Braised in Salsa

At least one food critic thinks that "put an egg on it" is a food trend that is so last year. I will be stuck in the food trend past, then, as I continue to slide a fried egg on top of just about any dish. My favorite is a fried egg on a slice of pizza.

Braised egg image from Eating Well

I also see that I've been using the wrong term for my new favorite egg-prep method. This recipe from Eating Well describes my "poached in salsa" as braised eggs. In any case, this makes the best egg ever.

Back to food trends, is molecular gastronomy over too? I don't get out for fine dining experiences that often, but I'd like to try something like these olives. In fact, I purchased the sodium alginate and calcium lactate gluconate so I can experiment at home.

Make that we can experiment at home. My chemist/cook, Taryn, is helping me out with the online class I am taking from edX. It is called Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science. The course is full of math, physics, chemistry, and food. I signed up for it on a whim, but the material has captured me: I want to do my homework!

One of the first assignments was to calibrate my oven, which I now know runs about 35 degrees hot on convection. I always had to set the temperature lower when using the oven's fan. I didn't know by how much, and I burned a lot of cookies. The candy that resulted from doing the calibration test was yummy, too. (See it in the image below? The caramelized splat.)

Sugar melted at "330" degrees F in my oven. The melting point of sugar is 366 degrees F.

Up next, a recipe for eggplant, examining the recipe for Nestle's Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies, and (this makes me happy) "perfect eggs."

Poached in Salsa

You know how routine can be both a security blanket and a crutch? How a day, week, or month all planned out can be both satisfying and stultifying? How traditions provide comfort, yet sometimes you need a break?

This blog is about comfort, routine ... and shaking things up. The name is inspired by radio interview and a jar of salsa.

In brief:

I like to fry an egg in butter, flip it with a flick of the pan before the top of the white has set, count to ten, and slide it onto the plate. A pinch of salt, a grind of black pepper, and I am satisfied, comforted, and full.

On the radio one morning, a Mexican chef described her simply perfect egg: she poaches it in salsa. I'd never thought of doing that, but now I wanted to try it.

Soon after, I picked up a jar of tomatillo salsa at Trader Joe's. For breakfast the next morning, I heated up the spicy, green sauce in my omelet pan, broke the egg on top, and let it poach until the white was set but the yolk still ran.

I won't call it a revelation, but, wow, that egg was good!

It's just a little thing, an egg poached in salsa, but it made me happy and reminded me to try something new. This tweak in routine -- cooking my egg in salsa instead of frying it in butter -- inspired me. Not only to try this cooking method with traditional tomato sauce and olive tapenade, but to start a blog. This is pushing me out of my comfort zone and routine, for sure.

What have you done that's new to you? How did it work out for you? I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks for reading!

Louisa