Golden Treasure - Obsession with Poached Eggs

I am obsessed with poached eggs these days. I guess I'm lucky I'm obsessed with them now while so many are on sale for Easter. I have spent hours researching all kinds of recipes featuring poached eggs: salads, rice dishes, pasta dishes, ragouts, eggs on toast... There are so many. Since I am out on Spring Break this week, I have time, opportunity, and energy to try several different recipes this week. I will let you know how they go.

Here are my top picks I will try this week:

Peppery Pasta Carbonara with Poached Egg
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peppery-Pasta-Carbonara-with-Poached-Egg-355422

Poached Egg and Bacon Salad
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/poached_egg_and_bacon_salad_-_salad_lyonnaise/

Caesar Salad Topped with Poached Eggs
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/caesar-salad-topped-with-poached-eggs.html

Bibimbap
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/03/dinner-tonight-korean-bibimbap-recipe.html

The next crucial question is, how does one poach an egg? There are a ton of methods, tips, techniques, and ideas. I've tried a few but none I am really satisfied with. The basic crack-egg-into-simmering water method came out to watery, runny, and not very flavorful. The egg was just kind of a mess. I tried the trick of adding a touch of vinegar to the water, but it added a vinegar taste to the egg; I didn't like that much. Another technique involves cracking the egg into a small cup and dropping the whole cup into simmering water. That was okay, but still just didn't quite do it for me. In researching methods, I came across this website: http://www.b3ta.com/features/howtopoachanegg/. There I discovered a new idea, crack the egg into plastic wrap and boil the little plastic wrap baggy.

This morning, I attempted this new method. It was reasonably successful. I found that the egg stuck to the plastic wrap when I tried to turn it out after poaching. Next time I will spray the plastic wrap with cooking spray first to see if that helps. However, it cooked well. It tasted good, not watery or vinegary. And, I made a delicious breakfast stack with the poached egg. Leftover ham, topped with sliced heirloom tomato, topped with a lovely poached egg.