Phew! It's been a busy weekend full of good food, fun times, playing badminton, and new experiences in the kitchen (including some bad karma)...
I wanted to post some pictures from my experiments with poaching eggs (spurred on, of course, by Julia Child). As you'll see I'm not doing too well and I'm still trying to figure out what the missing component is..
Mostly what's been happening is that the egg white completely runs away from me and just melds with the water instead of attempting to come around the yolk so you get a gorgeous little result like this one.
So! being a persistent and determined person (already having made learning how to poach an egg a goal for the summer), I went to multiple sources to figure out the main components:
1. Water that is just barely simmering, between 160 and 180 degrees. See? Got that down...
2. A splash of vinegar (I'm using white distilled and I'm rather suspicious that this might be my problem ingredient...)
3. Using a ramekin or other small dish to plop the egg in (as close to the surface as possible) so that the yolk doesn't break on impact.
4. Creating a whirlpool in the center not only to cool the water down but also to create a natural spinning effect that should wrap the white around the yolk.
And yet, helas...
More experimenting to come....