Saturday, February 04, 2006

Poached Egg on Turkey with Tomato Salsa



*drumroll*

Yes, I finally managed to make something for EoMEoTE - Eggs on Toast End of Month Extravaganza. I've been thinking about it for a very long time, but pretty much put it out of my mind since I virtually never eat eggs on toast. Or with toast, for that matter. Unless my regular weekend breakfast counts - soft boiled egg, with my sandwhiches.. but no, I never felt that that really did qualify.

So. I was home from work, having felt nauseous for a couple of days. Suddenly, the idea of a poached egg, on toast, with some turkey and tomato salsa sounded awfully good. (I had seen something similar on the cover of Delicious.) And, being scared of free-hand poaching, I had picked up a poaching device on sale. Perfect!

As I was finishing, it occurred to me that it was.. January 30th. Hey. That's end of month. This is eggs on toast. Extravaganza!!

A note on poaching. The poaching device totally, completely sucked. It's a little plastic basket thingie with four egg cups. You lower it into simmering water, crack the eggs in the cups, and watch them poach. In theory. In practice, the egg went all over the place. Congealed egg white in the pan. But not in the cup. In fact, after ten minutes of simmering, nothing had changed about the egg. That's when I gave up, removed the poaching device, poured the egg back in the pan, and hoped for the best. It didn't come out very pretty, but who cares. It was really tasty.

Now, EoMEoTE wouldn't be what it is without the literary additions. This time, Jeanne asked that we'd choose a poet, and write something in that style. The only thing that came to mind was The Lady of Shalott, by Tennyson. I love this one! So, here's a very botched attempt to be funny:

It left the hen, off to its’ doom
It came to me, into my room
On a day of grey and gloom
I cracked the shell with a resounding boom
For the purpose of this post
I poached it in a pan so wide
And swirled the water from side to side
It could not resist, no matter how it tried.
And that was that, the egg was toast


And what the heck, let's go for one more.. Dylan Thomas, anyone?

Do not go gently into that simmering water. Old eggs should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the setting of the yolk.


Poached Egg on Turkey with Tomato Salsa
2 portions

2 slices of toast, toasted
2 eggs
6-8 thin slices of smoked turkey, sliced into strips
1 tsp olive oil
1 tomato
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 tbsp finely chopped red pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
salt, black pepper, sugar

Start by mixing the salsa. Just combine tomato, lemon juice, onion, red pepper and parsley in a small bowl, and season with salt, black pepper and a little pinch of sugar.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, and quickly fry the turkey strips. Poach the eggs, as well you can.

To assemble, place the turkey strips on the bread, add an egg, and top with salsa.

Pocherat ägg på kalkon med tomatsalsa

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - You didn't mention this, and I don't want to tell you something you know, but thouht I'd mention that it's supposed to help the poached eggs stay together better if you add some acid, lemon juice or vinegar to the water.

I tried poaching eggs once and scared myself. Maybe I'll give it another try, they sure are good. This is a good looking recipe to try them out on, too. cindy

Elizabeth said...

1. I definitely think that "soft boiled egg with sandwiches" qualifies for EoMEoTE (but then I thought that "toasted tomato sandwich with mayonnaise" qualified for EoMEoTE so I guess you can't go by me.)

2. Your Hennyson is brilliant.

3. Your Dylan Thomas is even better!

4. I never poach eggs (being unnecessarily squeamish about poached eggs AND runny yolks) but my husband often poaches his eggs. As Cindy mentioned, a little acid works very well for keeping the whites contained. My husband always adds a teaspoon or so of white vinegar to the water. His eggs come out only a little misshapen.

-Elizabeth

Anne said...

Haha, thank you both so much! :) I did know about the acid thing, but didn't do it this time as I had.. um, semi-set the egg already in the stupid poaching device. Next time, I will definitely do it "the right way".

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne,

I have a book from America's Test Kitchen, where they test the "best" way to make certain dishes. For poaching eggs, they suggest adding vinegar and a bit of salt to a shallow pan of water, bringing it to a boil, slide your cracked eggs into the water, remove the pan from heat and cover. Within a few minutes you have pretty good poached eggs! Hope that helps.

Sam said...

utter brilliance - the dillon thomas.
I always add vinegar to my poaching water.
poaching eggs is a doddle once you overcome the fear.
check out delia smith's suggestions.
I always turn to her for the basic things.
She is right about the freshness - last week my eggs were a day old and perfect. This week (same batch of eggs) didnt poasch nearly so well.

Sam said...

Er - meant Dylan - my nephew is called Dillon so I type that word that way by default!

Jeanne said...

Hahaha - I LOVE the Dylan Thomas! Absolutely brilliant. So glad you have finally got round to playing along :-) Look out for the roundup sometime this week...

Bean said...

I concur with the vinegar in salted simmering water. If you can crack your egg on a small saucer (like you would use for demitasse cup) you can easily slide it off into the water. I use a slotted spoon to remove my poached egges and I drain them briefly on paper towels.

Cyndi said...

Have you ever heard Lorena McKennit's version (singing) of the Lady of Shallot? I couldn't help but hear her in my mind singing YOUR poem! It's priceless. I love the D. Thomas, too! I did Jabberwocky.

Anne said...

Thanks for all the tips! I need to try more poaching methods, that's for sure. :) And thanks for the kind words on my poems - it was a lot of fun to write, so I'm glad they entertain ;)