Gobbledegeek 2.o

I notice that since and probably not as a result of my protracted rant regarding the crap service from Woolworths Homeshop, they have made an attempt to restructure the categories. They must have been doing this or some other technical tinkering while I was labouring to conclude my shopping yesterday because after a number of hours waiting for pages to load or having to resubmit items to the cart which were mysteriously going AWOL, someone finally had the inspiration to put up a page informing visitors that the site would be temporarily unavailable.

That doesn’t mean to say that I have changed my opinion of their so-called service. Woolworths Homeshop is still quite crap!

Following the produce category reshuffle, several of the items I usually order are no longer available and the choices and variety has been limited beyond what it already was.

Which came first, the chicken or the eggs?

Today at least, the eggs did. The chicken didn’t come, full stop! I can understand aledgedly fresh doughnuts being out of stock, especially given the growing size of Australians these days but a frozen chicken? How in God’s name can you be out of bloody frozen chooks? I mean, it’s not like you have to regularly order limited stock and promote rapid turnover to prevent the produce going fowl (did you see what I did there hmm?). It’s bloody frozen, it’ll keep for months. There really is no excuse to be short of frozen produce in my opinion.

No chickens!

The delivery driver joked something about a shortage in Melbourne when I pointed this out and this begged the question; why on Earth do Woolworths deliver to Bendigo from Melbourne? 

Surely if they filled out the orders with local stock, it would not only save them a small fortune in fuel costs, vehicle upkeep and man-hours but it would help the local economy and the environment.

The mind boggles.

Perhaps I’m too harsh on Woolworths/Safeway so I shall finish on a plus note.

Today, for the very first time ever, suitable items were substituted for produce that must have been out of stock or otherwise absent. I knew it could be done. Woolworths knew it too otherwise they wouldn’t have included the option. Perhaps this weeks  ’packer’ was more a thoughtful staff member and less of a lazy git.

How do you boil eggs? The answer to this is carefully. What we need to do first of all is memorise a few very important rules. Don’t ever boil eggs that have come straight from the refrigerator, because very cold eggs plunged straight into hot water are likely to crack. Always use a kitchen timer – trying to guess the timing or even remembering to look at your watch can be hazardous. Never over-boil eggs (you won’t if you have a timer) – this is the cardinal sin because the yolks will turn black and the texture will be like rubber. If the eggs are very fresh (less than four days old), allow an extra 30 seconds on each timing.

The perfect boiled egg?

Always use a small saucepan – eggs with too much space to career about and crash into one another while they cook are likely to crack. Never have the water fast boiling; a gentle simmer is all they need. Remember that eggs have a pocket at their wide end where air collects and, during the boiling, pressure can build up and cause cracking. A simple way to deal with this is to make a pinprick in the rounded end of the shell, which will allow the steam to escape.

Soft-boiled eggs

Obviously, every single one of us has a personal preference as to precisely how we like our eggs cooked. Over the years I have found a method that is both simple and reliable, and the various timings set out here seem to accommodate all tastes. First of all have a small saucepan filled with enough simmering water to cover the eggs by about 1/2 inch (1 cm). Then quickly but gently lower the eggs into the water, one at a time, using a tablespoon. Now switch the timer on and give the eggs exactly 1 minute’s simmering time. Then remove the pan from the heat, put a lid on it and set the timer again, giving the following timings:

6 minutes will produce a soft, fairly liquid yolk and a white that is just set but still quite wobbly.
7 minutes will produce a firmer, more creamy yolk with a white that is competely set.

On the subject of eating soft-boiled eggs, I personally am willing to take the risk. As a general practice, though, it is not advisable to serve these to vulnerable groups, such as very young children, pregnant women, the elderly or anyone weakened by serious illness.

TIP – If you prefer to have the yolk sit more central within the white, gently stir the eggs for a minute or two once in the pan. This gentle spinning will center the yolk.