Eggs Benedict

[with asparagus and hollandaise sauce]



Breakfast for dinner! I love eating breakfast, any time of day. Besides dessert, my favorite course is definitely breakfast. I heart eggs.

Preparing this meal was kind of an ordeal because (1) I've never poached an egg before and (2) I've never made hollandaise sauce before. I did a little research online about how to poach an egg and I found several recommended methods, but ended up kind of making up my own procedure that turned out really well! *Patting self on back*

The hollandaise, however, was another story. My sauce was not creamy - it was lumpy and curdled. So gross. Tasted good, though. I haven't given up - I will make the perfect hollandaise!

The whole meal took a lot longer than I expected - well over an hour. Just to make breakfast for 2! There are so many steps to make each part of the meal. I also decided to be ~fancy~ and make clarified butter, which was probably unecessary.

Also, I test-poached a couple of eggs using different methods. Then when the bf came home, he informed me that he HAS an EGG POACHER.

Of course he does.



Ingredients

eggs benedict:

• 4 Slices of canadian bacon
• 2 English muffins, cut in half
• 1 Tsp. salt
• 2 Tbs. distilled white vinegar
• 4 eggs
• 1 Sprig of parsley, chopped

hollandaise sauce:

• 2 Egg yolks
• 1/2 Cup of butter, cut in small pieces
• 1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice
• Salt and cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Fry the canadian bacon in a frying pan, approximately 2 minutes each side. Remove from heat and set aside.



2. To make the hollandaise, in a heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Place the bowl over but not touching barely simmering water in the bottom pan of a saucepan and continue to whisk until warm and frothy, 4 to 5 minutes. [double boiler]
   
3. Whisk in the butter slowly until fully incorporated. Continue to whisk until all the butter has been incorporated and the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 3 to 5 minutes total. Stir in the lemon juice and season with a pinch each of salt and cayenne pepper.



4. In a deep frying pan or big pot, fill about 3-4 inches of water. Add salt and vinegar to the water and bring to a boil.
5. Take 4 small bowls and spray with cooking spray. Crack an eggs in each bowl. Carefully submerge each bowl in the boiling water, making sure the boiling water fills the bowls. Let the eggs cook until desired runniness. Take each bowl out of the pot and slide each egg out with a slotted spoon.
   



6. Toast the english muffins and arrange on a plate. Put a slice of canadian bacon on each slice and a poached egg on top of the bacon. Top with hollandaise sauce and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

To poach the eggs, normally you just drop the eggs into boiling water. I found that it made the eggs really non-uniformed shaped and ugly. That's part of the reason why you put vinegar and salt in the water - it's supposed to keep the egg more coagulated so the whites are less "feathery." INTERESTING, HUH.

Some people suggested stirring the water to make a VORTEX and dropping the egg inside. I tested it out (because it involved making a VORTEX) and while it did work a little better, it still wasn't the perfect round shape.

So i tried using the bowls, which another website suggested, but the egg got stuck and I ended up breaking the yolk. THEN I got the idea of using cooking spray. PERFECT!

The bowls I used were sauce bowls. They look like the normal, round rice bowls, but a bit smaller. If you're vietnamese, you could put nuoc mam in them. I was able to poach all 4 eggs at one time in the pot.



To make myself feel less guilty, I bought whole wheat english muffins. They were good! Nice and soft. The only thing I didn't like was that slightly sweet wheat bread taste, but I would totally eat them again.

As a side, I steamed some asparagus because (1) they go well w/ hollandaise, and (2) they are in season and only $1.49/bunch. We've been eating asparagus at least 1-2x a week lately. Out pee smells wonderful.

I also cut a couple of slices of roma tomato.