Poached Egg on Toast and an Inspiring Luncheon

Eggs are one of my favorite breakfast foods. I love them scrambled, over easy, in omelette form… but I’ve always wanted to try them poached. I’ve never had them poached before because they’re so much easier to scramble or flip. But the real reason that I’ve never tried poaching an egg before is that I’ve been intimidated to try for fear they’d turn out hard and ugly.

But a few weeks ago I was invited to a wonderful luncheon by Diane and Todd of White on Rice Couple. They’re a pair of professional photographers who also happen to love cooking and their Kitchenaid stand mixer. So much so, that they wanted to share that joy with other food bloggers in Southern California by hosting a Kitchenaid lunch. What’s a Kitchenaid lunch you ask? It was an opportunity to bond with other foodies over delicious nibbles, some of which were made using a variety of Kitchenaid appliances.  But I digress.

The reason I finally decided to try my hand at making poached eggs one Sunday morning was because of this amazing, inspiring photography demonstration Todd and Diane did that included a video they shot on how to make poached eggs.  By the end of the video, I wanted to eat that egg and everything else on the table.  The video, photos and everything else in the couple’s presentation were beautiful. (Here’s just a sample to show you what I mean.) But the biggest thing I took away from their demonstration was that it’s okay to take photos that aren’t picture perfect. If something speaks to you, shoot that, because in the end, the photo that will speak to people is the one that’s shot from the heart.  After all, according to Todd and Diane “your eyes are your lens; your heart is your shutter.”  So with that new outlook on photography I tried my hand at the poached eggs.

My first couple eggs didn’t turn out because I missed a couple steps in the process. I thought you could just crack the egg into the pot of boiling water. But that proved to be very wrong.  Turns out what I needed to do was crack the egg into a small bowl. Then give the boiling water a quick stir to create a whirlpool and then dump the egg in. A few more stirs and a couple minutes and my third egg came out perfectly poached. So taking Diane and Todd’s presentation to heart, I decided to not only talk about my mistake eggs but shoot them too.  Don’t they look horrid?

My badly poached eggs that according to my darling hubs were still edible but I think he was just being nice.

Luckily my third and final egg not only looked the way poached eggs should, but it tasted amazing. It was so soft and light, the egg just melted in my mouth. I can’t wait to make these again. And now that I know how, there’s no holding back.  Maybe I’ll even try Eggs Benedict… at some point.

Yummy!

Poached Egg on Toast

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 – 8 slices prosciutto
• 4 slices of a nice crusty bread, lightly toasted
• butter for bread

Directions:

1. Fill a 3 quart saucepan 2/3 full with water. Heat the water to almost boiling. That means as soon as the bubbles start to appear on the bottom of the pan, turn the heat down to low.  Add the vinegar which helps keep the egg together.
2. Break the egg into a small bowl.
3. Using a wooden spoon, stir the hot water, creating a whirlpool. While the water spins, slide your egg from the bowl into the middle of the whirlpool. Give the water a few more stirs with your wooden spoon to keep up the whirlpool effect. After about 3 minutes scoop out the poached egg with a slotted spoon and let it drain on a piece of dry paper towel.
4. While the egg cooks, place the two pieces of toast on each plate. Lightly butter each slice and place 1-2 pieces of prosciutto on each slice of bread. Transfer the poached egg from the paper towel to the prosciutto and toast. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and enjoy!