Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Eggs Over Easy (the Easy Way)

My wife loves eggs cooked “over easy.” So do I, for that matter. So for her "Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed," she'll be getting some. Getting fried eggs to turn out with moist yolks and completely cooked whites, can be tough. It turns out there's an insanely easy way to do it, though. Believe it or not, it has as much to do with your toaster as it does your stove.

I love this recipe for kids, too. It's easy enough that a young cook can handle it. Just supervise them a bit so they don't burn themselves.

I first learned this technique from James Thorson in his book “Tough Guys Don't Dice.” It's a great book. I recommend it to any neophyte cook. As far as I know it's out of print, but you can find copies if you look.

By the way, this book is not an example of fine cuisine. No way. Instead, it's filled with basic recipes and techniques you can use to feed yourself (and others) using down to earth language that most guys will appreciate. At the very least, it's an entertaining read.

The secret to this recipe is to serve it with toast. Here's how you do it.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter (one if you're just cooking one egg)
2 large eggs (or one if you're watching your weight)
1 /4 teaspoon salt
1 /8 teaspoon pepper.
Two slices of bread

First, heat a small saute or omelet pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of butter and melt until it stops foaming. You can use a teaspoon or two of vegetable or canola oil, if your prefer. Just make sure the oil is hot before you add the eggs. Crack two eggs into the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover tightly, and remove from the heat. Trust me. There's enough heat left in the pan to cook the eggs.

Now, put the slices of bread in your toaster. Set it to make a reasonably brown toast, please. None of this “barely warm enough to melt the butter but not brown the bread” garbage.

When the toast pops up, the eggs are done.

I know. It sounds weird but, if you get the temperatures right, it works great. If you leave the eggs on the heat, the bottom will get too crusty. If you don't let the pan heat up enough before hand, the yolks will be too runny.

I like my eggs either way, so I don't mind so much when I don't get it perfect.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea. I'll have to try it.

Unknown said...

I love to eat eggs but I'm horrible at getting them just right when I cook them for myself. I'm using this method tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it works!

Claudia Davila (Fran) said...

Thanks John! I had a feeling a lid was part of it :-)

ashes said...

the toaster timing totally works. I use it all the time!

Sally said...

I will have to give this a shot. Cooking eggs is a hit and miss affair for me.lol.
Thanks very much for sharing :)

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