In pictures…

During my growing up years, my mum would wake up early before the break of dawn to boil water and she would put two eggs in an enamel cup (with a cover) and pour in the water the instant it started boiling. After that, she would keep the cup covered till my brother and I had got up, washed and changed into our school uniform and were ready for our breakfast – the half-boiled eggs! She never kept time so sometimes, they might be overdone especially when we took a little longer to get ready or did not want to eat the eggs and just left them there…and had them later for lunch!

It did not look difficult at all and I’ve been doing it myself all this while. Lately, I had been sharing photographs of the eggs I had for breakfast on Facebook and Instagram…

…and they seemed to attract quite a bit of attention. Everyone wanted to know how I did it!

Well, I did describe what I did and so far, only one said she did try doing it but she said she waited a minute longer so the white was a little bit harder than mine. The yolk was still runny though so it was all right. Let me show you how to do it step by step in pictures for those of you thus inclined.

Firstly, fill a saucepan with water, enough to cover the eggs. We always buy the medium-sized ones so you may adjust the timing a bit if you prefer the small or the large eggs.

Bring the water to a boil…

…and turn off the heat.

Take the eggs out of the fridge and rinse them well to make sure they are clean. Slide them into the water VERY gently…

Do not drop them or they will crack and a bit of the white will ooze out…

This will also happen if there is a hairline crack in the eggs, not visible to the naked eye but it does not matter one bit. You can just scrape it away once the eggs are done.

Cover the saucepan and let it stand for 7 minutes. It was 7.29 a.m…

…so the eggs should be ready at around 7.36 a.m.

I was a bit late that morning by a minute or two and I only managed to fish the eggs out of the water at around 7.37 a.m…

Crack the eggs right away into a bowl or a plate and add a dash of soy sauce and pepper…

Because I was a little bit late, the white was a bit firmer than usual (compared to those in the first pic above) but it did not matter – I actually quite like it this way too.

Break the yolks and mix everything together well…

…and you can sit down to enjoy the fruit of your labour.

By the way, if you are not going to eat them right away, you can pour away the hot water and fill the saucepan with tap water so the eggs will not continue cooking in the residual heat and end up overcooked.

There you have it! This is how I cook my half-boiled/cooked eggs, more or less like how my mum used to do it a long, long time ago and yes, they turn out perfectly done everytime!