Poached Egg Wednesday

Because of my job, I have a schedule where my weekends fall in the middle of the week. So instead of having awesome Sunday brunches with the rest of the hip city people I treat myself to a midweek brunch...for one...

I end up eating the same thing every time I wake up late on a Wednsday because it is so easy and delicious -poached eggs on a bed of wild rice with tomato sauce and cheese- I was inspired by one of the timea I actually got to go eat some brunch with friends recently, plus these are ingredients I always have handy and they're relatively inexpensive. We never had poached eggs growing up so I just learned how to make them with my favorite cookbook How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Poached eggs:

water
2 eggs
1tsp vinegar
1tsp salt

Fill a deep skillet with about a inch of water (I don't have one so I just use a medium-ish saucepan) and bring to a boil. Add a teaspoon of both salt and vinegar and reduce to a simmer where only one or two bubbles rise to the surface. I've been experimenting with different kinds of vinegar, initially just because I didn't have any white vinegar, and so far like rice vinegar the best but white wine and red wine vinegar were good as well.


Crack your eggs into a small bowl one at a time and slide the egg gently into the water. I only cook two at a time because it is all I need, and Mark Bittman suggests doing them in small batches so they cook properly. Let them cook until the whites are opaque and the yolks are cooked, but not hard, so about 5 minutes. Remove them gently with a slotted spoon.

I usually put them right onto my bed of wild rice (about 1/2 cup) but you can put them on paper towels to get some of the water off and if you want them to be prettier you can trim off the fluffy edges. Then I top them with a few tablespoons of home made tomato sauce, but I'm sure some warmed up from a jar works just as well. It would also be great with some sauteed spinach in the mix which I keep meaning to try. Sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan on top and you're done.














For a quick and flavorful sauce try...
Mark Bittman's Fast Tomato Sauce:

3 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cans whole tomatoes, drained and chopped (I use diced when that's all I have)
salt
pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, add the oil. When it's hot add the onion and cook for a few minutes or until softened. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has thickened and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool and puree if you'd like. I like to add a little garlic, sometimes minced carrot and celery - he has at least 25 variations on this sauce in How to Cook Anything Vegetarian. It's so fast and tastes fresher than canned sauce and can be used in a variety of recipes so I make it once a week or so.

You can adjust the fat and sodium easily if you need to and poach just the whites of the eggs if you want to be super healthy, but it's a relatively healthy brunch choice as is.