How not to poach an egg!

Poached egg was one preparation that I was yet to taste or make and the preparation seemed deceptively simple to have not tried it at all. So there I was in my miniscule kitchen with one organic egg (small and shiny with a sticker in a beautiful beige shell), a pot full of water and my enthusiasm.

With the water starting the heat – I was taking no chances. I added salt and vinegar and waited impatiently for the water to boil. The egg, which I had diligently brought to room temperature, lay cracked open in a container, The pasta was cooked, tossed with a little oil and white pepper waiting to be ground on.

While waiting for the water boil I kept trying to think of what got me to try this method of cooking. Poaching an egg is that way a simple task. Boil a pan of water. Slide the egg in, into the water (a gentle plop if most blogs are to be believed), cook for a prescribed time limit (over four and half minutes for a fully cooked egg yolk), remove with a slotted spoon and serve with dash of salt and pepper.

But what happened was something else. Once the water started boiling, I slid the egg in. It did go with a louder than anticipated plop and promptly disintegrated in the water. The lovely yellow yolk remained wobbly but had set in a beautifully thin white film. What was actually dismal was the way the egg white formed trailing threads beyond this yellow orb.

I expected a perfectly formed oval, by way of a poached egg , cooked just right, served up on a bed of al dente pasta but what I finally got was a yolk with trailing white legs reluctant to part from the slotted spoon.