Books

The Easy Way to Make a Perfect Poached Egg

SeattleFoodHound Books, Cooking ,

The quintessential poached egg has a firmly set white that surrounds a barely cooked yolk. Use a fork to gently pierce the surface of the neat round package, and the yellow will ooze all over your plate, ready to be sopped up with the edge of your toast, English muffin, or bagel. It’s a nice alternative to scrambling or frying your eggs, even if you use Jacques Pepin’s nifty technique that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

But how do you get the poached egg to keep its shape and come out perfectly? The egg’s journey from the safe harbor of its shell to a simmering pot of water to your plate is a treacherous one. Some chefs think that adding vinegar to the water can help the egg stay intact. Others advise wrapping it in plastic, or using a sous vide cooking method that poaches it more gently.

I’m certainly no eggs-pert, but as usual I turned to Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Food Lab to get his advice. Lopez-Alt says that an ingenious trick for getting the poached egg to hold its shape is to crack it into a dish and then pour it through a fine-mesh strainer. That will cause the egg whites that aren’t held tightly to the yolk to drain away. When you’re ready to start cooking, simply immerse the strainer in the pot and slide your egg out into the water.

Lopez-Alt offers these additional tips for improving your poached egg technique:

  • Use eggs that are as fresh as possible. He says that the freshest eggs have the strongest membranes that hold the white together, so an older egg is more likely to spread when it hits the water.
  • Turn your burner off once your water comes to a boil. The more agitated your water is, the more likely it is that your egg will fall apart. It will only take about 4 minutes for eggs to poach in simmering water.
  • Swirl your eggs gently once they start cooking, which will help them poach more evenly and keep a more rounded shape.
  • Don’t bother adding vinegar to the water. Although this might help your eggs set a little bit faster, it’s more likely to make them come out tough.
  • Do add salt to your water. This won’t affect the cooking process, but a little seasoning will make your eggs taste better.
  • If you’re making breakfast for a crowd, feel free to poach eggs in advance, cooking them a few at a time. Store them in cold water on your counter for a few hours, or in the refrigerator overnight. Then you can simply reheat them in hot water for a few minutes before serving. Just be sure to transfer the eggs carefully when you’re moving them from one dish to another.  

Try out these tips and see if they help improve your poaching technique. But to get perfect results every time, I’m sorry (not sorry) to say that will only come with … eggs-perience.

And what if you need an accompaniment to go with your poached eggs? Someday I’ll have to write about the sauce I learned to make during a long weekend in the Netherlands. I really enjoyed my Holland days.

What I Ate: Poached eggs on a bagel with Yotam Ottolenghi’s shatta chili sauce

A perfect poached egg has a firmly set white that surrounds a barely cooked yolk.

 

How Ottolenghi’s Intriguing Flavors Are Changing the Way I Eat

SeattleFoodHound Books, Cooking, Podcasts ,

Eleven months into the pandemic, it can sometimes be hard to feel enthusiastic about cooking. How many different ways are there to prepare chicken, anyway? But a new book by Jerusalem-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi has infused some new flavors into my kitchen that have inspired an experiment with eating differently – and perhaps, more healthfully.

Ottolenghi’s latest book, co-written with Ixta Belfrage, is called Flavor. Its recipes make use of 20 essential ingredients that layer a punch of heat, spice, or texture within Ottolenghi’s typically vegetable-forward creations. These flavors include chiles (aleppo, ancho, cascabel, and chipotle), fish sauce, gochujang (fermented soybean paste), mango pickle, miso, rose harissa, tamarind paste, and more. You can find each of these ingredients online or in local specialty markets, and they add complexity, variety, and depth to the Middle Eastern flavors for which Ottolenghi is typically known.

The book’s three major sections describe how to transform vegetables with cooking processes (charring, browning, infusing, and aging), how to pair them with other flavors to bring out their intrinsic qualities, and how to get the most out of different types of produce, keeping them at the center of individual dishes. Ottolenghi’s “ultimate roasting-pan ragu” recipe develops a rich umami flavor with the use of both oyster and dried porcini mushrooms, as well as miso paste and tomato paste, and also includes a complex heat from the addition of rose harissa. And using cumin seeds, soy sauce, and coconut cream helps steer the dish in the direction of Asia, a surprising turn for those used to making a meaty, typically Italian Bolognese like Marcella Hazan’s well-regarded sauce.

