Poached Eggs

A first for me: making poached eggs!

I'm somewhat of an egg fiend - I've gotta have them for breakfast on a day off or it just doesn't feel right. And I will happily eat breakfast for dinner frequently. Fried or scrambled are no problem; I can do hard-boiled too. But I've never attempted poached; it just seemed too tricky (especially to attempt soon after waking up). I really like poached eggs though - I'll frequently order Eggs Benedict when I see it on a menu so I can have them.

Last week when we were visiting our friend Susan, she made poached eggs for us one morning, so I got to see the process in action. It didn't look too intimidating, so I was inspired to give it a try.

I used a huge nonstick saucepan, 'cause I was afraid of the eggs sticking to the bottom. Brought water to a boil in it and then lowered the heat so it was barely bubbling. I added a splash of vinegar to the water, though Susan said she doesn't bother. Cracked an egg in a custard cup, created a whirlpool with a spoon and slipped the egg in. The first one looked OK, so I put a second one in. That one blobbed into the first--uh oh. Then I tried to separate them and they started to look really messy. I was hesitant to add any more to the pan, but there was some more space--so I went for two more. Those seemed to stay in their own space.

While cooking, they really look like a mess in the pan, so I wasn't sure how they would turn out. A couple of them were resting on the bottom of the pan too, but especially with the nonstick I was able to nudge them off. Cooking time's supposed to be 3-4 minutes--these were jumbo eggs, so I did them for about 5. When I spooned each out of the water with a slotted spoon and drained them over a paper towel, they looked pretty decent. So, onto the toast!

Success! Topped with our fancy pink Himalayan salt & Penzey's Black & Red. I guess the lesson is, don't worry about how they look in the water...they'll probably turn out fine!

I'll probably still continue to do fried eggs more often (it's definitely easier), but I can see a future of more poached egg dishes. Thanks for the inspiration, Susan!

Chicken Soup

I picked up a cold a few days ago, on the last leg of tour. It wasn't too terrible, and then I thought I was getting better. Last night, I suddenly developed Lauren Bacall Voice, and have been on the edge of losing it with a nasty cough. So, time for some chicken soup!

I made my own stock (below), and rather than make an enormous pot of soup that would probably get mushy and bleah in a couple of days, I put aside most of the stock and boiled some thinly sliced carrot & celery in the remainder. I'd been thinking about tortellini, but Safeway had these fancy chicken & prosciutto stuffed pasta things, so I threw in a handful of those, with some of the cooked chicken and a pinch of dried dill. Salt to taste, a dash of lemon juice & hot sauce to clear the sinuses. This was good stuff...and now I've got a bunch of leftover shredded chicken and homemade stock.

For the stock, I threw a bunch of stuff into a big pot:

Three chicken leg quarters, 2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, an onion (quartered but not peeled), some garlic cloves (smashed, not peeled), a bay leaf or two and some peppercorns. Boiled this for about an hour, then removed the chicken and let it cool in the fridge for a bit before skinning & shredding. Added the bones back to the stock and simmered a little while longer, then strained.

It's a bit labor intensive, but...not doing anything else today!