CHEF SAMBRANO: COOKING BASICS Frying Eggs

Thursday, September 4, 2014

COOKING BASICS Frying Eggs

Hello my friends, today is the 4th day of September 2014, and it's flying by pretty quickly, I'm thinking about Xmas already man! Got to save some bucks and fast!

Today I'll be talking about cooking basics, and today's item or ingredient will be the ever so popular and sometimes misunderstood egg. That's right the egg, it is a very delicate food, yet it has power, it has two components that can be used in the culinary profession, one is the egg whites, when whipped up it can be a fluffy product used in cakes and desserts. And the very rich yellowish yolk that is whipped up with infusion of fats like oil or butter to make mayonnaise and Hollandaise sauces. Well if you are a new foodie in the kitchen we won't overwhelm you with those culinary moves just yet, let's just stick with frying the egg.

First of all, all you really need as a rookie is an 8" non-stick fry pan, non-stick offers a non-stick surface so that you won't stick your eggs to the pan. A can of non-stick spray like PAM or an imitation will do, some vegetable oil, or butter- don't use margarine, use real unsalted butter.

Now the real way to crack an egg is to hold it with two hands, and gently tap the center of the egg on the side of a bowl, and open it separating it with your two hands slowly prying apart the egg so that the insides, the whites and yolk will slide into the bowl.

If you break an egg with one hand, there's a good chance there will be pieces of shell falling into the pan, and we don't want that, I mean do you want pieces of shell in your eggs, in your omelets? I think not.

Once you have your eggs in the bowl, take your fry pan, spray some non-stick on it, and add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil inside, heat up the pan over medium high heat, and watch the oil in the pan, once it starts to bubble it is an indication that the egg is ready to be placed in the heated pan. This can take from a minute or two, depending how strong your burners work.

Place the two eggs in the pan, don't move it, when the egg whites turn from clear to white, it maybe time to flip it using a rubber spatula. If you want your yolks cooked more, let it sit about a minute or so longer. When you want to flip it, and it's all up to you, insert the spatula under the entire egg, and tilt the pan slightly, and using one motion flip it. If the egg breaks oh well, you tried. It takes practice, heck once you get really good, you'll be able to flip an egg without using a spatula like us pros.