Poached eggs are such a delicious treat. There’s nothing like gently breaking into an expertly poached egg to see the silky yolk oozing out on to a chunky piece of toast below.
But they are also far more challenging to do well when compared to fried or boiled eggs. So, for lots of us, we may only ever eat them when we are out at a cafe or restaurant for brunch.
But with this method, you can poach an egg as expertly as any restaurant kitchen. And once you’ve tried it, if you’re anything like me, you’ll never go back to those fiddly techniques like trying to create a swirling effect in the water before dropping your egg in. You also don’t need to worry about adding vinegar to the water, like some recipes recommend.
The one tricky thing about this method is that it does require you to be constantly over the pan, and you won’t be able to do much else on the side while you’re waiting for your egg to cook.
So without further ado, here’s the foolproof method to poaching an egg that you’ve been waiting for.
To poach an egg with a ladel, follow these simple steps:
- Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer.
- Spray the ladle with non-stick cooking spray or brush it with oil. This step is crucial — the oil prevents the egg from sticking to the ladle and if you don’t do it you will just have a ladle full of burned egg that will take you ages to scrub off (and you’ll have nothing edible left)
- Crack the egg into the ladle.
- Gently lower the ladle into the simmering water.
- Allow water to gently seep into the ladle in small amounts, but don’t let it rush in — if it rushes in it will break up the yolk and cause the pan to become an uncontrollable, bubbly mess
- Cook the egg for about three minutes, or until the egg white is opaque and the yolk is still a little jiggly.
- Remove the ladle from the water and gently tease out the egg. You should have a beautifully-shaped and rounded egg.
- Season with salt and enjoy.
