Poached eggs! Finally!

I love poached eggs.  Every time I go out for breakfast in Melbourne, I would get excite about the prospect of a wobbly white "mozzarella-looking" egg, that explodes with liquid gold yolk at the slightest poke, so tasty, and such a pleasure to look at too. Naturally, I would try making them at home.  Watching my friend Jossie (a chef) making them at home seemed so easy!  Throw some water in a pan, add a tiny amount of vinegar, and they would be presented to me, beautiful and perfect.  Seems so easy right?  Well, apparently not.  I always ended up with a yolk, surrounded by strings of egg-white, looking more like a stringy stracciatella than a poached egg. BOO!

Until today.  Today, I managed! I was inspired by Miss Lolly, a fellow food blogger in Brisbane, who posted recently that she had never managed to make a proper one until recently.

I'm so proud of these eggs.

This was also inspired by the fact that I am eating lots of eggs at the moment, as they are one of the most complete meals you can get in one little package, and also are the perfect low-carb option for breakfast!  They are high in protein, full of beneficial fats, and one of the healthiest things you can eat on this planet!   They also are so vital in assisting weight loss, in fact studies show this very clearly.  For 7 reasons you should have eggs for breakfast, go here!  Oh, and have I mentioned cheap?  So cheap!

Anyway, there's only so many times I can have an omelette, and only so many times I can scramble them.  I like to have the distinction between yolk and white on occasion, and plain boiled eggs don't always cut it.  A poached egg feels like some kind of achievement.  I certainly felt proud when lifting up my eggs today to find that, in fact, they actually resembled a poached egg, rather than some kind of albino spaghetti monster. 

Poached eggs:
Large Frypan (I used a sort of hybrid frypan/wok)
Vinegar (I used apple cider)***
2 fresh eggs
Water

Fill the frypan to about 8cm deep with water.  Bring to the boil.
Once it starts bubbling, add a good dash of vinegar.
Keep it bubbling before you add the eggs, as the bubbling will help shape the egg once it's in.
Stir the water in one direction, so that you create a mini whirlpool effect.  Stop stirring and wait for the water to slow down, but still have some anti/clockwise direction (depending on which way you stirred it).  Make sure that it's bubbling well, but not a rolling boil.  A strong simmer I would say. 
Crack open the egg slowly, and carefully open into the water (in the centre of the pan), doing it gently but swiftly.  I say swiftly as you want pretty much the whole egg to be placed into the water at the same time, as it will start cooking straight away.
Wait a few seconds until there is a definite coat of white all over the egg, that it's bubbling quite well, and with a large slotted spoon, gently "manipulate" it to ensure that it's not touching the bottom.  As soon as you do this, it should float up to the top.
While that egg is cooking, repeat with the 2nd egg.
Once they are both simmering away nicely, turn the heat right down and let simmer for 1-3 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.  I like mine very very runny, so a minute it was.

I'm avoiding carbs where possible at the moment, so I did not serve mine on some delicious sourdough bread, toasted until golden (by far my favourite way, with either butter or kunserva spread on it).  I had some kapunata, which I decided would make a great base for these eggs.
Grind some fresh pepper onto the eggs, sprinkle with a little salt, and a very small drizzle of some good olive oil, and voila! :D

mmm gooey golden yolk - yum!

***Don't use Balsamic vinegar, it's a complete waste, and will probably discolour the egg anyway.  I would use have used plain white vinegar, but I only had Apple cider, which was absolutely fine. 

ENJOY!! :D