I just finished breakfast.  Two poached duck eggs on toast that had been buttered to within an inch of its life, with some chopped parsely and salt seasoned with chilli and native lime.  Oh, and a massive glass of apple juice.

Poaching eggs is one of those topics that this blog now adds to about forty million other blog posts, cook books and gossip notes about.  It’s apparently horrifyingly difficult, Larousse Gastronomique’s instructions for it take up two pages with several photos illustrating the various stages.  I treat poaching eggs the same way that I treat most things if they are highly finicky and the amount of effort involved threatens to eclipse how much the results are worth it; I cheat.

I’m serious about how much “knowledge” there is out there about this simple task.  Various people recommend various depths of pan to poach eggs in, then there’s the swirlers and non-swirlers who argue about whether the water in the pan should be set into a light whirlpool motion to keep the eggs together in the pan (cooks don’t understand centrifugal force very well apparently) and then there’s the infamous vinegar wars – do you put a tablespoon of vinegar in with the eggs?

I use cling film.

Take a coffee mug and tear off a sheet of cling film as long as it is wide.  Place it lightly over the mug and poke it down with your fingers until you’ve somewhat coated the inside of the top of the mug but there’s still air underneath.  Using a pastry brush (or your finger) smear butter or a little oil over the sheet and then crack the egg into the cup.  Fold the cling film up and twist it, securing the top with a clothes peg.  You should now have basically a cling film bag with an egg in it – a little practice ensures that the yolk stays in the middle of the white, if you somehow break the yolk ,start again with new cling film.

Heat a pot, pan or tray of water until it’s got bubbles in it but it isn’t boiling.  Place the bags in the water gently, poach them until 60 seconds after there’s no apparent clear white and it’s all gone opaque, this will ensure that the yolk is hot and semi cooked but still liquid.

Remove the bags from the pot/pan/whatever, remove the peg and flop the poached eggs out of the bag and onto toast.  Too easy.

Advertisement