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It’s almost time to celebrate Easter, and that means it’s about time to start indulging in Easter eggs! Although we love the traditional chocolatey eggs filled with soft marshmallow goodness, we think it’s time to show a little appreciation to the savoury type of eggs we take for granted every day – so we went egg hunting to find out how many ways you can cook delicious eggs.
Eggs really tie a breakfast together. They’re great in so many ways: inexpensive, easy to prepare, cook quickly, and offer a tasty source of protein.
These eggs are cooked in their shell in boiling water. Making them is super simple and quick! Fill a pot with enough water to completely cover your eggs and bring to the boil. There are two kinds of boiled eggs you can make depending on your cooking time.
The “hard” refers to the consistency of the egg white and the yolk. After bringing the water to a boil, leave the eggs to cook for 10-12 minutes. The bonus of these little guys is that you can hard boil a bunch of eggs at one time and refrigerate them for later. Eat them with a sprinkle of salt, or chop into a yummy salad.
Soft boiled eggs follow the same process as hard boiled eggs, but the cooking time is cut roughly in half. This gets the egg white cooked while leaving the yolk runny. Bring your water to a boil, gently lower in the eggs, set a timer for six minutes, then remove the eggs and drop them in an ice bath. They’re great on toast, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
The almighty scrambled eggs. One of the coolest things about scrambled eggs is that they can be made by accident. Scrambled technically means that the whites and yolks are broken and mixed together. When you are making this yummy meal, keep in mind that eggs cook quickly. You can’t walk away from them. Whip up your eggs in a separate bowl. Heat your pan no higher than medium, grease it, pour the eggs in, then stay close with a spatula. Turn and fold them repeatedly while they cook.
Hard scrambled eggs are cooked all the way through. This is the default preparation for scrambled eggs at most restaurants, and they’re good and tasty! Add salt and pepper for a simple breakfast dish.
Soft scrambled eggs are sometimes referred to as “wet.” The difference between soft and hard scrambled eggs is their cooking time. Cook soft scrambles until the eggs aren’t runny but not fully cooked through. They’re perfect on buttered toast with salt and pepper.
An omelet or frittata is made by scrambling eggs and cooking until they’ve stabilised into a usable form. Topped with other ingredients such as cheeses, meats, vegetables or just about anything, it is delicious. A frittata is typically open-faced, whereas an omelet is folded over in half onto the additions. But the egg base remains the same.
Sunny side up means your egg yolk looks like a bright morning sun. To make these beauties, crack an egg directly into your greased frying pan and fry until the edges turn brown, WITHOUT flipping. The yolk is runny, and depending on how long you fry it, the white is completely or partially set. The runny yolk is great for dipping toast into.
The “easy” doesn’t refer to the simplicity of turning over an egg, but the state of your yolk. You go from sunny side up to over easy by simply flipping your egg when the edges start browning. This type of egg is flipped and cooked just long enough to make a film on the top of the yolk. When served, the yolk – and some of the whites – are still runny.
Over medium is the next step after easy. Fried, flipped, and fried a little longer, enough to cook the whites through and brown the edges slightly is the way to cook these eggs. You’ll develop a thicker film on your yolk, but the inside is still runny. This is a good option for those that like the dipping quality without a watery egg white.
Over hard is fried, flipped, and fried again – usually with the yolk broken – until both the white and the yolk are completely cooked. Just tap the edge of your spatula into the yolk or poke it with a fork before turning it over to get the desired effect.
It’s like boiling but without the shell. This means you will be able to avoid any hard edges. Add a dash of vinegar to a pan of steadily simmering water. Carefully crack your eggs into a ramekin or a cup. Create a gentle whirlpool in the water to help the egg white wrap itself around the yolk. Slowly tip the egg into the water, white first, and leave to cook for around three minutes. The egg white is cooked thoroughly and the yolk is warm and runny. Just imagine it mixing with a bright hollandaise on an eggs benedict – yum!
Baked eggs are cracked and baked in a dish. They’re almost always mixed with other ingredients. The white mixes in and gets cooked through, while the yolk is left to be runny. The benefit of this preparation is that the egg really blends into the ingredients to create a fully formed dish.
Eggs are versatile, even in the different textures and flavours. Regardless of how you use them, they enhance any breakfast dish and they stand perfectly fine on their own.
