in 4 days. I'm doing some baking with some of them, but it's been quite an egg frenzy otherwise. When scouring the internet for ways to get rid of eggs, I stumbled across someone who said, "Experiment. Use it as an opportunity for the kids try things they'd probably fail at." But wait, who says it has to just be the kids? I fail all the time! What a grand opportunity to try poaching an egg.

 

I found this recipe, coincidentally, which helped me use up other things in my fridge I had to get rid of. http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=monburan&rls=com.microsoft:ja:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSHB_en&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=ja&tab=wi&biw=1259&bih=627 I subbed in nattou for the tofu and regular rice for the black rice. It was pretty good with some extra ponzu and mustard.

 

And most importantly, the eggs turned out! I used the method where you strain part of the egg white off to reduce flyaway. My strainer is deep, so I broke a yolk or two but it was all right, I had eggs to spare, right? I also put a splash of vinegar into my water to firm up the whites. I did try the vortex method for the first egg, where you spin the water around to make a whirlpool before you slide the egg in. I forgot about it after that, but come to think of it my first egg came out perfectly and the rest were a little more variable. I'd recommend trying the vortex, if for nothing else but the cool name. I'd also recommend putting the egg into the water as slowly and completely as you can - with my last egg the yolk accidentally slipped in first which separated it from the whites and made the whites fly away all over. I still managed to maintain the yolk and get all the whites in a clump when I was finished, but it was pretty sloppy looking.

 

I decided that I like poaching eggs. I don't usually like raw yolk much but when poaching you can make a partially done yolk, which actually brings it to the perfect consistency in my eyes! 2 minutes for runny, 4 minutes for hard. Not exactly rocket science! Obviously there's not as much flavor as other egg preparation methods that use a ton of butter or oil, but it's enough fun just eating a pillow-y poached egg that I think I will continue doing it! I should try the Japanese "Onsen Tamago" ("Hot Spring Eggs"), a form of slow poached egg. Apparently the whites stay fluffier and the yolks get custardy because you cook it slowly in luke-warm water for a good half an hour. They key is maintaining the temperature though, so maybe I'll wait until I get back to my cooking thermometer in the US before I try it.

 

I didn't think to take any pictures, but my eggs looked just like any other poached eggs (go me!) Instead, I leave you with this: http://www.iloveegg.com/egg_english.htm