Certainly during our Lockdown, we eat breakfast ensemble, as we do other days, if there is time. Sometimes it is never more than, cereal ( for himself ) yogurt and fruit for me, plus of course a Grand Café au Lait.

Sometimes, it might happen on a weekend that I cook, ( for himself) usually egg based, Mexican Eggs, scrambled eggs, poached eggs or omelette.

After our expedition to Richmond Park, I did cook a late breakfast, well more of a brunch I suppose.

Very simply put, Poached eggs on toast. Recently I’ve been making bread ( did someone say, she hasn’t anything else to do?) actually, I’ve loads on my To Do list, but it never seems to get any shorter!

My toast slices are therefore not necessarily even. Unlike in France where they have everywhere, an automatic bread slicing machine, obviously in the Boulangerie but also in Supermarkets and even in Lidl!

Poached eggs are as controversial as boiled eggs. Himself likes boiled eggs, with the whites soft! Yuck! Says I! I like my whites firm and yolks just starting to thicken but still runny. In the mountains it is much more difficult as altitude affects cooking time. Water normally boils at 100C but in our French village which is at 1300 metres it boils at 95.7C. Hence you can see the problem with boiling eggs, amongst other things !

However back to Poached eggs, my daughter in law likes her Perfect Poached egg, firmish White, soft yolk that spills over the toast. That is the way I like it as well.

I tried once upon a time, many years ago, one of those pans, which has 4 little cups to hold the eggs whilst poaching, but the problem here, ( to my mind anyway ) is that as the white is not actually in contact with the water, one ends up with 4 little round rubber things.

My way of poaching eggs, is very simple.

• It is VERY important to use fresh eggs! When you use fresh eggs; the consistency is more gelatinous. Old eggs have more of a watery albumen, which tends to disperse in the water more.
• It is better to poach only one or two eggs at a time, but don’t swirl the water
• Use a pair of kitchen scissors or fork to cut away any unattractive wisps from the white.
• Boil some water and added a good squirt of lemon juice , you need a depth of about 3 inches and a wide pan.
• When the water is boiling simply crack in the eggs, bring back to the boil , remove from heat and leave to stand for about 3 minutes.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and as above trim off the odd bits of white.

To start with it is a bit hit and miss for timings, but, stick with it and you will have the perfect poached egg!