- Today I'm gonna show you how
to make a classic poached egg.
It's one of my very most favorite ways to eat eggs,
and I have a special visitor, my lovely mother Rita.
- Hi everyone.
- She is here to visit the grandkids,
but I wrangled her into the kitchen.
- And my son. - And me.
- And me, she loves me too.
- A lot.
- So, this isn't your most favorite way to eat eggs,
but, so simple to do, but many people
are really, really intimidated by it.
Because I think they've just tried to dump an egg in water,
it doesn't work out, they're like, ugh, not gonna happen.
- Delicate.
- Here what we're gonna do.
We have a pot of simmering water.
Very like, I feel like I'm getting a facial, it's nice.
(Rita laughs)
We need a fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh egg.
If we were making a macaroon, we'd want old eggs,
we'd age the egg whites, because they get
more liquidy and runny, better for a macaroon.
But for a poached egg, we want
to have really thick, gelatinous egg whites.
- The freshest
- They hold together better.
Before we do anything, we're gonna crack our egg
over a fine mesh sieve, over a little bowl.
That egg has a lot of watery egg whites,
and they're gonna fly away into tiny wisps,
so crack it over the bowl.
Let that excess egg white drain off,
and then you'll have just that gelatinous center part.
It'll really hold together well,
and you'll have a beautiful poached egg.
After your water come to a boil,
take it down to low, and now we can add in
one tablespoon or so of a light-colored vinegar.
Any vinegar will do.
It's gonna help the eggs stay together, trust me.
And you're not gonna taste the vinegar,
because it's only a tablespoon.
Give the water a nice swirl,
create a vortex that'll help hold things together.
And then, gently release your egg
into the center of that vortex.
You'll see egg whites wrap around the egg.
And you just let it sit, let it cook for like three minutes.
That'll give you a nice soft yolk with a harder white.
If you want a fully-cooked one, just boil an egg.
Three minutes, ish.
- Can we cover it?
- We're gonna cover it as well.
My mom wants it to have all that steamy goodness
to really cook the inside of the egg.
While that's happening you can get your toast ready,
some avocado, some smoked salmon, whatever you'd like.
- You can drizzle a little bit of lime juice on the avocado,
season the egg with salt and pepper, and enjoy.
See what happens is that.
- It's not ready yet.
- No, but the egg yolk got covered with the,
got cooked a little better, and the other was the opposite.
The whites cook first.
- Yeah, we had one that is an adequate poach,
but it's not super pretty, so we're like, nope, for you,
we're gonna make it look nice and do a better job.
Okay, so we're using a slotted spoon to remove the egg.
I don't think it's done yet.
- [Rita] It is done.
- Beautiful, look at this egg.
Let's do that one more time.
Swirl the water, gently release your strained egg.
You don't have to strain the eggs, by the way,
you'll just have some more flyaways,
and it's not as appealing visually.
After three minutes, use a slotted spoon,
gently pull that egg out, transfer it to a paper towel.
You can see that's a beautiful egg.
Look at this.
So, we have our perfectly poached egg.
If there's any like stragglers of whites hanging around,
just cut them away with a spoon or a fork,
for that beautiful compact look.
I am so excited.
All you really need to do is just add in,
like a little sprinkle of salt, gonna use a Maldon sea salt,
and then a little bit of pepper.
- I'll do it.
- Thank you.
Wonderful. - Yummy.
- You can have this on top of an English muffin, a biscuit,
with a little bit of wilted spinach or Swiss chard.
- Or in a green salad.
- Yeah, some smoked salmon, the works.
Okay, let's cut into this.
You have to see the yolk.
Look at that.
Look at that beautiful yolk. - Beautiful.
- And, I have a little toast soldier,
gonna sop it all up, and.
- Yum, yum.
- You get the next one.
(Rita laughs) (Child cries)
- Mm, do you think the boys would like poached eggs?
- They will love them.
- It was that simple.
Thank you so much for helping me out.
- My pleasure. - You really were
a life saver.
My poached egg was not gonna be this pretty,
but Mom's guidance carried me through.
(Rita laughs)
Let me know in the comments how you would like
to enjoy your poached egg.
I kind of want some smoked salmon,
a little bit of wilted greens, a nice, beautiful biscuit.
I have the best biscuit recipe.
I don't know, tooting my own horn, but,
click up over here if you wanna make my biscuits
that go perfectly with a nice poached egg.
- And a slice of some avocado?
- Mm, avocado, yes.
Anyways.
- Enjoy. - Hope you get to make these,
thanks so much.
Bon appetit, and don't forget to hit
that like button and subscribe.