Everything Eggs – nature’s most versatile ingredient?

June 19th, 2015

Cooktops Ovens & Cooking Recipes

Whether served as a meal on their own, or used as a key ingredient in a recipe, eggs are a staple of both professional and home kitchens.

It’s often worthwhile to keep a few of these nutrient-filled packages handy in your fridge due to their amazing versatility.

Here are our quick tips for some of the best ways to prepare and serve eggs, whether you’re feeding yourself or guests:

Boiled eggs

Boiling an egg is one of the fundamental cooking tasks that everyone should know. Unfortunately, not all of us do – I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t pay enough attention in their school cooking classes.

source: wikipedia

The basic technique is pretty much exactly what you’d expect – takes some boiling water, a fresh egg, and combine. Opinion is divided as to whether the egg should be added to boiling water and simmered until cooked; added to cold water and brought to the boil; or placed in boiling water that’s then removed from the heat, allowing the egg to cook in the residual heat while the water cools.

As a general guideline, it usually takes between one and four minutes to soft-boil an egg, and between six and ten minutes to hard-boil. Keep a close eye on the time to prevent overcooking!

To find out if your egg is done, place it on a flat surface and give it a spin. If the egg spins quickly, it is a solid mass and therefore hard-boiled.  If it spins slowly, it is filled with liquid that’s sloshing around inside, meaning that it’s soft-boiled.

It’s also possible to steam eggs rather than boiling them, either using a traditional bamboo steamer or a specialised steamer small appliance. Rice cookers have also been used to boil or steam eggs, depending on the amount of water used, or even to cook your eggs alongside your rice, all at once!

Fried eggs

Much like boiling, the sheer simplicity of frying an egg leaves about a million different ways to mess it up. I know that I’ve made my fair share of decidedly average fried eggs, whether I’ve over or under-cooked them, or messed up the shape so they look nothing like the picture-perfect “yellow eyeball” that we all imagine.

Most fried egg recipes begin by coating the pan with a bit of butter or oil. This not only helps to prevent the eggs from sticking to the pan, but can affect their final flavour. But if you’re trying to keep your eggs relatively healthy, you might be able to skip this step if you’re happy to put your faith in your non-stick pan.

Start by carefully pouring your egg into a bowl and having a quick check for bits of shell. Next, carefully slide it into a pan and cook on a low-medium heat for a few minutes. If you prefer your eggs “over easy”, wait until the edges of the whites starts to crisp up before gently sliding the spatula underneath the egg and smoothly turning it over.

One neat trick to ensure that your fried eggs are perfectly cooked on top as well as underneath is to stick a lid on your frying pan – this traps the hot air inside, creating a miniature oven that helps to evenly cook the upper side of the eggs as well.

And if you’re looking for a more… unorthodox method of frying eggs, tray making them on the sandwich press!

Poached eggs

No matter what Willy Wonka said in the original text of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a poached egg does NOT mean that it’s been stolen from the forest in the dead of night. Instead, it’s basically boiling an egg without its shell, which can be a bit tricky to manage without the egg losing its shape and making a massive mess.

source: wikipedia

Professional chefs have developed a diverse array of techniques to quickly and efficiently prepare delicious poached eggs, but here’s the most basic method:

• Fill a pot of water and add a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar (this acts as a coagulant for the egg whites, helping them to firmly set). Get it boiling.
• Slide a fresh, shelled, room-temperature egg into the water as smoothly and gently as possible. Don’t drop it in with a splash!
• Leave to cook for three or four minutes. Carefully lift the egg out of the water and give it a gentle poke – the white should be solid, but the yolk liquid.
• Carefully drain any excess water, remove any dangling strings of egg white, and serve!

Other poaching techniques include using individual plastic bags to keep the eggs in place while they poach, or stirring up a whirlpool in your pot that can hold your egg together using centrifugal forces.

Scrambled eggs

Who’d have thought that frying up an egg mixed in with a bit of milk or cream would create such a deliciously fluffy-textured treat that forms a core part of so many café-style breakfasts?

While there are many variations on the basic scrambled eggs recipe, you usually only need about one tablespoon of milk or cream per egg. Combine these in a separate bowl first and thoroughly mix before they go into the pan, to ensure consistently even results.

Unlike fried eggs, you’ll need to keep your scrambled eggs moving during their cooking (hence their name), until they thicken to the point that no visible liquid remains.

As with most of the other egg techniques, it’s worth paying close attention to the temperature and cooking time when scrambling eggs, to make sure they don’t end up overdone and dried out, or underdone and excessively liquid.

For scrambled eggs with a twist, try mixing in some extra ingredients to add more flavour or texture. We’ve seen (and tasted!) scrambled eggs that incorporate cheese, mustard, pesto, herbs, spices and, of course, bacon.

One alternative method is simply to stick all of the ingredients into a mug and blast it in the microwave for 90 seconds or so, stopping about halfway through to scramble the mixture with a fork.

Egg-strordinary tools of the trade

Keep in mind that many of these traditional cooking techniques for boiling, frying, poaching or scrambling eggs have been developed over the years using classic gas or electric cooktops.

Be careful when preparing eggs on a newer induction cooktop, as these appliances heat up your cookware VERY quickly, and allow you to make precise adjustments to your temperature. You may need to tweak your cooking techniques slightly to take this into account.

What’s your favourite way to prepare eggs? And how do you manage the cooking?