Poached Eggs in a Pinch

It's early Sunday morning and we've got one of those mega-busy days.  I recently discovered a way to make poached eggs that is quick and easy so I am going to share.

Every Sunday morning when I was a kid, we would go to church at St. Ann's in our hometown and my mom would come home, put on her apron and become a short order chef. Every meal my mother ever served included meat (except on Fridays) and breakfast was no exception. On Sunday's it was usually bacon but could be ham and occasionally would be Taylor Ham aka "pork roll."  In addition to  meat we always had home fries and, of course, eggs any way you wanted them prepared. Literally, any way an egg could be prepared mom  was every bit as good as the best short order chef when it came to making it in the original Murph's Kitchen. For years she made me perfectly runny soft boiled eggs, was a master of the sunny side up and the over easy and, of course, she made scrambled the old fashined way: kinda' firm. The only two categories in which I have surpassed her are poached and scrambled. Her scrambled eggs were always a bit too hard for my tastes and I will share my scrambled recipe in a later post but today it's all about poached.

One Minute Poached Eggs

Ingredients

One Egg
Water
Coffe Cup

Yup, sounds too easy for sure but trust me, you'll be making these when you are in a hurry for the rest of your life.

Crack the egg into a traditional coffee cup and cover with water-roughly about one inch above the egg.

Place the egg in the center of your microwave and cover with a slightly moist paper towel and cover the towel with a saucer. Both steps are critical here and you must do both to avoid a big mess if things go south!

The Proper Cup

Close the door of the microwave and cook on high for  somewhere between 40 seconds and one minute.  Microwaves are just like people and no two are alike so it could be anywhere from 30 seconds to 90 seconds but once you figure out your unit, the rest is a piece of cake.

Remove egg  from the cup with a slotted spoon and serve over a  a toasted English muffin.

Here in Murph's kitchen we like to occasinally throw a piece of  regular or Canadian bacon that's been quickly fried in a non stick pan on the English muffin and we top it all off with liberal amunt of Trappey's Louisanna Hot Sauce.

Even though you may have a bit of trial and error the first time, be patient and it will be worthwhile.  The first time I tried this I went through a couple of eggs and made our 80 pound chocolate lab very happy.  You may have to play with the cooking time to get the perfect eggg your heart desires.

Caution: use fresh tap waer for every egg you make or the water will get too hot and the eggs will begin to cook too quickly.

Enjoy!