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Poached Eggs II - Rick Stein - "The French Odyssey"

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Sunday 25th November 2007, 12:41pm
Last edited 25/11/2007 12:41pm by Eddie2sox

Well renowned seafood chef Rick Stein has a punt at producing the perfect poached eggÂ….

The name of this entry comes from the book it appears in, and - allegedly - was inspired by a trip across the Channel to the country that looks upon English food in the same way that your pet dog looks at Tesco Value Dog Food.

It was quite tricky but did produce a great end product, as much due to luck as skill I believe, as there are several points where the whole thing could go completely Pete Tong.

You can find this recipe here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/poachedeggswithanart_75445.shtml

Ease & Effort:

2 - Where‘s Carol Vorderman when you need her? To start you have to add 5cm depth of water to a wide, shallow pan. Not too difficult, I judged the depth with the Mark One Finger and prepared to get cooking. But hold on, you have to add salt and vinegar to this pan, in exact measures - for every 1.2 litres of water you need 1 ½ tsp of vinegar and ½ tsp of salt. For every 1.2 litres? What’s that about? Anyway, this meant I had to work out how much water was in the pan by decanting it into a bigger pan, then pouring into a measuring jug and then back to the original pan, what a kafuffle! I found that I had exactly 2 litres (phew, easier sums) of water, so set about calculating how much salt and vinegar I needed. 2 ½ tsp of vinegar but 0.833 tsp of salt! I know these top chefs can be perfectionists but that’s ridiculous. The egg was then poached in the simmering water for 3 minutes - a whole minute more than Old Bob’s opening effort, what effect would that extra 60 seconds have? The final line tells you to “drain briefly on kitchen paper” which seems to be a potential egg-buster! Fortunately I didn’t break mine and managed to roll it back onto the spoon before putting it on the toast. Phew again!

Presentation:

4 - Another fine looking offering, I think the white looks even better in Rick’s recipe, however the yolk looks darker, and - to me - a little less appetising. Still looks bloody good though!

Yolk:

2 - Tasted lovely, looked different to Old Bob‘s. Darker, and a little firmer, but delicious nonetheless. A brighter yellow would have earned top marks.

White:

2.5 - I cannot fault this in any way. After breaking the egg into the water I was worried when so many wispy bits flew here and there, but it all came together beautifully when removed from the pan.

Scores On The Doors

Old Bob - 11.5

Rick Stein - 10.5

3 - Mrs Beeton

4 - Ainsley Harriott

5 - James Martin

6 - Vash The Stampede

7 - Mahalo

8 - Poached Egg Machine

9 - Delia Smith

10 - Mr Breakfast

11 - Australian Egg Board

12 - Woolpack Wally

New this time - YOUR chance to participate in the world’s best blog-based cooking/tasting eggy competition. The Welsh Rarebit thread prompted loads of comments and emails, and I wish I’d shared some of them with you. So. Email me at trix68@hotmail.co.uk or leave a comment on the blog.

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