Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Adventures in Egg Poaching

Eggs. We eat eggs every morning. Every. Single. Morning.

We pretty much follow a paleo diet ( I mean lifestyle!) and don't eat many carbs and try to stay away from preservatives and sugar. In a nutshell if you couldn't hunt it or gather it you shouldn't eat it! So, protein in the morning is very important

I used to do a very simple scrambled eggs & bacon which takes all of 15 minutes and is damn near impossible to screw up.

Then Dom goes to the doctor and the doc tells him his cholesterol is slightly elevated and he shouldn't eat eggs every morning and he should incorporate whole grains. As I just said protein in the morning is important! So we switched to poached eggs and included one piece of whole grain toast.

Why are poached eggs any better? Well, we took a cooking class back in NYC earlier this year and Chef Jane told us that the cholesterol is lower in poached eggs and hard boiled eggs...something about them being immersed in water...unfortunately I don't remember the science. Anyway, I decided Chef Jane was brilliant and regardless of the fact that I can't prove she's right via Google I think she's right anyway and eggs have less cholesterol when poached. JUST GO WITH IT.

So, poached eggs, not as easy as scrambled. I SWEAR I used to make poached eggs when I was younger and could do it easily every time, NO PROBLEM. Well, I'm just gonna go ahead and blame the Australian stove on this one and tell you I HAVE FUCKED UP MORE POACHED EGGS IN MORE DIFFERENT WAYS THAN I THOUGHT POSSIBLE. Please excuse the profanity, it was necessary to portray just how amazed I am that you can screw up eggs in so many different ways.

In a few short weeks I have managed to:

Make GREY poached eggs, yes the color grey, it was like green eggs and ham...except grey.

Make poached eggs with a hard yolk and runny whites, like so runny they were still clear, but the yolk was DONE. I have no idea how I accomplished this.

Make poached eggs with little to no white still attached to it's yolk, so basically we had poached yolks. Awesome.

Break 3 eggs before they got to the water in quick succession one after the other, one I managed to break still in the fridge. That morning I used a total of 7 eggs before breakfast was done.

Make a poached egg in which the entire egg white turned into a bubble. That one turned out delicious, but boy was it weird looking, the bubble floated.

AND

I've made some absolutely PERFECT ones as well.

Ultimately I have discovered 2 things.

One, the water must be at a perfect almost boiling temperature, with bubbles along the bottom but not breaking the surface.

Two, they can't sit in the water TOO long, as in if the temperature is not right and they're not cooking fast enough some funky shit starts to happen to them. This is my theory on the grey eggs.

Breakfast unfortunately takes a good 30-40 minutes now a days because of the time it takes to boil the water, then the time it takes to lower the temp of the water so it's not boiling and it goes on and on. BUT if I'm helping lower Dom's cholesterol, then all is well in the world.

Anyone know if this cholesterol thing is accurate or is Chef Jane full of shit?

3 comments:

  1. There's nothing quite like a perfectly poached egg - oh so elusive, though!

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  2. not sure on your question... but they do sell poaching pods! they are silicone and float in the water and you crack in the egg in there. Crate and Barrel has them, but not sure if they have stores in Oz... but I'd say get some as soon as you are back in the states! :-)

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  3. sounds right to me... i always thought poached were healthier...

    all google and i found were these:
    "There is insufficient evidence to suggest dietary cholesterol significantly increases blood cholesterol, or that egg consumption should be restricted for that reason. Eggs are a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals, low in saturated fat, and highly nutritional. For most people they can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, varied balanced diet, without worrying about how many they are eating." (http://www.suite101.com/content/eggs-high-cholesterol-levels-and-heart-disease-a113427)
    and
    "the cholesterol in eggs actually improves both ldl and hdl cholesterol and therefore lower the risks of having a heart attack or stroke. They belong in a heart health diet." (http://www.heart-health-for-life.com/high-cholesterol-eggs.html)

    so hip hip hooray for eggs!

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