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Poached eggs, hash brown potatoes


I wonder why vegetables are not more popular for breakfasts. This confounds me. Doesn't this look delicious? 

All of the celebrity chefs concur that Italian parsley tastes better than regular curly parsley, so that is what we see them use exclusively. This is the giant version of Italian parsley, and frankly, I find it to be too bitter. Me no likey bitter. So that does it! After this batch I'm switching to regular parsley. 

I tried something different this time with the potatoes. One potato, smallish for an Idaho Russet type, peeled then grated with a box grater directly into the sink filled 1/3 with cold water. The water clouded making visible the surface starch removed. Collected and pressed through a strainer then dumped into a bowl with seasoned melted butter and olive oil, along with half a white onion. 

So there's that.

The eggs were cracked into a ramekin and held while a small pan of water was brought to a boil. The same small pan that would fry an egg. The smallest pan. The water in the pan contained a lot of salt for that amount of water, probably one half teaspoon of kosher salt flakes, along with more cider vinegar than you might imagine, possibly up to two tablespoons. Those two things are necessary to hold together the albumen. Without salt AND vinegar, the egg white will spread throughout the water like a spreading maniacal egg white Bedouin that has completely lost all direction in life. No, wait, wait, wait. Spreadier than that. Without salt AND vinegar the egg white spreads like Paris Hilton spreads in 1 Night in Paris, a total mess. Dropped into acidulated brine like this, the white so tightens, in fact, apparently appalled at the hostile environment and recoiled in horror, that the egg white resists cooking through. Obviously, in simmering water the cooking temperature can not exceed 212℉ / 100℃, that is the whole point, even less at a mile altitude, 200℉ / 94℃. Cooking can be hastened then by spooning the simmering water over the white, in this case as above ↑ avoiding the yolk. For ART!

[Poached eggs can be lifted with a slotted spoon and transferred to a bowl of cold water to hold for hours. The salted vinegar water can be reused for poaching more eggs. (Alternately, a greater quantity of eggs can be poached thusly in the oven within a bain Marie.) For serving, the eggs can be gently reheated by lifting into hot water for a few seconds and -- BANG! --there it is, a dozen or more poached eggs all at once. Were you to pull this off for a brunch, you will be showered with accolades, elevated to hero status on the spot and paraded around on the shoulders of your peers, amongst much clamor and celebration. So be ready for all that.]

1 comment:

  1. This reminds me of a wonderful little Greek/Cypriot kitchen in Philly that makes very nice breakfast dishes with egg and a tomato/pepper stew. If you're ever in that neck of the woods I strongly urge the malohwa or shaksouka.

    Look up the recipes if you're not familiar with them as they're much like what you've described but accompanied by lots of cumin, turmeric and other goodies to give them a Mediterranean flavor.

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