Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Vortex & Vinegar
So the student has become the master. The key to creating perfect Eggs Benedict is to make a whirlpool in the boiling water. When you plop the egg in it can't help but stay together. And then there's the vinegar added to the water.
Three cheers for my mom's friend Mario (for the ace egg vortex advice) and my friend Lori (vinegar is for more than Massengil, baby).
Isn't it odd how something so difficult can suddenly become so easy??? Its like learning how to tie your shoes or acing regulatory exams. :o)
No worries, friends. I will still plague you with insane musings on my adventures in eggs. I need to raise the bar now that I've created perfection.
Three cheers for my mom's friend Mario (for the ace egg vortex advice) and my friend Lori (vinegar is for more than Massengil, baby).
Isn't it odd how something so difficult can suddenly become so easy??? Its like learning how to tie your shoes or acing regulatory exams. :o)
No worries, friends. I will still plague you with insane musings on my adventures in eggs. I need to raise the bar now that I've created perfection.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Eggs o'my heart
Tonight was breakfast for dinner. No suprise, I made myself eggs benedict. I have officially mastered hollandaise sauce (although its not really rocket science). However, the egg poaching continues to elude me.
Things that haven't worked:
Ramekins in boiling water: technically not poaching unless you tip them and let some water in. This has actually been semi-sucessful and resulted in the best eggs although I can't get the cooking time right. They end up a little too done.
Microwave egg poacher: yuck. the yolk gets done before the white so there's no way to cook them properly. If you leave the yolk runny, the white is very questionable. The makers of this product should be ashamed of themselves, in no way does this thing poach eggs. Someone recently told me that microwaving eggs is a travesty.
Plastic wrap pouches: I intially thought this was brilliant (because of boiling bag omelets), then I thought about those warnings about how its dangerous to heat plastic wrap... but then I thought it won't kill me to try it once. It might have actually worked if I wasn't using crappy cheap plastic wrap. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the pouches melted and the yolks fell out resulting in a ridiculous mess.
Traditional boiling water: they sprawl and I've been prone to overcooking. I've read up on proper poaching techniques and I think the stockpot and gallon of water is way too much. I plan to try again with a saucepan and three inches of water. I also hear vinegar helps with the sprawl. One thing I want to know, however, regarding every cookbook's suggestion to use "eggs less than four days old"... how the heck am I supposed to know when the eggs that Food Lion is peddling came out of the chicken??? I realize that an expiry date way out in the future is a good indication of new eggs but they don't exactly tell you when the chicken pooped them out.
I think I need new kitchen gadgets. My neighbor suggested using a cookie cutter or something to corral the eggs while using the regular boiling water method. That's an idea altho I suspect that cookie cutters might float around too much. (do you think perhaps I talk about my love of eggs benedict way too much???) Isn't there some kind of heavier ring for eggs? I'm sure I've seen something like that.
I'm also interested in these and these. I already purchased a new whisk and a second tiny saucepan (as a double boiler for the hollandaise). Acquisition of additional poaching paraphenalia may send my family over the edge.
Things that haven't worked:
Ramekins in boiling water: technically not poaching unless you tip them and let some water in. This has actually been semi-sucessful and resulted in the best eggs although I can't get the cooking time right. They end up a little too done.
Microwave egg poacher: yuck. the yolk gets done before the white so there's no way to cook them properly. If you leave the yolk runny, the white is very questionable. The makers of this product should be ashamed of themselves, in no way does this thing poach eggs. Someone recently told me that microwaving eggs is a travesty.
Plastic wrap pouches: I intially thought this was brilliant (because of boiling bag omelets), then I thought about those warnings about how its dangerous to heat plastic wrap... but then I thought it won't kill me to try it once. It might have actually worked if I wasn't using crappy cheap plastic wrap. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the pouches melted and the yolks fell out resulting in a ridiculous mess.
Traditional boiling water: they sprawl and I've been prone to overcooking. I've read up on proper poaching techniques and I think the stockpot and gallon of water is way too much. I plan to try again with a saucepan and three inches of water. I also hear vinegar helps with the sprawl. One thing I want to know, however, regarding every cookbook's suggestion to use "eggs less than four days old"... how the heck am I supposed to know when the eggs that Food Lion is peddling came out of the chicken??? I realize that an expiry date way out in the future is a good indication of new eggs but they don't exactly tell you when the chicken pooped them out.
I think I need new kitchen gadgets. My neighbor suggested using a cookie cutter or something to corral the eggs while using the regular boiling water method. That's an idea altho I suspect that cookie cutters might float around too much. (do you think perhaps I talk about my love of eggs benedict way too much???) Isn't there some kind of heavier ring for eggs? I'm sure I've seen something like that.
