Bistro Ten 18

The egg is one of my favorite foods, and it is quite possibly the most important food. It’s used in so many recipes from mayonnaise to custards, pastas, cakes and, of course, on its own. Until recently, I didn't realize the importance of the source of the egg. I always just kind of thought an egg is an egg. This is simply not the case. Today I bought some eggs from Bradley Farm, amazingly different from the typical grocery store variety. The yolk is so silky and dark orange. They add the perfect texture to salads, not hard boiled and crumbled but rather poached, fried and still creamy in the center so it breaks open over the salad and coats the bitter greens, add a little salt, and this is a life changing culinary experience.


Anyway, many people ask me how we make our crispy poached eggs that we serve here on our salads at Bistro Ten 18, so I thought it would be a good idea to give everyone the technique. It's very simple:

Crispy Poached Egg (4 servings)
6 large organic eggs from a great farmers market stand

1 tsp of chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, or any other flavors you may want to impart)

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

pinch of salt and pepper

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

vegetable oil, as needed

water as needed

1 tbsp vinegar

ice as needed




1. Crack two of the eggs in a bowl and beat well
2. Mix together the herbs, and place aside in a container

3. Mix together the flour and a pinch of salt and pepper

4. Set up a standard breading procedure line with the flour, egg and breadcrumb mixture

5. Heat the water until it boils. Once it boils add the vinegar and turn down the heat enough to just keep the water from bubbling (this is the perfect poaching temperature)

6. Make an ice bath in a bowl, 3/4 water and 1/4 ice.

7. Crack the remaining 4 eggs in separate containers then slide each one in the water individually until the egg is just poached. It is important here that you don’t over poach them. Just cook them long enough so the whites coagulate around the yolk then remove them and put them into the ice bath to cool rapidly.

8. Once the eggs are cool, bread each egg handling them very carefully: flour, coat with egg and then coat with bread crumbs - be sure entire egg is well coated. Set aside.


9.Heat the oil to about 365 degrees (if you don’t have a thermometer that goes up that high, heat the oil and test the temperature by dropping a piece of bread in the oil - it should brown nicely in about 60 seconds or so) - fry each egg until golden brown and serve immediately over your favorite salad and a little sea salt.