I love eggs, I keep a carton of hard boiled and raw eggs in the fridge all the time, ready to go. I use them for breakfast, lunch, snacks, sandwiches, they are incredibly diverse, packed with protein, and an easy item to learn to cook. Eggs were probably one of the first things that I ever learned to cook. It’s really remarkable how many different ways eggs can be prepared. So lets look at some of the most popular breakfast preparations of eggs. Starting with scrambled eggs of course!
So many truly great, award winning, and celebrity chefs claim to have the perfect scrambled egg recipe. Buzz feed recently did a comparison of top chef scrambled egg recipes, and compared the various techniques and recipes. I believe that scarambled eggs are prepared based on personal tastes. I don’t like “wet” eggs, when it comes to a scrambled egg in my world I want them cooked through, but not tough and over done. It’s a delicate balance, and a technique that requires your full attention.
Here is what you need.
2 Large eggs
2-3 Tbsp milk or half and half
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp butter
In a bowl combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Preheat a medium pan on med-high heat. Add butter tot he hot pan when melted add the egg mixture. Allow to cook for a few moments, using a spatula push the eggs from one side of the pan to the other turning over slightly to cook through. Once cooked through, remove from the heat and place in serving bowl or plate up. Serve hot!
Another popular technique for cooking eggs is to fry them. There are a lot of different levels of done-ness with this technique that is again according to ones personal tastes, or the application of the eggs once done. These may include sunny side up, over easy, over medium, or over hard. When I was younger I struggled to know what to call the eggs that I actually wanted. I was in my 20’s before realizing I wanted an over medium egg, but was always ordering an over easy egg because all I knew was that I didn’t want a sunny side up egg! So what is the difference. A sunny side up egg is cooked on one side the egg is cracked into the pan and cooked until the white is opaque and the edge of the yolk begins to lighten up slightly. It is then removed from the pan and served as is, the top demonstrates a bright sunny yellow yolk, over easy, over medium, and over done take the fried egg technique to another level by turning the egg over in the pan, cooking both sides. over easy is cooked just until the white is opaque, with a runny yolk. Over medium is cooked long enough to set the yolk up slightly so that it is creamy but not dry. And, you guessed it an over hard egg is cooked until the yolk is completely set up, and slightly dry. Once cooked they can be salted and peppered to taste.
Poaching eggs is another great breakfast application. This is a technique that for many, me included can be very intimidating. It involves cooking the egg in water, creating a creamy egg with a warm gooey center perfect for eggs benedict or to top toast. The ingredients are as simple as it gets, eggs, salt and pepper. The key to this process is the cooking technique. crack egg into a small bowl and set aside. Boil water add 2 Tbsp of white vinegar (this will help keep the egg white from separating) stir the water creating a swirling motion in one direction. Poor the egg into the center of the swirling water and continue to slowly stir until the egg white is opaque. remove egg with a fork, and drain on paper towel.
