I went out for breakfast this morning at a local cafe. Just a simple breakfast of poached eggs on toast but it was wonderful not to have to make it myself. It was also good to have poached eggs. I have never had much luck doing poached eggs. I even tried those silicone poach pods and didn't have any luck with them either. I will have to try again though since there is a poached eggs with spinach recipe in Sydney Food but for now I was happy that someone else was making it for me. The leisurely breakfast was followed by a walk around the shops and then bought some lunch and went to the park for a bit of a picnic. I wasn't quite the picnic lunch that I had envisioned earlier in the week with this Beetroot and Feta Tart that I found over at nami-nami but it was still very good and nice and relaxing half day out.
So I am still catching up with recipes made a while ago. I really enjoyed these steak sandwiches, also called the Perfect Steak Sandwich. I could not find any nice ciabatta when I was shopping so used some bread that I already had and toasted it, although ciabatta would have been much nicer. I loved the balsamic caramelised onions, which are very easy to make. In fact I made extra so that I could use them with other things. They are particularly good on pizzas. The garlic crème, a mayonnaise flavoured with garlic and balsamic vinegar was very tasty, although it does not have a long shelf life. You could add some balsamic and roasted garlic to some store bought mayonnaise for something a bit longer lasting. Although the roasted garlic will have a milder flavour. Neil Perry's signature mayonnaise is a very good store bought one that has a similar consistency and taste to a homemade mayonnaise. I used grapeseed oil in place of the canola oil. I didn't have any rocket but did use some baby spinach leaves I had in the fridge. I got a piece of sirloin steak sliced fairly thinly from my wonderful local butcher, I managed to cook it probably a minute too long. It was a perfect lunch time meal or for a light main meal.
Poached eggs. There are a couple of key points to success.
ReplyDelete[1] The eggs need to be very very fresh. Freshly brought in from the hen house is best. The fresher they are, the stronger the white of the egg, the more it forms a tight mass around the yolk. You can tell instantly when you break the egg into a bowl whether it will be right.
[2] The eggs need to be at room temperature (cooler climate) rather than fridge temperature, as with steak. There is no need to refrigerate eggs unless you plan to keep them while their flavour declines. Buy fresh, eat fresh, check use by dates, they must be far far from use by.
[3] The eggs need to arrive in the water and form a skin before settling anywhere, but must settle. This is not easy on an electric stove, much easier on gas. My technique. Use two small chinese bowls. Break each egg into bowl 1 and see it is strong and yolk undamaged. If good transfer to bowl 2. Same with following eggs. Have water boiling briskly, a really good amount of water such that when the eggs arrive they do not cool it too rapidly - think pasta water quantities adjusted to smaller amount of food to be added. While the water is boiling, and with eggs in that small bowl at elbow, stir the water with the slotted spoon you will need to remove them from the water till there is a good steady spin. Remove from heat or lower heat and bring the egg bowl into the saucepan close to the water without burning fingers and gently release eggs, being sure bowl edge does not cut any eggs. Quick but gentle. You need the eggs to spin on a bit and go white on the outside before they come to a halt. You also need now sufficient heat to bubble softly under eggs gently lifting them away from the bottom moment to moment. Any hard boil and the eggs will be damaged.
Some add vinegar to the water to toughen skin but that produces something of a sour taste.
The key is watchfulness when they are in the water, especially of the heat level. As the eggs warm and cook the same level of heat from the stove can cause sudden boil.
You need the toast or sauteed potatoes with rosemary, etc, ready to go on the plate before you serve, serving the eggs on top to keep them warm, and the plate really needs to be warm. You will know when the eggs are right, as the yolk develops some firmness but before it starts to go paler, indicating hardness. Timing is everything = along with good eggs, love, technique and vigilance :-)