On Monday morning I posted this photo on Facebook.
Among other friends who noted the egg cup was
Dasha, a nice blogging friend who lives in Australia. She was surprised to discover that whole swathes of the human population (in this case, Americans) knew nothing of the joys of the soft boiled egg in an egg cup. To quote her, "Don't they realize what a treat they are missing out on! A googie egg and soldiers for breakfast -- bliss!"
Googie egg and soldiers? What??!! (I just googled that. Looks like
lots of people enjoy this dish.)
But she convinced me that I was missing out on a cultural pleasure, and that always gets my attention. So for lunch today? Googie eggs and soldiers! It helps that we're keeping a pot of softly boiling water on the stove these days to keep the air moist in the house. Dasha said (contrary to what I'd always done for hard-boiled eggs) to boil the water first, and place the eggs into it. So I did.
Dasha recommended boiling them for 5.5 - 6 minutes. I dislike overcooked eggs, so I erred on the short side and set the timer for 5 minutes. Should've listened to her though :)
Meanwhile I prepared my toast, homemade bread, with light butter. (Using salted butter will keep you from needing to sprinkle salt onto your egg, which is problematic in an egg cup.)
I also prepared some cold water to immerse the eggs in immediately after the timer dinged. Note the spoon, perfect for putting eggs into and out of water.
Egg goes into egg cup. First piece of toast cut in strips, i.e. "soldiers."
These are grocery store eggs, not farm-fresh eggs, so they are
old. That means they peel easily. I noticed that this egg already had a cracked section on the small end, indicating that the little air bubble inside the egg was on this end. Some people are big-enders, and some are little-enders. All Swift fans will giggle now. I go for whichever end might have the air bubble.
The egg was a mess, but remember -- I'm a newbie. My goal here is to have a cooked white, but a fully runny yellow for dipping my soldiers in.
The white was a bit runny and messy, and it dribbled down the side. Dribbling bothers me not; I'm only concerned with not losing any of that delicious yellow yolk!
You need a place to gather your itty-bitty shell pieces.
I polished off the first egg, mess and all, mostly scooping it out with my spoon and eating it on the uncut piece of toast.
But I
still wanted the googie-egg-and-soldiers experience! So I commenced upon Egg #2. This time, the top of the egg came off nicely without breaking the yolk. Yes!
With nervous fingers I gently inserted one soldier into the golden circle.
And I'll tell you right now, this is some yumminess.
A couple of soldiers are enough to finish the yolk.
I did wonder though -- what do you do with the white in this situation? We all know that cooked egg white is BLEH, and it needs the yolk to give it flavor. I discovered that there's just enough yolk left in there to enhance the white.
See?
As with the first egg, I scraped out the bowl of the egg cleanly with the spoon and ate it with toast. This is one benefit of an egg cup: the cup itself provides a hard surface against which you can scrape, through the shell, with your spoon, wasting
absolutely nothing.
Thank you, Dasha! This was delicious, and it's true that the combination of the toast, dipped into the yolk, is truly delectable. It may be a bit messy in an egg cup, but it's a lot less messy than trying to do the same thing all over your plate.
So here's a question for you Americans. Have you ever seen an egg cup for sale in a store? Which store? Do you own one? Use one? What do you think of it?
6 comments:
This looks perfectly delicious! Don't you just love simple food cooked well? My hens lay the loveliest eggs; the yolks are bright orange, the whites are sweet, and the shells are hard as can be. I generally gather four or five a day when I can find them. Three of the girls have re-discovered their former pen. But the others generally go into the woods, leaving me to guess where the eggs have been laid. Too bad you don't live close by --- you'd have a freshly-laid dozen every few days.
I have had a laugh over breakfast with this post! You are a hoot M.K., but I think I have a convert. LOL
BTW Egg etiquette states that you make a little pile of salt & pepper on the side of your plate, and gently dip a tip of your loaded egg spoon in that on the way to the mouth.
Also. I serve my egg (in its cup) on a little saucer, and the bread on a side plate. More washing up, but infinitely easier to deal with said egg.
And. There's More! (another Aussieism which I will explain if you wish elsewhere). If you don't want the egg shell to crack in the boiling water, pierce a tiny hole in the end (hopefully the one with the air bubble) with a metal skewer.
Glad you enjoyed your googie egg. ;-)
YUMMY! Dasha's comment above is funny! What a great eggy tutorial! I mailed your money finally! Sorry it took me so long!
REAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY? You didn't know about soft boiled eggs and soldiers??? I eat these twice a year at music camp! I LOVE it when the white is still a bit runny inside- what we do at camp is have big warmed baps/rolls and I spread it with butter and then scoop out my egg into it and squash it into the roll add a bit of salt and pepper and eat it half at a time. Utterly delicious!x
Ah, I was a little worried about the egg shell cracking when you drop it in the boiling water, but I guess she addressed that issue. I've always loved to "sop up" the yolk with my toast, but usually this would be done with a fried egg done over easy. Did you get any shell mixed in? (The thought sets my teeth on edge!) No egg cups here. But I do think they're a pretty accessory! :)
I have egg cups, but use them only to display Easter eggs! Runny egg yolks make me shudder, I just can't do it. But glad you enjoyed yours :) And I could eat lots of "soldiers" just as is!
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