Ingredients: |
Ingredients: --2 eggs per person (if you make more they get cold too quickly, which you want to avoid.
if you're hungry enough for more it's best to make them in batches.)
--Butter (or spread if you prefer, though, again, traditionally this is always done with salted full-fat butter)
--Salt
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Directions: |
Directions:For best results, I strongly recommend the use of eggcups. Very small bowls work also, but take away the simple pleasure of cracking the egg with your knife and finishing off the white with a spoon.
First let the eggs and butter sit out for a few minutes to warm up. Eggs straight out of the fridge will crack in the water, which will basically ruin them.
Pour WARM water into a smallish saucepan (cold water will make it much more likely the eggs will crack). Use enough water to give the eggs some room to move without knocking into each other too much. Set the water to a boil.
Once the water is boiling healthily, use a spoon to carefully place in the eggs. Boil for 3 to 3.20-3.30 minutes or so. The timing is delicate: too short will result in too much runny egg white, which is edible but which most people don't like much, and too long will result in a yolk that is too hard.
As the eggs are boiling, prepare "toast soldiers" by toasting two slices of bread per person. Butter liberally on one or both sides, to your taste. Cut each slice into several thin strips.
Once the eggs are done, place in eggcups with the wide side down and serve with the toast slices. As soon as the eggs cool just enough that you can stand it, use a knife to gently knock a crack all along the narrow top of the egg, and carefully peel it before cutting off the top, ideally getting to just the top of the yolk. Salt the top of the yolk just slightly (to taste). Use the toast strips to dig out the yolk (the best part!) and then finish off with a spoon before digging into your second egg.
We've found that this is best served (to give you enough energy to get going) with toast and jam, perhaps a little bacon, a mug of hot chocolate (a staple of traditional French breakfasts) and a glass of fruit juice, as would be usually done with an American style breakfast. This is an especially good, quick and energy-boosting breakfast for young children and those who have trouble eating much right after waking. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: This is a very typical French breakfast I had daily as a child (always with a cup of hot chocolate made with milk and Nesquik or some similar powder - in France children and non-caffeine drinkers traditionally drink a full bowl, with accompanying bread or toast and butter or jam and, in my mother's family, often these eggs). Of course this is very simple and many will already know how to make these, but I'm adding it as a French contribution my mother (Yvonne Bargues Rollins) can indirectly make to our cookbook, reflecting the French influence on our part of the family.
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This recipe for SOFT-BOILED EGGS AND TOAST FRENCH STYLE is from