From omelettes to simple soft boiled eggs, eggs are an everyday ingredient packed full of nutrients and flavour and found in almost every kitchen you’ll stumble across.
Recently, Chef Andrew Ballard of William Angliss treated our customers to a fantastic cooking demonstration, where he touched upon some of the basic ways of cooking eggs including poaching, which you’ll find below.
The humble egg
by Andrew Ballard of Simmer Culinary
At the turn of last century, chefs were ranked in the kitchen based on their skill with the humble egg.
Upon becoming an apprentice you were given a large floppy hat (think the Swedish chef from the muppets) and every time you learnt a new way to cook an egg, you would press a crease into your toque.
The more creases, the taller your hat would stand. That is the importance of the humble egg.
It is important that we make good choices with the eggs we purchase. Free range is always best, happy animals produce tasty food!!!
Poached eggs
- First of all, you will need plenty of water. You’ll need enough so that when you plunge in your egg, it won’t stop the water from simmering.
- Bring the water to a gentle simmer so that the bubbles resemble a glass of champagne.
- Egg choice is important; they must be super fresh. As eggs age, the thick egg white starts to become watery. With a poached egg, this will cause the egg-white to spread and you won’t have that beautiful bulbous end result we love so much.
- Swirl your simmering water in a circular motion to create a whirlpool. Drop your egg into the centre and leave it to poach for approximately 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon, carefully scoop the egg out and check that you have a “just set” white and hopefully a runny yolk.
Mexican eggs
¼ cup cooked or tinned kidney beans
1 red onion fine Brunoise
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 hot chilli
1 clove garlic, minced
Smoked Chipotle
olive oil
Passata
2 free range chicken eggs
Fresh herbs
Persian feta
Method
- Sweat the onions and garlic in a little butter until tender.
- Add the finely diced vegetables and cook until they start to soften, add the beans, smoked chipotle and passata and cook until reasonable thick and all vegetables are just beginning to break down and amalgamate.
- Place into individual small ovenproof dishes and make a shallow well in the mix. Crack the eggs into the wells and bake uncovered in a 180C oven until the eggs have just set.
- Serve with plenty of fresh herbs and sprinkle with Persian feta.
Other everyday egg recipes:
