Since it didn’t rent and to keep it from going to waste, Bev and some girl friends are spending the week at our timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN doing a little shopping, exercising, and eating out. Meanwhile I’m watching the house, the pets, and tending to Madison. When I talked with Bev one morning, before I ate breakfast, she read part of the breakfast menu from Crockett's Breakfast Camp to me and I became instantly hungry.
Now if you have stopped by here more than a couple of times, you probably know I love eggs and eat them most mornings for breakfast and after this days meal a blog idea was born for a repeat meal. There are many ways to prepare eggs and several methods just to fry them, not to mention the many, many ways to consume them once cooked, but this post is just about cooking and eating fried dippy eggs.
I had done a similar post four years ago, but I cooked the eggs differently and did not publish my criteria back then so I decided on a redo.
My disclaimer is that I am not a professional egg cook nor do I claim this to be the ideal way to cook or eat them for everyone. Having said that, here is my criteria for cooking:
1. Maximum amount of runny yolk.
2. White part done or mostly so.
3. No crispy edges as they make cutting with a fork difficult.
4. Cooked reasonably healthy (olive oil vs. my preferred butter).
I always use a non-stick skillet and for these and I didn’t want to flip them so I added about 1/2 tsp. of olive oil (#4) and 1/2 tsp. of water to make steam – for this method I use just enough flame to make the water boil (sizzle) – (#1, # 2, & #3).
When the water begins to sizzle (can you hear it out there?), I add the eggs and quickly cover with a glass lid – so I can check doneness without removing the lid (#1 & #2).
The purpose of the water it to create steam and hot water droplets which cook the top of the eggs (no need to flip) while the direct heat cooks the bottom thereby making the process happen faster and reducing the amount of hard cooked yolk next to the skillet (#1).
As soon as the white is done enough for me the lid is removed and the eggs are slid onto a plate taking care to keep them together – bear in mind that the white does not have to be completely done around the yolk as it will continue cooking on the plate - it will disappear into the running yolk anyway, but try convincing Bev of that.
I usually take mine out before the the yolk begins to whiten and I make removing them on time the kitchen priority regardless of what else is happening with sides, etc – all to achieve #1.
The following are shots from the previous post when I flipped the eggs, but the eating process is the same.
Now, let’s discuss how to eat them using this criteria:
5. Some of the yolk in every bite.
6. Eat the last of the yolk with the last bite of bread.
7. Leave as little yolk on the plate as possible – for Coco to lick off.
I begin by puncturing one of the yolks such that it runs onto the egg white and not the plate, then I use half of one slice of bread, or English muffin, to sop it up (#5 & #7).
Then repeat with the other egg.
It is now time to cut up the eggs with the fork side while stirring to distribute the remaining yolk evenly among the pieces of white and coating most of them.
The egg is then eaten while using the bread to keep moving everything toward the pile and wiping up any yolk on the plate all the time insuring that at least two bites of bread are left to wipe up any remaining yolk from the plate bottom once the white pieces are gone (#6). This may take some practice to make sure the yolk on the plate and the bread comes out even.
And this my friends is the recipe for the perfect (for me) way to cook and eat dippy eggs but a caution - don’t try this at home unless you are willing to eat eggs several time a week as it can be habit forming.
It should be pointed out that this same cooking method works for using the eggs to top almost anything - see next post.
Thanks for stopping by and joining me on the fun little post at Almost Heaven South.
Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Larry
2/08/15 event date
