Poaching an egg yolk - any easy ideas for doing multiple ones at a time?

I had a dish in Japan of thinly sliced onions in a small bowl with a barely poached/warmed egg yolk on it, the goal of which was to break the yolk and commence to eating the whole and it was SUPER FRAKKING AWESOME OMG GOOD!

So I experimented a while ago with poaching just the yolks because i wanted to serve this dish at a dinner I was holding (I needed four servings), and after demolishing and wasting about a dozen, the best I could do was to put the yolks in little bowls I have, and then set the bowls into barely simmering water in a pan. That worked in a way, but it wasn't what I was looking for - without the yolks in the water, they cooked a little funny on the side facing the bowl and the side facing the air.

When I tried poaching them separately in normal poaching water, the yolks just sank to the bottom of the pan and cooked in a stupid way (that was much of the aforementioned waste), and certainly would never work to do multiple yolks at a time.

I have some people coming this weekend for dinner, and one dish I really want to serve is a small mound of shrimp and sausage jambalaya (about the size of a tall tuna can) with a beautifully and barely poached very runny egg yolk on top and some butter poached scallops on the side with crunchy sal de mer sprinkled on them.

Any suggestions on how I might poach these bastards? Or even if not poach, how I can get the yolks warm without cooking them?

Would this be worth buying an egg poaching pan for? I've never used one, but have often been tempted.

Thanks in advance!

work with yolks... Seems like that would be the way to go. I have never used one either, but my parents had one.

no special pan needed, we butter the cups lightly and set them into simmering water, and just lift them out when they're perfect.

I've just poached an egg yolk to lightly warm and runny - it was excellent!

I haven't tried a whole egg in it yet, but it poached the egg yolks beautifully.

And then, after spending $9 for two of them, I discovered that a couple of the little non-Tupperware "tupperware" storage containers I have worked just as beautifully. :rofl:

Still, thanks for the tip on the silicone ones - they're easier to extract stuff from than the non-tupperware "tupperware" things, and I think they'll do an amazing job on a whole egg.

don't you love kitchen mysteries?

And you're right, with the little holes at the top, a fork can slide in and lift the thingie at just the right moment and stop the cooking immediately.
They also make a much prettier presentation, and never having been in the water - there's no trying to dry them off before using them.;-)

now we have to try the "yolk on onion"!

I read somewhere that you can add a little bit of vinegar in the water to keep the egg together and it works. I didn't notice a vinegar smell or flavor when eating the eggs.

I filled a large fry pan about 2/3 full of water and got the water boiling. Then added some vinegar. I broke an egg into a small cup. With a wooden spoon I started to swirl the water in one area and poured the egg into that spot. Broke another egg into the cup and continued for all the eggs. Take each egg out with a slotted spoon so the water isn't a problem.

Here's a web site that explains about the vinegar.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/PoachEgg.htm

Maybe you can find an insert for your fry pan. Mine came with the large fry pan. It's a round piece of metal with holes cut out. A little cup was provided for each cutout.

Btw, maybe you can get one of those microwave egg cookers. We have one that accommodates two eggs and works pretty good to make eggs. If your eggs are room temp you could easily control the time to get a nice soft egg.

Good luck!

Makes wonderful eggs. Mmmmmm.... now I'm hungry for one.

I think I was too young. :P

they drop each egg into a ramekin and put them in a steel hotel pan with water to "bake" them. Even if you don't have a steel hotel pan, you could probably approximate something similar with a cake pan, maybe?

Were the onions cooked in any way? Pickled? Specialty onions like scallops or sweets? Just raw thin slices with an egg yoke?

This is the kind of dish I'd like to try.

Oh, and your menu sounds to-die-for good.

And white onion meaning white onion, not scallion.

The sharpness of the white onion and the mellowness of the egg yolk (not yoke) are an amazing combination. Though, let's be honest, the combination of egg yolk with pretty much anything is an amazing combination. :-)