Posted by Stephanie Clarke on Wed, Apr 29, 2009
You may consider boiling an egg to be one of the simplest cooking techniques, but believe it or not, there are a few tricks that can make for a tastier egg. I did a bunch of reading and experiment to come up with this method:
1. Start with eggs that are about four to five days old. They're harder to peel if they are new. Remember, for the best-tasting, freshest eggs, make sure to keep themrefrigerated and store them in the carton they came in; eggs have over17,000 tiny pores on their surface, which allow them to absorb odorsand flavors around them!
2. Place your eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and cover them with at least one inch of cool water. Starting with colder water and bringing them to a boil slowly will make them less likely to crack.
3. Once the water begins to boil, turn down the heat to low for about one more minute. Be careful not to let the eggs boil for too long. Overcooking them can cause that green ring to form around the outside of the yolk.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let the eggs sit for about 12 to 13 minutes.
5. Remove the eggs from the hot water and rinse with cold water or let sit in ice water for a few minutes to cool them down.
Then, feel free to enjoy. Here's how I eat my boiled eggs:
• Mediterranean style: Slice one egg and layer it on a whole-grain English muffin spread with hummus. Then top with a slice of tomato and a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese. This makes a delicious quick breakfast or sandwich to pair with soup for lunch.
• Egg salad with a touch of turmeric: I use a 3:1 ratio of egg whites to whole eggs, which cuts back on the total calories of the egg salad. Then I add a ton of chopped celery, about one tablespoon of light mayonnaise, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and a touch of turmeric (a delicious spice that gives the egg salad a nice yellowy hue). Egg salad is great as a light snack on a slice of WASA crispbread or scooped on top of a big green salad.
• Naked: I sprinkle the egg with a little pepper and very tiny amount of sea salt.
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