how do you like your eggs?

You name it, I'll make it. After yesterday's class, I'm pretty much an egg expert. Or an "eggspert" if you will. Last week was hard boiled; this week was over easy, poached and omelettes. Oh, and we still did not have our knife skills practical, however, our egg practical was moved up a week. So we not only had to learn these egg styles in one day, we also had to produce said styles in the same afternoon. I almost had an eggs-istential crisis, but I survived. Unfortunately, several large boxes of eggs did not.

Ah, the egg. Such a little shell, so many possibilities. We'll start out on easy street. I'm sure most of you have made over easy eggs, and I'm also sure that each of you has a personal opinion on how cooked this type of egg should be. This is one of my favorite ways to eat eggs, although I like them VERY over easy and sort of ignore the over part. I like to break an egg in the pan, cover it for a few minutes so that the steam cooks the top of the egg somewhat (at least the white part) along with the bottom, and then dip slices of hot, buttered toast into the flowing yellow yolk. The runnier the better. Lucky for me, one of my Chef's cooks his over easy eggs this way too, so I was able to produce a beautiful over easy egg without having to actually flip it over. And this was an egg that could be served in a restaurant and not be sent back for more skillet time - like the ones I usually eat. 

Round two was poached eggs. My grandma makes a delicious poached egg, but I can't say that I've ever made one myself. The good news is that they are pretty darn easy to make. All you do is crack an egg into a pot of simmering water and vinegar mixture and let it poach away. The key is getting the correct ratio of water to vinegar so that the egg will hold it's shape while it's poaching. And once the egg starts rising to the top, you have to carefully remove it with a slotted spoon and not accidentally break the yolk. These are used to make the fancy breakfast half-sandwich known as eggs benedict. Well, call me Benedict Arnold because I poached the heck out of my test egg.

And the bell rings for round three. A three egg omelette is up next and I'm a little frightened. We made American omelettes, which are cooked completely on one side, flipped over when done, piled with ingredients and folded in half when slid onto the plate. Sounds easy, right? Definitely easier than the French three-fold variety, but the whole "flip the omelette in the pan without using a spatula" trick was a bit of a test in itself. I elicited a scream of joy when I managed to flip one over and keep the whole thing in the skillet. Normally I try to turn my omelette with a spatula a few times during cooking and they always end up brown or somehow turning into scrambled eggs. The keys to a good omelette are a well-sprayed pan, high heat and constantly moving the eggs around so all of the liquid gets cooked before you flip it and fill it. And they shouldn't have any brown on them. I'll be continuing to hone my omelette making skills, but the one I made in class earned me a perfect score.  

We made other breakfast items this week as well. Everyone did their part whipping up pancakes, French toast, bacon and sausage and then we had a delicious lunch-breakfast. A tasty tip for French toast: be sure to let your bread soak up the egg mixture well before frying them in the skillet. And topping them with sliced bananas cooked in maple syrup, brown sugar and rum will make your taste buds even happier.

We also made several large pots of chicken and veal stocks. After cooking the meat bones with vegetables and herbs all day, you're left with a pretty gross mixture, but it's worth it once it's drained. The fresh broth smelled way better than chicken broth from a can at the grocery store.

My heart is still in baking, but all in all, it was an egg-cellent day.