In my case, at the moment, my oh-so-wrong addiction is to asparagus. I tend to have seasonal devotion to foods (winter being Brussels sprouts & sweet potatoes, roasted together), and this spring I've been bitten harder than ever before by the Asparagus Bug.
I keep it pretty easy, too: toss the asparagus in olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, roast at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Lately I've taken to making a meal of it by adding egg. A couple of times I've soft-boiled an egg or two, peeled the egg, then sliced it onto the asparagus.
Today, I learned how to poach eggs! My motivation was an article reporting that the majority of people surveyed (I can't find the article right now so don't know if it was Americans or Britons) couldn't poach an egg. That bugged me - if someone asked me I'd have to admit that I couldn't, though I was perfectly confident that I could follow directions to do so!
It's crazy-easy:
combine water, 1 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp vinegar in a shallow saute pan or skillet:
Bring to a boil; slip the eggs in gently (the directions recommend using some sort of dish or cup to get the egg to the water without splashing it in).
Put a lid on the pan, remove it from the burner, wait 4 minutes or so, and voila! Poached eggs! I cooked min for 4 1/2 minutes and next time will try 5. Otherwise, I was quite happy with them.
To serve: remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, let them drain in the spoon a minute, and then place on the plate. I flipped them over as the bottom was a bit more presentable.
As a bonus, I had an "oh yeah I live in California" moment when I pulled a lemon from the tree out back to use as a garnish. Yum!
still jealous of your lemons. i have to admit i've never even eaten a poached egg, let alone poached one. but maybe i'll try it soon. and i *adore* asparagus. is it artichoke season up there in northern california yet?
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to come try the lemons sometime. I don't *think* the lemons on the tree at my apartment are Meyers, but they sure aren't typical lemon flavor either. They may be Eureka, but I'm really truly not sure.
ReplyDeleteI think artichokes are coming in; I've always found them yummy, but way too full of messy non-edible bits to develop a true fanaticism for them.