As is customary for Ottolenghi, the number of elements included in some of his dishes can turn a recipe that seems easy into a cooking project. When I made his asparagus and gochujang pancakes the other night, it involved mixing a dipping sauce, toasting sesame seeds, chopping vegetables, making a batter, cooking pancakes individually, and garnishing them with cilantro. Sure, you could simplify the recipe, but would the results be as delicious or as visually interesting?

Ottolenghi argues that the extra effort helps his recipes move beyond just tasting good. He expanded upon his cooking philosophy on a recent episode of the Milk Street Radio podcast with Christopher Kimball. Ottolenghi said that his recipes are designed to look appealing, with an emphasis on visual contrast. “I hate a boring meal, even if the level of cooking is exquisite … A smooth soup with nothing in it is kind of my idea of hell,” Ottolenghi said. That aesthetic is also something he brings to his restaurants, like his takeout shop in London’s Notting Hill that I visited in 2019. His dishes are presented on large, colorful platters, which he says recreates the feeling of the souks he grew up near in Jerusalem.  

Inspired by the interesting flavor combinations and appealing look of the recipes in Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, I’ve decided to experiment this winter with eating less meat. Instead, I’ll look to gain satisfaction from using a variety of produce as well as some of his essential flavors that are less familiar to me. I’m eager to try Ottolenghi’s ultimate ragu, as well as meatless schnitzels made with romano peppers, and tacos that are filled with celery root and a date barbecue sauce that contains black garlic and smoked paprika.

And if these dishes start to feel like too much effort for a weeknight dinner? Well, I’m also a fan of Ottolenghi’s 2018 cookbook, Simple. His cauliflower, pomegranate, and pistachio salad is something I can whip together quickly. And when I’m ready to switch things up again, it seems like that dish would go great with some lamb and feta meatballs.

What I Ate (A Few Days Ago): Ottolenghi’s asparagus and gochujang pancakes

Asparagus and gochujang pancakes by Ottolenghi pack a world of flavor into a small bite

The Rise of Influencer Culture and Maintaining Reader Trust

SeattleFoodHound Books ,

The thoughtfully researched, provocative book No Filter, which I finished reading in January, chronicles the rise of Instagram over the past decade and its role in shaping modern Internet habits. Notably, author Sarah Frier chronicles the rise of influencer culture and the ways in that tens of millions of Instagram users earn their living as lifestyle, travel and food influencers by posting on behalf of brands and other companies. According to the author, millions of Instagram accounts have more followers than the New York Times has paid subscribers. Go ahead, read that last sentence again. Wow.

Frier describes how Instagram, although originally resistant to the concept of its customers making money from their accounts, recommended that they keep their interactions on behalf of brands “meaningful and genuine,” because engaging in self-promotional behavior on Instagram would make people who have shared that moment feel “sad inside.” Despite these admonishments, many Instagram users pursued riches on the app, buying fake followers by the thousands and gradually altering their own realities to make their photos, and even their own experiences, more “Insta-worthy.” The founders’ original concept of Instagram as a location for beautiful depictions of daily life was gradually subsumed by an ultra-competitive marketplace in which users competed for likes and followers, with predictably harmful consequences.

The world of travel and food writing is plagued by similar conflicts of interest. When travel or food influencers post on behalf of brands who are paying them to promote their products, it’s simply impossible to provide an opinion that’s worthy of their readers’ trust. This is true whether they’re receiving cash of any amount, or getting gifts in kind such as a free night in a fancy hotel or a new blender. Readers who value independent criticism want to know that the experts they rely on are providing their own opinions, not ones that are colored by the desire to please a client. (Even choosing not to write about a negative experience degrades your readers’ trust, as it prevents them from seeing a full picture of your experiences, both the good and the bad.)

Related: Why People Say There’s No Good Mexican Food in Seattle

As I begin this blog, I’m stating from the outset that the opinions within are my own, and are not at all influenced by any financial relationships with the brands or businesses I choose to write about. Like any author, I have personal preferences, and what I choose to highlight is shaped by my experiences and media consumption habits. But I will always aim to be transparent about where I’m coming from. My hope is that over time, you’ll start to gain a fuller picture of my tastes and interests, and that you’ll begin trusting my expertise and recommendations as a food journalist who you can rely upon for insight. At the very least, you’ll know that anything I write — however wrongheaded it may be — isn’t because someone paid me to say something nice.

What I Ate: Toulouse pork sausage from Beast & Cleaver on a toasted, buttered roll with stoneground mustard and onions

Some food influencers get paid to promote products, but I just thought this was a delicious sausage