To Eat Dinner @ Home: Brox & a Crispy Damn Egg

I might have mentioned that I've been trying to eat more greens. And there's so many different ways to cook them, but sometimes it's just easier to roast the veggies and call it a day. Or sautee some spinach and garlic and not think any further. But that's boring! (Albeit a fall back many times.) I was perusing around when I saw that Bon Appetit had made a broccoli dish with the brox cooked two ways--stems roasted and then tossed in vinegar + florets charred & cooked with sugar and peanuts. I loved this idea! The same ingredient represented two different ways. 

And as any good (wo)man should do, I topped it off with a fried egg. Not just ANY fried egg mind you, but a real special crispy guy. I plopped him into a PIPING hot pan with a little more oil than you might use in a regular fried egg situation. Then, you let his whites puff up and his edges crunch to a crisp and his yolk gets halfway creamy and halfway runny. ADMITTEDLY, I got a little nervous because I wasn't sure the whites in the middle were cooking and that egg snot is gross, but everything worked out. I want this egg every day in everything. It was a nice dinner: crunchy and spicy and acidic and EGGY.

To Perfectly Poach an Egg

A long time ago, I would say things like "I don't even want to learn to poach eggs! I love that they are a special treat when I go to brunch." That was me lying to cover up my fear of poaching eggs.

Since then, I've grown to love poaching eggs. And now feel like a damn expert in the field of egg poaching.

I've taken tips from all over, but I sort of feel like my technique is a pared down, easy version that is hard to screw up. It may not always make artful eggs but it also doesn't require a strainer (i.e. another thing to clean). It certainly doesn't involve vinegar (everyone says it doesn't change the taste--I strongly disagree). And it doesn't even involve swirling of water; that never changed the outcome for me too much and the whole coaxing of the egg white toward the yolk just caused me anxiety. So, here's what it does include.