Poached Egg & Soda Bread
The humble poached egg ... so simple and yet so tricky! In many ways, I'm a lazy cook. I like recipes that take a maximum of half an hour to an hour to prepare and so long as they cook by themselves they can take as long as they like after that. Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson are three of my favourite cooks as their recipes are pretty much 'idiot' proof and always come out tasting fantastic. Sometimes though, I like to stretch myself in order to test my culinary boundaries. I have only tried to poach an egg once before and this was less than successful. It was edible as JC will support me on, but it wasn't great. As I have a sort of love/hate relationship with eggs, I just haven't bothered trying again. That was until I read a wonderful article on The Guardian website.
Written by Felicity Cloake for their Word of Mouth blog, it covered various tried and tested methods including Delia's and Marcus Wareing's. Marcus Wareing's method was taught to him by the breakfast chef at the Savoy so I was hoping for big things. I wasn't disappointed! This is less of a 'recipe' and more of a weekend brunch idea, but I have to say I felt very pleased with myself having pulled it off. Thanks to Marcus and Felicity for their help. Beneath the perfect poached egg, I served some of The Exploding Bakery's gorgeous soda bread, toasted and lightly buttered. This made for a wonderful Saturday brunch. I also have to thank the staff at The Exploding Bakery for planting the idea in my head to whip this up.
Beautiful poached egg yolk
Poached Egg & Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 1-2 egg(s) per person
- a drop of vinegar per egg
- 1 slice of soda bread per egg
Method
- Using a 20-22cm pan, bring around 3-4 inches of water to the boil.
- Crack a single egg into a ramekin dish and a drop of vinegar on top of it.
- Using a whisk, stir the boiling water vigorously (without splashing yourself!) and create a vortex.
- Quickly take the ramekin dish and place the egg gently - as close to the water as you can safely get - into the centre of the vortex.
- Cook for 3 minutes.
- Whilst the egg cooks, get your soda bread beneath a heated grill and lightly toast both sides; when toasted, butter quickly.
- Remove the egg from the water with a slotted/draining spoon and place on top of your toasted soda bread. Season to taste. Eat now!
Bilby Boost
- The Guardian article is worth reading in case you want to dabble with other methods. I'm finished dabbling myself as I'm very happy with this version.