Poached eggs

This post is only going to be about poaching eggs. I had never eaten poached eggs and thought that preparing them was too messy and complicated. But last night I couldn’t sleep and decided to read different articles on how to poach eggs. So at around midnight I got up and went on poaching three eggs back to back and surprisingly it was quite easy! They not only looked great but tasted oh so good that I have decided I am not having eggs in any other form! You can serve a poached egg on a piece of toast, over pasta, salads, potato pancakes, prepare Eggs Benedict or eat it as it is for a delicious breakfast.
I read that we are supposed to use farm fresh eggs, preferably organic, to get the best results. Now I don’t know how old my eggs were, I got them about 4, 5 days ago so they may even be around a week old. But I was quite happy with the results. But if you can manage to get some fresh eggs, do that, as the whites will stick to the yolk better! If you are careful, you can poach more than one egg at a time, but I did not want to take any chances. And the whole thing takes less than 5 minutes anyway. Here are the steps I followed to poach one egg:

Prep time: 4 min Boiling time: 4 min Serves: 1

Ingredients:
Egg: 1, preferably at room temperature
Vinegar: 1 tsp
Water for boiling
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1) Take a deep saucepan and fill around 2/3rd of it with water. Let the water simmer till you can see bubbles start forming. Add the vinegar into the water.
(Note: Some people skip this step because they like their whites to be extremely tender, but since I added such a small amount I did not notice any difference in texture or taste.)
2) Break the egg carefully in a small ramekin or bowl, so that the yolk is not disturbed and it gets a chance to remain nestled in the whites.
3) Take a whisk and stir the simmering water in circles so that a little whirlpool is created and you can clearly see a vortex in the middle.

4) Now gently slide the egg into the vortex and watch it spin like crazy, as some of the whites will get dispersed but you will also see that the yolk has retained its shape and the rest of the white is clinging to it. You can take a slotted spoon and very carefully nudge the whites towards the yolk.

5) At this point I like to switch off the heat and wait for a total of 220-240 seconds.

Take the slotted spoon and take out the egg and place it on paper napkins so that the excess water is soaked.
(Note: My eggs were out of the fridge for around 20 minutes and at 4 1/2 minutes, the yolk became a little hard.

But between 220 and 240 seconds, around 4 minutes, they were perfect. But if your eggs have been out for a longer time, 3 minutes should be okay. Gently lift the yolk in the spoon and if you see it is mildly wobbly and more or less firm, it is ready to be taken out.)
6) Sprinkle seasoning like salt and pepper and serve it hot. Adding salt during boiling loosens the whites and changes the texture of the egg. If you cut the tender egg white coating, you should be able to see the golden yolk oozing out in the middle and ideally that’s how it is supposed to be. Yum!