Even before I decided that I wanted to become a chef, one of my earliest memories of cooking was heading out to the shops for some Norco Ranch eggs with my mum, and then arriving home to try out different ways of cooking them at home. Throughout these years I can remember one of the most difficult things to achieve was to consistently cook the perfect poached egg. I cannot tell you how many eggs I wasted though trial and error and eventually I found 3 ways of cooking them that always provided perfect poached eggs.
Poached eggs are super tasty, very flexible and easy to cook and if you want to know how to make the perfect poached eggs every time, here are 3 ways of going about it.
Cling Film Method
For this method you simply need some cling film, a coffee cup, an egg, a saucepan and some water. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to the boil, as the water is heating up, place the cling film over the top of the coffee cup, make sure that it is a little loose so that there is a small sag in the middle. Crack the egg into the dimple of the cling film and then bring together the edges of the film, covering the egg. Twist the ends of the cling film and you will see that an egg shape starts to form, place the cling film in the water for 3 minutes and then remove for the perfect, egg-shaped poached egg.
Water Spinner
The approach that I use more often than any other is the water spinning approach, super simple and a beautiful way to cook eggs. Simply bring a saucepan filled with water to the boil, the deeper the better. Once the water is boiling, use a utensil to spin the water into circles, make sure that it is just spinning slowly and not like some kind of cyclone. Once the water is spinning, crack the egg into the middle of the spin and turn off the heat. The spinning motion will ensure that the egg stays together. Leave the egg in the water for around 4 minutes and then remove for a delicious poached egg that looks and tastes great.
Poachers
If you are not feeling to creative you can use a poaching pan that has been designed with poached eggs in mind. These pans are like normal frying pans except they have inserts with four rings for you to place your eggs. Crack your egg into each of the rings and place a little water in the bottom of the pan. As the pan heats, the water steams the eggs to poach them and you can watch it all take place so that you know exactly when to take the eggs out. Use these pans if you are not confident or if you are cooking multiple eggs at one time.
