Eggs Benedict

This one of the most popular and finicky to make breakfast dishes. The history of Eggs Benedict is not fully known. Although we do know that the dish is an American creation.

Eggs Benedict is two poached eggs over Canadian bacon and an English muffin, topped with hollandaise sauce. Both the poached eggs and hollandaise sauce require a lot of attention if you are going to do them right.

Serves:

1, let's not get too crazy.

Ingredients:

Eggs Benedict
2 eggs poached (poached easy
is the most common)
2 slices Canadian bacon
1 English muffin halved and
toasted
3 ozs of hollandaise sauce

Hollandaise Sauce
(makes about 2/3 cups)
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter, firm
1 Tbs lemon juice (you can also
use white wine to substitute)
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt

Instructions:
I usually make the hollandaise sauce first and let cool while I cook everything else. Then I reheat the sauce at the end.

See my post on how to make hollandaise sauce.

Next, I toast the English muffin and pan fry the Canadian bacon over medium heat. The Canadian bacon should be slightly browned on both sides.

Poach the eggs to your liking.

See my post on how to make poached eggs.

Reheat the hollandaise sauce and construct the Eggs Benedict by placing the two haves of the English muffin with the insides facing up, then one slice of Canadian bacon on each, then one poached egg on each and cover both with hollandaise sauce.

How to make: Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise sauce is a smooth and tangy sauce that tastes great on eggs and vegetables like asparagus. However, it is also a difficult sauce to make.

Serves:

Makes about 2/3 cups or enough to coat two servings of Eggs Benedict.

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter, firm
1 Tbs lemon juice
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt

Instructions:
Separate egg yolks from the whites and put in a metal bowl. Beat the eggs, lemon juice, salt and cayenne with a whisk and place the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Add half of the stick of butter and mix in with the egg continuously with a spatula. The yolks will start to become stringy if the temperature reaches over 110 degrees F. Remove the bowl from the pot if the tempurature gets too hot and wait for it to cool. Add the other half of the butter once the first half is completely melted. If the yolks start to separate add a little cold water and beat with the whisk. Sauce is done once the butter is metled and the sauce has thickened.

How to make: Eggs

Making eggs is one of the hardest foods to cook and cook right. Below is how to cook the most common styles of egg.

Light, easy, medium, and well done eggs:

These are pan fried with about 1oz of butter on medium heat and flipped after most of the egg whites are cooked through. Once flipped wait 5 seconds for light, 12 seconds for easy, 20 seconds for medium and at least 40 seconds for well done. Light should have surface of whites cooked, but some runny white left. Easy should have fully cooked whites, but raw yoke. Medium should have fully cooked whites and the yoke should just have started to cook. Well is completely cooked whites and yoke.

Hard eggs:

Cooked like well, but you want to break the yokes as soon as they are put in the pan.

Up eggs:

Simply fry in the pan and never flip. Try and cook the whites all the way through.

Basted eggs:

Like up eggs, basted is never flipped. Wait for the whites to be mostly cooked like you were doing easy eggs, then add a little water to the pan and cover until the top of the yoke turns white. Basted can be easy, medium, or well.

Poached eggs:

Poached is the shelless egg simmered in water. Works best if you bring to a boil and turn heat off just before putting the egg in. Poached can be easy, medium, and hard.

Boiled:

Egg is cooked by boiling in the egg shell. I actually haven't got the time figured out for these. You are on your own. However, eggs can be easy, medium, and well.

Scrambled:

beat then mix 1 egg with 2 Tbs milk until uniform. Fry until eggs become solid at edges and flip.

Bloody Mary Soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes. It's quick and easy to make and tastes great.

Serves:
3 as a main dish
6 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

Soup
3 Tomatoes skinned and
unseeded then diced
3 cans 5.5 oz tomato juice
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
4 drops Tabasco
Juice of 1/2 lime

Salsa
1 Tomato skinned and
unseeded then diced
2 tsp vodka
2 dashes Tabasco
6 in. celery stalk diced
1 tsp celery salt

Instructions:
First, skin and unseed all four tomatoes by letting them sit in hot boiling water for one minute or until the skins start to crack. The skins should be easy to peel off now. Cut each tomato in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds. Diced the tomatoes and set aside one of them in a bowl for the salsa. Place the other three in a sauce pot and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. This will reduce them. Then add the tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and Tabasco and let simmer on medium heat for ten minutes. While this is cooking make the salsa by adding the vodka, Tabasco, celery and celery salt mixing them together. Once the soup has finished, turn off the heat and add the lime juice and salsa.