Category: Small bites

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Poached Eggs

I don’t know what possessed me to try and cook poached eggs for breakfast.  Well, I do.  It was the Waitrose magazine coaxing me into trying one of those cheffy, swirly poached eggs that look so elegant.
Mine looked like this.

And this was my second attempt.  I did actually eat the first one, but it was practically hard boiled and in much the same stringy state as this one.
I am not sure what I’m doing wrong.  This frustrates me.  When I follow a recipe to the letter, why doesn’t it work?  Water was simmering, water was swirled to the point of spinning over the sides of the pan, drops of vinegar in egg, egg slipped in to the middle….and instantly it dissipated throughout the water looking like I’d just sneezed egg white into the pan.
No doubt on another misguided day I will try again, but until then I will stick to these:

They might come out looking like a pair of boobs *sniggers* but at least they cook properly.

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Pancakes

Pancakes have lost their allure in my house.  Well, for me anyway.  This is mainly due to the fact that Husband cooks them most mornings for the kids. They nag; he caves. I clear up the mess.  Fear not though, we shall have them Shrove Tuesday with traditional jif lemon oozing from every pore.

My husband always makes the American style pancakes, akin to scotch pancakes in my opinion.  I prefer the more crepe-style ones; thinner, bigger and for me, much nicer to scoff!

Of course, the recipe I use for mine is a Nigella one…simple, quick and scrummy.  I always have them with lemon and sugar, but there is no end of possibilities. The kids go for chocolate spread or syrup but one of the nicest fillings I’ve had was cherry. Replicated by me via a can of cherry pie filling, warmed gently and spooned over the pancake. There was the temptation to add some squirty cream but then I remembered what it tastes of (nothing) so opted for without.

Ingredients taken from ‘How to Eat‘ it is merely:

125g ‘OO” flour (or plain if you like) 
300ml milk 
1 egg

Whisk them all up together and hey presto! (Nigella does have a bit more method than that, but I just whisk!).  She also recommends resting the batter; alas, I am far too hungry to do that and use it straight away.  One thing you must have (and I was told this method by a bona fide chef) is a hot, quality pan, else they’ll stick.  Then, drizzle about a teaspoon of oil in it to get hot then using a big scrunchy ball of kitchen towel, I wipe it out so you are left with an almost invisible layer of oil coating the pan.  I repeat this roughly every 5 pancakes, depending on how much the previous pancake stuck!
Try to avoid this when tossing….

Happy eating!