Poached eggs

Eggs are incredibly nutritious but can sometimes prove tricky to cook. Poached, fried and scrambled eggs on toast make delicious alternatives to cereal for breakfast and keep you feeling full until lunch time. Try giving boiled eggs with bread/toast soldiers to little ones - they love dipping the bread into the egg and seeing the golden yolk flood out. It was always my preferred breakfast when I was growing up. Always buy the best quality eggs you can - they will yield a much brighter orange, tastier yolk compared with the caged variety. Over the next few weeks, i'm going to be sharing my methods for making perfect eggs every time. Today i'm starting with poached, but i'll also cover fried, scrambled, boiled and hard boiled.

Poached eggs

These are notoriously difficult to make, but with these simple steps, you can make them perfect, every time.

Firstly, you need incredibly fresh eggs. If your eggs are older than 4 days, you'll need to add a teaspoon of white wine vinegar to your pan. Don't over do the vinegar - there's nothing worse than a vinegary tasting egg and it makes the egg white rubbery. The vinegar, incidentally, helps keeps the white together. Only poach a maximum of two eggs at once - any more becomes difficult to handle. Use a large frying pan filled with boiling water. Have the eggs preprepared by cracking each into an individual cup. Create a vortex in the water by stirring quickly with a spoon. Now add each egg to the pan on opposite sides. Place a lid on the frying pan and boil for 3 minutes. And voila perfect poached eggs - a lovely runny yolk, and firm white.