Italian Poached Eggs

In the list of things that are tasty but photograph badly Italian Poached Eggs are pretty high up. This is one of those recipes for which anyone can eyeball the proportions, no matter how little cooking experience you have. This is extremely hard to mess up and oh so tasty. If you have practically nothing left in your fridge I can guarantee you will probably have the ingredients to make this. You will need:

-Tomato sauce, or the ingredients to make one

-Fresh basil (nice but not absolutely necessary)

-Eggs

-Cheese, I like smoked gruyere but you could use any Italian or non Italian cheese

-A nice baguette for mopping up the tomato sauce

I rarely have pre-made sauce on hand since making some is rather easy. After I browned an onion and some garlic I poured in some pureed tomatoes and let it reduce. Once that was done I cut some fresh basil in a chiffonade and seasoned with salt and pepper. If you have pre-made sauce just throw it in the pan, heat it and add the fresh basil if you are using it.

At this point you crack your eggs into the hot sauce, spacing them evenly apart. I was serving them for brunch so I used two per person. Bring the sauce to a boil, cover and then crank down the heat.

The eggs only take about 5 minutes to cook. Before they’re done take your grated cheese, distribute it on top and let it melt.

This isn’t going to grace the cover on any magazines any time soon but it is really good. It’s fun to grab a piece of bread and get all the sauce or you could make some polenta and ladle this on top. Either way it’s a really quick and delicious brunch main course.

del.icio.us Tags: Eggs,Brunch

French omelette

When it comes to breakfast I usually don't get too fancy. I pretty much just eat toast when it is hot and oatmeal when it is cold, but this morning I felt like an omelette. Fine Cooking magazine had an article on cooking the perfect omelette this month so I was inspired.

I've always thought that eggs are one of the easiest things in the world to mess in up even though they are so simple to make. Most people cook them at high heat which ruins them, in my humble opinion. I like to cook them low and slow, which produces a fabulous texture. My omelette was pretty simple: two eggs, salt and pepper. In the picture you can see a package of applewood smoked ham lurking; it will make an appearance later.

Like all great French inspired endeavours in the kitchen start, I began with a small pat of butter. Please, if you use margarine for cooking, I implore you to see the light and toss it out and go buy some butter (no, I am not being paid off by a bunch of dairy farmers). Seriously though, nothing will produce the taste and flavour that butter does in in food. Anyways, you can see my mostly cooked omelette above. The technique recommended by Fine Cooking requires that you sort of swirl the eggs while shaking the pan to make sure that everything is cooked properly while retaining its shape.

Here is my omelette filled with the aforemention applewood smoked ham and some aged cheddar. The edges broke up a bit so it doesn't have that perfect magazine look, unfortunately.

And here in my breakfast, all nice and prettied up for the camera. As you can see, my meal is accompanied by yet more tomatoes; I have no concerns about getting enough lycopene in my diet. It had been a while since I had made eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately, most mornings just getting out of the house in one piece on my way to work in an accomplishment so cooking is out of the question but for leisurely weekday mornings an omelette is a great way to start your weekend.