I'm also interested in these and these. I already purchased a new whisk and a second tiny saucepan (as a double boiler for the hollandaise). Acquisition of additional poaching paraphenalia may send my family over the edge.
Monday, June 02, 2008
œufs bénédictine, my raison d'être
I've been on an eggs benedict bender lately. I made them for my mom for Mother's Day (she gagged them down, god love her) and one recent weekend I ate them two meals in a row. Its pathological but I can't help myself. Its like the perfect Bloody Mary quest that started in 1997 (which was resolved on a trip to Wisconsin in 2003. They garnish Bloody's with cheese, pickles and smoked meat. 'Nuff said.)... only worse.
The suprising thing is I'm not really a fan of eggs. I can barely gag down scrambled eggs. Fried eggs only in a sandwich. Omelets only with lots of tasty fillings. Hard boiled or deviled? Eww. Egg salad? shut your mouth. NEVER. But buttery, gooey eggs benedict... Ah, I'm in heaven.
The other thing that suprises me is that eggs benedict is actually rather hard to find out in the dining world. Only greasy spoons and breakfast-only joints get in on the action. Denny's most decidedly does NOT serve my beloved œufs bénédictine. I don't feel I've done a great job of restaurant research. So the quest will continue probably until I've exhausted my love of the buttery treat.
A brief run-down:
New Towne Diner, Owings Mills, MD: Moderately good. Hollandaise is occasionally a little too thick. Avoid the Florentine Benedict - the spinach tastes like lawn clippings and fouls the eggs. Chesapeake Benedict is probably better when crab is actually in season.
Nautilus Diner, Timonium, MD: Very good. They serve everything in a little dish so the perfectly tender eggs are drowning in perfect Hollandaise. They also use nicely sized english muffins. It is my opinion that a perfect benedict will have a good bread to sauce ratio. Not enough sauce and you have dry bread to contend with. Small or poorly toasted bread results in a soggy mess and not enough carbs to sop up the sauce and egg goo with.
Eggspectation, Ellicott City, MD: Fair to very good. They have an impressive 10 item benedict menu. (their other breafast stuff is to die for, especially Chocolate Chip Cappucino Muffins... drool) Since its a little bit of a hike and kind of expensive I don't eat there often so I'm only 2 items down on the benedict menu. Classic benedict is perfect. Waffle benedict was a minor disappointment - the waffles were ample but suffered sogginess. They also add gruyère between the meat and the sauce... or maybe its actually in the hollandaise. Who knows. But it adds a nice bite.
I will save my at-home eggs benedict endeavors for another time. Right now I'm hungry. Is 9 pm too late for eggs?
The suprising thing is I'm not really a fan of eggs. I can barely gag down scrambled eggs. Fried eggs only in a sandwich. Omelets only with lots of tasty fillings. Hard boiled or deviled? Eww. Egg salad? shut your mouth. NEVER. But buttery, gooey eggs benedict... Ah, I'm in heaven.
The other thing that suprises me is that eggs benedict is actually rather hard to find out in the dining world. Only greasy spoons and breakfast-only joints get in on the action. Denny's most decidedly does NOT serve my beloved œufs bénédictine. I don't feel I've done a great job of restaurant research. So the quest will continue probably until I've exhausted my love of the buttery treat.
A brief run-down:
New Towne Diner, Owings Mills, MD: Moderately good. Hollandaise is occasionally a little too thick. Avoid the Florentine Benedict - the spinach tastes like lawn clippings and fouls the eggs. Chesapeake Benedict is probably better when crab is actually in season.
Nautilus Diner, Timonium, MD: Very good. They serve everything in a little dish so the perfectly tender eggs are drowning in perfect Hollandaise. They also use nicely sized english muffins. It is my opinion that a perfect benedict will have a good bread to sauce ratio. Not enough sauce and you have dry bread to contend with. Small or poorly toasted bread results in a soggy mess and not enough carbs to sop up the sauce and egg goo with.
Eggspectation, Ellicott City, MD: Fair to very good. They have an impressive 10 item benedict menu. (their other breafast stuff is to die for, especially Chocolate Chip Cappucino Muffins... drool) Since its a little bit of a hike and kind of expensive I don't eat there often so I'm only 2 items down on the benedict menu. Classic benedict is perfect. Waffle benedict was a minor disappointment - the waffles were ample but suffered sogginess. They also add gruyère between the meat and the sauce... or maybe its actually in the hollandaise. Who knows. But it adds a nice bite.
I will save my at-home eggs benedict endeavors for another time. Right now I'm hungry. Is 9 pm too late for eggs?
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