Poached Eggs

I don’t want to teach my grandmother to suck eggs (or poach them in this instance!), but this is such an easy way to poach eggs that it deserves to be shared. 

It came about because I’m a bit of a farty with poaching eggs in pans of boiling water – I’ve never been able to do it properly (!) and I’m far, far too impatient to wait for an egg to poach in a poacher or a poach pod.  

One day I tried doing it this way, and it was such a roaring success that I’ve been doing it this way ever since.  It takes as long as the toast takes to cook so have everything ready to roll! 

Firstly, fill and boil a kettle. 

Then smear a deep frying pan with a little oil and break the eggs into the pan.  Put on the hob (stove) to cook and then put the toast into the toaster.   

As soon as the egg whites are beginning to set (i.e. the bottoms are completely white in the pan) pour in the boiling water gently.  Spoon the water over the yolks to set them as you like them.  I like mine runny so I turn the heat under the pan off as soon as the boiling water goes in.  If you like your yolks set, spoon the boiling water over the yolks until they are cooked through. 

Butter the toast and lift the eggs from the pan with a spatula – you may need to separate the whites though.  I’m not very keen on the whites so I always cut most of them away – I use a cookie cutter.