EGGIES!

Well, as some of you know already, I have been a little under the weather this last week.  So, I didn’t feel up to making a new dish this week.

However, that doesn’t mean that I slacked on my cooking school lessons.  This week I am learning about eggs.

Okay, okay, I know your initial reaction is probably the same as mine.  Eggs?  Do I really need to learn about eggs.  Eggs are like the first thing that people learn to make as a kid.  You’d think that by the time you are an adult that you would at least have eggs down, right?  WRONG!

Okay, so we’ll all need to put our egg pride behind us and I’ll share some interesting info on eggs that I have been learning.  Believe me I am really surprised at all of the different things that I am learning.

White Eggs, Brown Eggs, Little Eggs, Big Eggs, Blue Eggs, Turkey Leggs.  The color or shape of the egg doesn’t make an egg healthier or less healthier for you.  It depends on the feed that the chickens were given.  I always look for eggs that have been  given Omega-3 and Omega-6.  It is also important to me that they are range free organic eggs.

You’ll notice the yolk will be orange in color rather than yellow.  The nutritional value is much higher than a regular hen that is just fed grain.

Range free means that the hens were allowed to roam the yard and feed on bugs, grass and anything else  they can find.  I’m sure that they are still fed grain as well.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t always buy my eggs like this, sometimes I can be a cheapo and just buy regular white eggs.  For some reason I always had it stuck in my head that brown eggs were healthier.

Boiling Eggs:

Get your pan full of cold water add about 2 tsp of salt per liter of water and then bring it to a boil, turn down to a simmer and with a large spoon add each egg being careful not to crack the shell.

Soft Boiled Eggs: 8 Min.

Med. Boiled Eggs: 10 Min.

Hard Boiled Eggs: 12 Min.

Once your egg timer goes off put your eggs in a bath of cold ice water to stop the cooking or you might end up with grey egg yolks. P.S. Your yolks should remain a bright yellow color.

The best way to enjoy a hard-boiled egg is to slice it open and add pat of butter, salt and a shake of pepper.  Try it… you just might like it too!

Did you know that you can check the freshness of an egg by putting it in a bowl of water?  If it sinks then it is pretty fresh, if the pointy part of the egg floats a little bit then it is less than fresh, and if it floats all together throw the egg away, it’s old.  This is because the shell of an egg can absorb air and moisture which accumulates at the tip of the egg.  Have you ever noticed the air pocket at the top of a hard boiled egg?  This is why the old ones float the older they are the more air it absorbs.  I thought that was interesting.

Oddly enough older eggs make better hard boiled eggs, go figure??

If you find yourself saying, “I forgot whether I boiled this egg or not”; No worries, just spin it!  Yes, just put it on the counter if it spins pretty fast then it’s already been boiled.  If it barely spins then it hasn’t been boiled.  I thought that was pretty cool.

There is lots of other stuff that I will have to share with you another time.

These were some of the basics but in the future I will be learning about:

• Scrambling Eggs

• Making Omelets

• Poaching Eggs

• Making a Frittata

• Braising Eggs

• Pan Frying