to wish I'd bought one of these years ago

[NutElla5x]

So I've just made myself poached eggs on toast for lunch using my new microwave egg poacher-which cost me the princely sum of 70p using a voucher-and it did the job perfectly,cleanly and soo quickly. If it hadn't been on special offer I probably wouldn't have bothered to try it out because I think mostly the old fashioned ways of cooking things is best,but I can see me and the kids getting a lot of use out of this thing. What cheap and cheerful gadget have you bought that's made your life that bit easier and made you wish you'd bought it years ago?

I found some on amazon, why do you recommend them? Out of interest did you buy the £90 knife rack from global too?, as I'm not sure how a magnetic rack can be £90 worth of special?!

We line silicone bun cases with butter, crack an egg into them, place them into a pan, pour boiling kettle water into the pan to about 1/3 way up the bun cases, bring back to the boil and put the lid on. After about 4 mins 30 sec your fairly fresh medium eggs are properly poached with soft yolks.

I think the cracking eggs into boiled water is so quick and easy, less faff than individual cases or other things to clean

I always end up with messy looking poached eggs. I've never perfected the method of doing them properly.

A microwaveable plastic saucepan with lid. :)

A portion of broccoli (which I eat loads of) is 7 minutes in the micro, as opposed to 20 on the hob. :) Marvellous!

20 minutes?? I shove mine in with the boiling carrots for the last 5 minutes.

I actually can't think of any kitchen gadget that's made my life easier - then again I hate cooking (and anything to do with the kitchen that doesn't result in coffee) so even if something did make my life better I wouldn't notice because I'd just be annoyed about having to cook. DH bought these little egg pans a few years ago to do fried eggs, he loves them as it means the eggs stay a nice round shape instead of spilling all over a normal frying pan and they get used regularly by both of us so I guess that's one?

I'm now off to amazon in search of the potatoes ricer because peeling potatoes is the one thing both me and DH can agree is a painfully dull chore and is the reason we nearly always have frozen chips cooked in the fryer instead!

Second the oven liners but we got them much cheaper from Amazon. Also love an old fashioned egg slicer for its satisfactory action and outcome

@SarahET we have shelves that fit inside cupboards so give you an extra layer of space. Use them in food cupboards and plate cupboards. Not sure where we got them from as had them years but really useful. Basically just a plastic flat surface on legs.

@muffster thanks for the reminder that I have one of those, and forgotten about it! Certainly very useful for steam cleaning everything!

Pp wondering about cherry pitters, aren't they the same as olive stoners?

Thanks for the microwavable popcorn dish! That truly is a revelation to me!

*idea

@Sickofthispain14 thanks for that. I was clearing and rearranging last night and noticed one of the cupboards has a really tall shelf, that would do just the trick!

@soupdragon pour boiling water into a small pan, add tblsp of vinegar, low heat to simmer, break egg carefully into water, done in two mins! Use drive spoon/similar to drain and lift from pan onto plate! Simples

This ones not a gadget, but an ask please...I am returning, as its rubbish a gadget that has a variety of cutters that click into a handle, so interchangeable disc type things. I just tried it out, as I got it mainly for onions, hate chopping them, but love them fresh. The other 'discs' can quarter, another core and slice, another Julienne, you get the idea. Lots all in one, but its a waste of money, can anyone recommend something like this that works?

Its very like this

...you get the idea

The trick with poached eggs is to only use very fresh fresh eggs. The older the egg the less likely it will stay as a compact mass in the bubbling water, older eggs will spread out and be stringy.

*Use seive spoon/strainer/similar to lift poached egg ...

Do you mean 'just bought' Ada, as in only a few days old? Not IME. Its the vinegar; eggs will disintegrate in water.

Well that explains my lack of success with poached eggs, they're always spread out and stringy! We don't use many eggs so they'd never be fresh.

I never use any vinegar when poaching eggs, and my eggs are always lovely!

How many days do you mean Ada ? How fresh?

As fresh as possible, (within a day or two of purchase) so that the white is still gelatinous around the yolk. I find free range eggs work best.
I use a small deep pan, and a whisk to create a vortex, then Bob's your uncle, as Antonio Carluccio would say!

Ah, hmm, no I definitely don't use mine within two days, but always do have yummy poached eggs, without any vortex creation or faffing either, so the vinegar must be holding it all together, which I think was the point.

There's a lot of poached egg fans on here!

I bought a Strawberry Huller partly as a joke for DD who hated pulling the green bits off but we use it every time we have strawberries now.

I poach mine straight into a gentle simmer in a small saucepan, no vinegar, no problems. I don't get all the fuss about a poached egg. I don't care about it's shape, I'm not running a B&B!