Scrambled Eggs

Okay, I know you are thinking "I KNOW HOW to make scrambled eggs!" But I just wanted to share some tips I learned from watching America's Test Kitchen. Where I live, it's on PBS on Saturday mornings.

Fluffy Eggs - We've probably all been told to put milk in our eggs to make them fluffy. True, they will indeed be fluffier but they will also be weepy....the watery part after you've served them that runs out underneath the eggs. Ya, that's the weepy part. It's caused by a few things:

1. the milk. The fat in the milk causes the proteins in the eggs to bind, hence separating the protein from the moisture which causes the water to come out of them. They suggested using half and half instead. Not as much fat so you get fluffy without watery.

2. adding veggies. We love to add veggies to our eggs but we usually add them last. Mistake. Saute your veggies first to cook out the moisture from them. Especially tomatoes and in that cause you'll want to use just the outer part of the tomatoes. Saute your veggies then add your egg mixture. Even mushrooms will put off a lot of steam as you saute them because they are releasing a lot of their moisture.

To get big fluffy eggs, use a large spatula. You want to stir continually turning them with a large spatula giving you large curds. I recommend the high temp rubber spatulas...they are soft and work great for scrambled eggs.

Another tip for fluffy eggs is to use the right sized pan. You want about a 6" pan for six eggs. 8" pan for 8 eggs, 12" pan for 12 eggs and so forth. Sometimes people make the mistake of cooking too few eggs in a large pan which makes the egg cook faster, usually over cooking it before they've had a chance to turn them properly.

The pictures are eggs with chopped mushrooms, green onion, scallions, and chopped cilantro.

A word about:

green onions and scallions - I never knew the difference until recently. The scallion is the small white bulb part of a green onion. Cut off the white bulb part and you have a scallion. The top green long parts are the green onion.

mushrooms - don't rinse them. They'll become spongy. Just wipe them with a damp cloth.

cilantro - YES, you can eat the stems. I hear this debated all the time. If you want to serve the stems instead of picking every leaf off one by one, just be sure to chop the stems finely so that you aren't serving a large piece of stick to anyone! =0)