Week 19: Oeufs Poches

"Gosh Mum, you are getting slack" was the report back from youngest daughter after serving up poached eggs for lunch. I admit, I missed last weeks blog write up as was supporting same daughter for weekend sporting event -  and with the pre-Christmas rush on, things are busy (excuses, excuses) so I have not invested so much time in increasing my culinary skills via Julia.

However, as I explained to my family, do not underestimate the poached egg. Julia dedicates 2 pages of explanation on how to make the perfect oeuf poches.  She explains that the perfect specimen is neat and oval and the white completely masks the yolk. The recipe for success includes having fresh eggs at hand, and a pan of barely simmering water with a touch of vinegar which helps the eggs keep in shape. Once you have broken the eggs into the water you immediately and gently push the water over the yolk with a wooden spoon. After about 4 minutes your egg should be ready for removal from the pan.
I must say the end product wasn't perfect but it was a vast improvement on my past poached eggs attempts where the egg whites were more of a milky way appearance - wispy and covering a large amount of space. On the removal of one of the eggs it flipped before landing on the plate, and from this perspective it looked perfect. The egg yolk remained liquid as per requirements. Although this was the desired effect it had two disadvantages. First disadvantage - eldest daughter does not like egg yolk so cutting off egg white was a delicate operation and with only one small nick of the egg yolk saw the contamination of the white - like a oil spill in the ocean. Second disadvantage is that with vigorous discussion over lunch accompanied with hearty gesturing saw the spray of egg yolk off the fork onto the table Christmas runner. The family did notice that this yellow did match the embroidery golden thread weaving through the runner, however I did insist on a quick spot clean. So there, I am  not entirely slack :-)