DIY -- boiling water

Yes, some people don't know how to boil water.  Nobody ever taught them.  I'm helping some young relatives learn the basics and then explore.

Do you have a stove and a saucepan with a lid and tapwater and two raw eggs?  And some salt?

All right.  Put the eggs in the saucepan now and sprinkle a little salt on them.

Turn on the tap to any temperature and run some water into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a burner the same size as its bottom.  Put the lid on top of it.

Find the control for that burner and turn it to 3 and a half.

Walk away for at least 10 minutes.  Take your shower, set up your coffee maker, do some Tai Ji.  You should hear a sound from the stove and if not, pick up the lid and look inside.

The water should be bubbling and the eggs should be bouncing a little.  If not, make sure you turned on the right burner.  I've done that myself.

When the eggs have cooked for ten minutes, pour the rest of the water into the sink and then do one of two things.  Either go take care of something else like dusting the living room or run a little COLD water into the pan and finish fixing your breakfast or packing your lunch.

Now use a cloth or paper towel to hold an egg, tap the blunt end of the egg firmly against a plate or the counter and peel off the shell.

Now you can eat it with salt or pepper.

TRICKS  OF THE TRADE
1.  There are two reasons you put the eggs in the pan before you heat the water.  The first is that you won't burn your fingers.  The second is that you won't drop the eggs and crack the shells.

2.  The salt is so that if the eggshells DO crack while the eggs cook, the eggs will harden up immediately instead of turning into weak egg soup.

I know you can get a half dozen eggs already hard cooked at the store, but you can spend the same amount and get twice as many raw eggs and have some flexibility.  You need a refrigerator to store them in and if that's the problem, I can't say anything more about it. 

But if you have a full-up kitchen, learning how to use it will save money and help you avoid fat, sugar, and chemicals and give you much more flexibility than you get with any restaurant.

NEXT TIME: Mac and cheese.

© Patricia Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved