11. Eggs Over Easy

In my last blog entry, 10. Poached Eggs, I covered a lot of stuff about eggs.  I don't want to repeat myself too much if I can help it.  So, if you haven't read the first article about eggs I recommend clicking over to the entry and at least giving it a skim to catch up.  I'll just write this assuming you know what I've already written there and get on with it.

Eggs Over Easy are considered soft cook eggs, which means that they are lightly cooked and the yolk is still runny when they are done.  There are some precautions you should consider when cooking soft cooked eggs, so go to the link above if you're not aware of the caveat.

For the most part, cooking eggs is simple, the worst part of cooking soft cooked eggs is the delicate job of ensuring the yolks don't break, but, unless you have some amazing agility, you're probably going to break a few yolks trying this.  It just takes practice, I don't believe in born talent.  Even the most famous masters of their craft from cooks to painters developed their skills over time.  Just have some patience and eventually you'll experience the awesome satisfaction of making great eggs over easy.

My mother originally taught me how to make eggs over easy, she is a master at cooking these eggs and even she breaks the occasional yolk.  However, when she makes them right, and she often does, they're great.  Actually, she taught me quite well, but, I don't know how it happened, I lost my knack for it over the years.  It's strange how I was able to make a better fried egg at 15 than almost forty. So I consulted a book by Alton Brown.  His method involves flipping the eggs in the pan like flapjacks rather than using a spatula.  In fact, he advises against using a spatula at all!

Although the pan flipping method defies logic for me, I figured if it's good enough for Alton Brown, it's good enough for me.  So I gave it a shot.  Actually, this blog is the result of many weeks of practice and thanks to my ten year old helper we got some cool shots of the egg flipping.  

First, I start with my ten inch non stick frying pan.  You may want to use a skillet, but that might seem heavy for the flipping.  Maybe a small one will work, I don't own a skillet so I'm not going to deal with that now.  If I had my druthers, I would cook this in a smaller pan, if I owned one.  It just seems like the eggs would be easier to manage.  By the way, I almost always give my pans a shot with olive oil non-stick cooking spray.  Even though I'm going to use oil I just seem to have shitty luck with food sticking to my pans, that's probably because I own cheap shit.  Back when I played an adult on TV and could afford better stuff I didn't think much about it and just got some cheap stuff, thinking it's all the same.  That's bullshit!  With some things you really do get what you pay for, and if you disagree with me you're probably a cheap ass who owns a lot of crappy shit.  Either way, you don't have to buy the most expensive stuff, but don't skimp either.  

I cook my eggs with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  You may want to cook with butter, and all my chef heroes say that cooking with unsalted butter is the best.  I'll just have to take their word for it, because this concept is new to me.  I've always used the butter in the fridge and we never bought unsalted butter, but I'm willing to give it a try.  Now Alton Brown recommends using one tablespoon of unsalted butter, but if you have sticking problems like me, I don't think two will hurt.
So, whatever and how much you decide on, you have to heat up your oil or butter over a medium heat.  You want it good and hot but don't wait until your oil smokes or your butter scorches.  Experience cooking the eggs will tell you when is a good time to drop your eggs.

When you crack your egg and drop it into the pan, make sure you get it as close to the part of the pan away from you as possible, like the photo above, then tilt the pan forward as soon as possible so the egg pools in the front.  Hold the tilted pan directly over the heat so the egg whitens quickly.  This prepares if for optimum flipping.  I just drop one egg at a time, my man Alton can do two, but I'm not quite there yet.

  Count slowly to ten, then lower the pan and count to ten again.  Jiggle the pan around so the egg comes loose and slides around the pan a little.  This is when you know you're on the right track.  If the egg is sticking and you feel compelled to loosen it with a spatula, then you probably did something wrong.  Now give the egg some salt and pepper and let it set for about a minute.  I usually take this time to toss out my shells, discard my egg cracking plate, and wash my hands.  When you come back to your egg it should be white with a little bit of clear stuff around the yolk, the edges may even be getting brown.  Slide it around a little and get ready to flip.

Look at that awesome shot!  I can hardly believe a ten year old took that.  So what you have to do is, in as fluid of a motion as possible push the pan forward while snapping the pan upward.  Then try to bring the pan up to meet the egg to avoid yolk breakage.  Fortunately this one did not break.

Hey, the little guy actually got two good shots, so I had to show them both to you.  This was another success!

 When you flip your egg, the clear white may splatter a little but that doesn't mean the yolk is broken, you'll see the yolk soon enough if it breaks.  Now, if the yolk isn't broken, you'll want to slowly count to ten again and slide your egg around to see if it does the same thing before you flipped it.  Now flip it back.  It should be easier this time.  Now you can slide it on to a warm plate or on top of toast or...

Thomas' Betterstart Light Multigrain English Muffins which are highly recommended by the guys who write the Eat This, Not That! books because they're low in calorie and high in fiber.

Here they are on the muffins.  Now, maybe it's because I use a little bit more oil than the recipe, I don't always just slide the egg on to the muffin from the pan because I end up dripping the oil onto the muffin or the plate and if I'm cooking a second egg I don't want to lose that oil either.  I carefully use a spatula.  At this point it shouldn't be too hard after all the sliding and flipping.

I like to break the yolks and spread them all over the egg and muffin while they're still runny.  Then I cut pieces from the outside heading in so I can dip the pieces in the yolk and soak up the yolk on the plat.  I love dunking.

My inspirational hero for this entry is Steve Irwin, who you may know better as the Crocodile Hunter.  I was deeply saddened by his death but I admire the amazing life he led and he seemed to love every minute of the short life he had.  His drive and attitude made him a success and shows how far people can go if they really have passion for something.  His family and everyone who knew him never seemed to have a single bad thing to say about him.  He caused some controversy but never said anything bad about anyone else.  He had his detractors but they were probably more jealous than anything.  The man lived his dream and that's pretty damn cool.