Poaching Time

At the very beginning of this blog I said I couldn't poach eggs. I'd got 2 proper egg poachers, one a 4 egg pan and the other a neat little one egger which hangs on the side of any old pot. Keen to try them I set about poaching. Complete mess. Either they turned out so runny they just sort of fell on to the plate like a large dead something from a bad head cold - or possibly looking like a raw oyster or they were the consistency of a rubber ball. Last but not least they - if cooked - clung to the poacher and left bits of themselves stuck to the sides, not aesthetically pleasing.

I solved the last problem by wiping the inside of the poacher with a little olive oil before loading the egg in. And yesterday I produced for the first time two beautifully cooked poached eggs; soft runny yolks, firm cooked whites and out of the pan whole. How did I accomplish this feat of culinary genius? I watched them like a hawk and gently prodded the whites with a very sharp knife until I could see the whites were cooked which led me, correctly, to believe that the yolks would be right too. How satisfying was that?

PS - I'm afarid the picture illustrating this is an aspiration not a real one of mine.