Eggs Benedict - Probably the second best thing to make on a sunday morning!! (Breakfast & Brunch Recipes)

Member Name: luigi0778

Product:	Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
Date:	03/08/09 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste delicious, Easy to make (relatively), Wow factor

Disadvantages: Creates a fair bit of washing up,

~~Background~~
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In my opinion there are few better breakfasts than a well made Eggs Benedict. OK you are not going to make this everyday, but what better way to end the week, than to have a lazy sunday morning enjoying this delicious breakfast with a freshly squeezed orange juice.

Just think about it. The lightly poached egg, atop the toasted english muffin, with a salty bacon medallion between the two, what a great combination, and of course the whole lot is topped off with a delicious Hollandaise sauce, which brings it all together. You know it makes perfect sense.

Believe it or not, this classic is very simple to make, and does not take alot of effort to get incredible results.

Firstly before we begin making the recipe, here are the myths (or reasons for not making it) debunked for you:-

1. Hollandaise sauce is not hard to make, horror stories about splitting (seperating) or the whole lot turning into scrambled eggs, is nonsense.

The old style recipes involving whisking over gently simmering water (Ban Marie style) where these situations could arise if things were left unattended, or if the water was boiling to aggresively, are long banished.

With the introduction of food processors, and adaptations of the recipes, you will now find it a doddle. I will say at this point, using ready made Hollandaise sauce is out of the question, the artificial tasting stuff, is no substitute for freshly made sauce. Also, actually being able to make this sauce, will serve you well on other occasions too. Hollandaise sauce as you probably know, is also delicious over fresh Asparagus, or steamed white fish.


2. There is nothing hard about poached eggs, nothing at all. If you can boil water, you can make a poached egg. For some reason everyone seems hell-bent on finding easy, or convenient ways to do everything. Making Poached eggs the traditional way, takes only a few minutes more, but tastes infiinitely better than any other method. So Microwave poachers are just not comparable, so please don't use one. In fact, just throw it away.




~~The Recipe~~
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To make this simple I will break the dish down into its constituent parts, begining with the perceived hardest part, the Hollandaise sauce.


PART 1 - Hollandaise Sauce

For a quantity to serve 2-3 persons you will need
3 Egg Yolks,
1/2 Tablespoons, White wine vinegar
1/2 Tablesoon, Fresh Lemon Juice (not from a bottle).
150g Butter, Melted
Salt an Pepper to Season

Step 1- Melt the butter in a saucepan, gently, we don't want to colour it at all. So no foaming please.
Step 2- Drop the Egg yolks, and the Vinegar, and the Lemon Juice into a food processor, or a suitable bowl if doing it manually.
Step 3- Switch on the Food Processor (or you could whisk briefly in lieu of a food processor).
Step 4- SLOWLY add the hot melted butter, a few drips at a time, until the sauce thickens. You are looking for a thin custard type viscosity.
Note: Do not just tip in the whole lot of butter in at once, when the butter melts some fatty solids can appear, so avoid these dregs from the bottom. Also you might not need the full amount to get the consistency you want.
Step 5- Season to taste, pour into a saucepan, and keep warm.


PART 2 - Poached Eggs
Generally one poached egg, per portion
2-3 Eggs (at room temperature if possible, not straight from fridge)
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar

Step 1 - Heat some water in a deep saucepan to a rolling boil.
Step 2 - Add the white wine vinegar.
Step 3-4 are done simaltaneously:

Step 3 - Reduce heat to just under the boil, and using a spoon or similar, stir and create a "whirlpool" effect.
Step 4 - Into the centre of this whirlpool crack the egg gently into it. Leave alone, do not stir, do not prod, do not look at it even!!!!

Step 5- Now this is a matter of taste, but generally if you do not like bullets, cook for no more than 4 minutes. If the Eggs are from a cold fridge, I would recommend 3 minutes 20 seconds, (or 3 minutes exactly, if cooking from room temperature). This cooking time, will give the eggs a runny middle (which is what we want).

Step 6- Remove eggs from water, trim off any of the "skirt". The skirt is the scraggy part of the egg white, you will be then left with a perfect looking poached egg.


PART 3 - Final Assembly
You will need to finish off quite quickly here, and is really the key part of the whole breakfast. So no heel dragging now please!

HOT plates, under a grill, up your shirt, down your pyjamas, it doesn't matter how you do it!, but do not serve any food (other than salad) onto cold plates or it will leach the heat out!

Hollandaise Sauce,
Poached Eggs,
Bacon Rashers, One per portion, (trimmed of thin part, so you have a nice medallion).
English Muffins, Half per portion (split into two).

Step 1 - In a frying pan, gently cook the bacon medallions.

Note: This Step is interchangeable with any of the following uncooked items instead, you could use Parma Ham, or Spanish Serrano, a great alternative is to use Smoked Salmon, these will all work excellently in this dish, and probably save on a tiny bit of washing up.

Step 2 - Toast the English Muffins, and lightly butter.

Step 3 - Onto the hot plates, serve one English muffin, onto this place the Bacon medallion (or alternate item), onto this place the Poached Egg, and finally spoon over a generous amount of Hollandaise sauce.

Enjoy!

Summary: A fantastic breakfast dish, a truly nice treat!