How to Boil an Egg

...or make an omelette

Soft-boiled eggs are placed in cold water and the pot placed on the flame. They take 3 or 4 minutes from when the water first starts to boil, so time them carefully and quickly pop them into cold water and crack one of the ends to stop them cooking further. The English call this "topping" the boiled egg.

Serve with buttered bread, or "soldiers". These are slices of buttered toast that have been cut into strips - rather like thick French fries. The toast "soldiers" are then dipped into the still-soft egg yolk and eaten. Hot and very yummy. You still need a teaspoon to scoop out the rest of the cooked egg as well. If you've never done this before, try it!

Hard-boiled eggs need about 20 minutes boiling. They too should be quenched in cold water, but should be allowed to cool fully before you try and peel the shells. Once the shell has been removed, you can use the hard-boiled eggs in salads. You can chop the egg or slice it, and have it in sandwiches... even in cold salads. The egg tastes even better with a little mustard or mayonnaise.

You can just throw a couple of hard boiled eggs into a packed lunch to take with you hiking or exploring. Add a sandwich and an apple or orange, and it's a simple but healthy meal.

You can even take the peeled hardboiled eggs and coat them with sausage mix. I used to buy rissoles at my local butcher' shop, cut and squash the rissoles and then mold the mix over each cooked egg. You then roll each meaty ball in breadcrumbs to stop it sticking, and cook them in hot oil until they turn golden brown on the outside. What have you just made? Why, they're Scotch Eggs... Great food items to include in a picnic lunch, and even more tasty when eaten with a little brown barbecue sauce!

It you've brought a fry pan, you can make omelettes quite easily. Just break and beat 2 to 3 eggs per person in a bowl. Pour into a hot pan and cook on a medium to slow heat until the bottom is brown and the egg on top is nearly set.

You can add most any kind of filling to the middle of an omelette... chopped ham, bacon, cooked onion, diced or shredded cheese, sliced capsicum, shredded lettuce, chopped tomato... whatever you have on hand. Even baked beans are fine, if a little wet and sloppy.

Sprinkle the filling liberally all over the setting egg and season with salt an pepper. Lift and turn one side over on top of the other half while the omelette sets, lift it out and serve with salad and potato or whatever.

If you have a larger frying pan, you can make a bigger omelette for several people and divide it up once it has been cooked. However the largest omelette most people can safely make seems to be at the 10 egg mark. And for that you need a well-controlled fry pan, or else the egg will burn on the bottom and still be soggy on the top. It is also the hardest thing to try and remove a large omelette from the pan without it breaking.

That's why I like to make my omelettes one serving at a time.