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Friday, January 15, 2010

Poached Eggs With Pasta- My Twist To The Traditional Birthday Noodles

Birthday Noodles

Poached Eggs with Tomato Myonnaise12

Poached Egg with Tomato Mayonnaise

Poached Eggs Collage

Poached Eggs Collage 2

Poach Eggs With Spaghetti1


It is amazing how the birthdays of my dearest, my best friends, my family all seem to fall in the month of January and February. L, my sister and 2 of my close knit friends' birthdays fall in January. In Februray, including myself, there will be another 4 birthday girls within our close knit circle celebrating birthdays. I am not a person big on birthday celebrations. I am extremely bad at remembering birthdays and refrain from letting people know about mine.

I remember commenting on Zurin's blog once that age is getting increasingly irrelevant in today's world. I sometimes feel that we are entering an ageless era. One cannot avoid turning pages of any fashion magazine today without being besieged by youthful images of  men and women (especially women) in their fifties, sixties looking like some immortal sphinx!

Admittedly, science has played a big role in youth preservation, health enhancement and beyond.  Some of these solutions overwhelm our expectation and imagination while others yield reports to demonstrate efficacies of certain natural food families e.g. Royal Jelly, Pine Bark Extract, Mushroom Extract, Ginseng.
Whatever they are, the ultimate objectives underlying these solutions strive to achieve the common goal of prolonging live and extending youth.
A Korean colleague of mine once made a comment which floored me but at the same time set me thinking. We were talking about the benefits of taking Korean Ginseng extract - he takes them regularly for general well being - to enhance energy level, boost immunity - all to cope better with the highly demanding tasks we are engaging in both at the work front and family front. He then lapsed into a playfully pensive mood, lamenting that actually he preferred to be free from these 'super supplements' for he feared when it is time for him to go, his nutrient enforced cells will be resisting the siege and cause more suffering to those last few moments on the death bed.

Well, that was a little bit of food for thought. What I really want to post on this blog is actually a dish to celebrate the 2 birthday eventful months. One of the most traditional dishes presented during chinese birthdays would be noodles served with 2 hard boiled eggs. It is ceremonial to dye the shell of the hard boiled eggs in red. Everyone in the family will be expected to partake of one red egg while the birthday gal/guy will need to take 2 of them. As we get more and more exposed to the western world, these noodles and eggs gradually started to disappear during birthday celebrations. They are often deemed old fashioned and unhip. Replacing them are visually appealing western style birthday cakes.
As I was flipping through some old Japanese Food Periodicals a few days back, I saw a picture of poached eggs. Poached to take on the appearance of a snow white pouch, these are drizzled with a mayonnaise dressing. I have never made poached eggs before and all of a sudden I thought the poached eggs paired with the Mentaiko Angel Hair Pasta I made last week would offer a nice modern twist to the traditional birthday noodles and eggs.

Poaching eggs, for those who have never done it before - be warned! It is NOT EASY! I wasted 4 eggs before I got these 2 that look boderline decent. A few points which I will pay attention to when I do this again next time :
1. Water needs to be bubbling but not too vigorously.
2. Once the egg has been poured into the water, leave it - do not be tempted to poke at it, stir it etc.
3. I will use my soup ladle to cradle the egg instead of letting it float and swim in the bubbling water.

The dressings, so easy to make, pair brilliantly with the poached eggs.

Poached Egg with Worchester Mayo

Ingredients for Poached Eggs :

Eggs                Let there be extras...
Rice vinegar     2 % of the volume of water. (if you use 1l water, add 20ml)

Dressing:
Tomato Mayo
2 Tbsp        Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp        Tomato Ketchup
1 Tbsp        Milk

Worchester Mayo
2 Tbsp       Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp       Worchester sauce

Method :

1. For dressing, simply mix all ingredients together.
2. In a frying pan ( I started using a saucepan but changed to a more shallow wok) add enough water to give a height of 3-4cm of water.
3. Add 2% of vinegar and heat to low boiling.
4. Break an egg in a small bowl. Slowly ease this into soup ladle immersed in the boiling water.
5. Leave this to set and cook.
6. Once egg white is cooked, (yolk should still be liquid, if you prefer this to be harder, boil longer but egg white may become a little tough. I suppose you can reduce the amount vinegar if you prefer to cook the yolk longer but want to prevent the egg white from toughening) drain water carefully from ladle and transfer egg into a bowl of cold water.
7. Use your hand, gently scoop the poached egg from the cold water and pat dry with dish towel.

8. Top with Mayo dressing and garnish with Nori (seaweed powder) powder.

Please refer here for spaghetti recipe.

17 comments:

Allie said...

This looks absolutely yummy! I love your clean-looking pictures too.

Always thought making poached eggs was very challenging. I'm kinda scared to try!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

That looks like an amazingly good combination! I've got a recipe that apparently makes fantastic poached eggs so we'll see. I hope it does! :D

La Table De Nana said...

You've managed a model's portfolio for your poached eggs:) I bet they are delsih w/ the mayo....the addition of pancetta and cheese and we have deconstructed carbonara:)

Well done..so well done I am craving a poached egg now..Many birthdays in my family 2:)

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Monique - this is the nicest compliments I have received! 'Model's portfolio' - you are making my head swell :). I like the way your brain is able to dissect this into a deconstructed carbonara :)... very imaginative!

Zurin said...

Beautifully poached eggs indeed.! You cook and write recipes like a chemist! M guessing u are one...lol

your pics are beautiful as always :))
tq for the link too.

Irene's Footprints said...

impressive...veri clean cut pictures with pretty table settings. I was eyeing on the Jap periodicals and the pink kitchen towel. Hmm...great foto!
You brought the egg to life.

: )

Irene's Footprints said...

oh...and the set of salt and pepper thingy...so sweet..u must have got it from Japan? Am I rite?

Cute!

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Hi Irene. Actually the salt and pepper set was some giveaway gift at a wedding I attended a few years ago. I almost wanted to throw it away because it is very rough and I don't know what to do with it.

Pink kitchen towel is from Daiso - sometimes,can find some cheap and good things at Daiso. Japanese magazine is very old - from 2001.

chocolatecup said...

veryvery amazing looking birthday meal:))

Irene's Footprints said...

Hi Shirley
You have many tools to enhance your table settings...good!

Must learn from you on the foto taking part...

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Irene, actually you will be suprised - there are many things around the house that can be used as props - and if you go out and buy props, they don't need to be expensive. Daiso is a good place to start.

Carolyn said...

Beautiful food and beautiful photography!

Carolyn

Sarah said...

I popped over from Food with Style and so happy I did. Today is my birthday! Love poached eggs and these are so pretty. Thanks for sharing. ~ Sarah

Duchess of Tea said...

Darling you have an amazingly delicious blog and a new follower...me. I will return daily to see what's for dinner.

Love & Hugs
Duchess

Nina Timm said...

Thanks for popping in on my site.....
Boy, am I glad I now have access to this gorgeous site. I love everything I see here on your site, but the poached eggs has definitely got my attention. I love them and served with noodles can only be phenomenal.

bed frames said...

Wow! This is really beautiful! I really should try this one. It seems so perfect to me.

Herryponting said...

Very tasty i will trying to make this yummy,
Super Dieters Tea Cranberry Twist

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