A Month-of-Eggs: Poaching Power

Poached Egg on Toast

I have shared a few techniques with you within the context of the recipes, but today’s post is all about technique. Just about five years ago I wrote about my new way of making poached, or coddled, eggs.

 

It was a big breakthrough for me, because making coddled/poached eggs as an adult, I realized why my mother only did them when we were ill, typically one at a time. Poached eggs are hard!

Hard to keep the yolk intact as you lift it out of the boiling water. Hard to scrub off all the little stringy whites stuff that sticks to the side of the pan. Yeah, Big Ma would never make enough for the whole family for breakfast. Too hard.

I'll bet you guessed poached eggs are much better for you than their fried sunny-side-up cousins. Poached eggs have no added fat. They are pure protein with only their native fat content. One reason I bake eggs or poach them is for health reasons. But they are a pain--if done the traditional way.

Poach Pods

Then I found Poach Pods, little silicon floaters to cook the eggs in. But, I can only cook four eggs at a time (which could serve anywhere from 2-4 people). Okay, I could buy more, but when I have guests, I usually made my omelets-in-a-bag for breakfast for a large number (I’ve done 12).

But then I read one of those things that periodically make the Internet rounds suggesting using coffee filters.

Eggs in Coffee Filters

I found I can serve a large number of people poached eggs by cooking them in cone-shaped coffee filters in boiling water. Sure, the eventually tip over, but by then the eggs are mostly cooked. And if you have enough of them crowding your pan of boiling water, they don’t tip over at all.

So put your eggs into a Poach Pod or into a coffee filter and boil away until your eggs reach your desired degree of hardness. I take mine out immediately after the last bit of egg white cooks. We like runny eggs.

Egg in Poach Pod

Egg in Coffee Filter

I crack the eggs right into the Poach Pods and put into hot water, then turn the heat up to boil them. I put the coffee filters into coffee cups and crack the eggs into the filters, lift them into the hot water, and turn up the heat. The cups are still clean, so I put them back into the cupboard. If you let them sit in the coffee cups for a while, do wash the cups to be safe.

Poach Pod eggs take about 10-12 minutes in boiling water. Coffee filter ones cook much more quickly, about 5 minutes, because they are closer to the water.

Poached eggs can be egg sandwiches instead of frying the egg. Just cook your eggs to a harder yellow state. I would do in my good nutrition by slathering on my mayonnaise and tomatoes. Oh, and some cheese. Love egg sandwiches!

Poached eggs are also essential to Eggs Benedict which you will want to serve with my Hollandaise sauce.

I use poached eggs on top of my quinoa and kale recipe, too.

Once poached eggs are easier to make, you will find yourself serving them more often for family and friends. You can buy your own set of four Poach Pods from catalogs or from Amazon at http://amzn.to/w6th1

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up  He does love the more healthful poached eggs in all the ways I mentioned above. But he still has trouble seeing eggs as a dinner instead of breakfast or lunch.

Poach Pod Eggs

DH has no health issues. The man has no blood pressure, pulse, or cholesterol in his body! He can eat anything in any quantity. But does he? Oh, no. He has a built-in radar for portion control. And he claims to be watching his fat and sugar intake. He is invisible sideways and yet weighs himself every day. He tells people he exercises 5 hours a day so he can eat the food I make.

Given that he is a health nut, I try to cook healthfully for him. He does love eggs, so he was one of the first to applaud eggs being removed from the “bad for you” foods list the Food Gods designate every other day. But I don’t make eggs often. Eggs have been more of a company thing around Chez Moi. I use dozens in baking and my quiches (See a previous post for my fab recipe, she says modestly.), but not so much to just eat. Why is that?

Well, first, we eat few fried anythings, so eggs would be on that no-no list. I grew up with fried eggs. Fried in the leftover bacon fat so they were especially tasty. I thought there were only two ways to make eggs—fried and coddled. No, I don’t do fried. I’ve spent years in therapy trying to repress those memories.

I do remember Big Ma making “coddled eggs” when we were sick. Only time she’d do it. It almost made being sick worth it.

When I grew up, I learned that coddled eggs were poached eggs. I figure Big Ma called them “coddled” because she had to treat them so gently as she’d slide them into the boiling water and ever-so-carefully so as not to break the yolk lift them out and onto a piece of waiting toast. Good eats, those eggs! But, it was so hard, there’s no way I’d do them.

Fast forward to my life now. Somebody else’s mother made coddled eggs. And somebody else realized these took skill and experience to pull off. Since, they say, Invention is a mother . . . or something like that, somebody else figured out how to make poached/coddled eggs without breaking yolks all over the pan and without all those stringy little white threads (that we’re told is where the real nutrition is) messing up the water. Cleaning the pan is not a problem with somebody’s invention.

Do you know about Poach Pods? Well, I love them. I can give DH poached eggs any day he wants them now. I don’t even whine about the extra work. (See his normal breakfast is to pull out two kinds of high fiber cereals and add blueberries and strawberries with the milk. No sugar, of course.)

But back to Poach Pods. They are little silicone pouches that sort of look like bra inserts. You Pam them a little, put them into a pot of boiling water, break in an egg, and wait for them to be the doneness you like. Lift them out, pour off excess water that bubbled into the pouch, and slide it onto an English muffin or toast. They clean up in a snap, and the water pan is just water so it air-dries, and I am done.

I love gadgets. Have I mentioned that before? But Poach Pods are more than a gadget. They make DH think I really care.

[You can buy Poach Pods in catalogs or from Amazon at http://amzn.to/w6th1]