Every holiday has its own traditions, and along with that, every family has their own holiday traditions. A big tradition for my family for Mother's Day is to celebrate with a Mother's Day brunch. Every year my mom invites both sets of grandparents over as well as my aunt Darlene and her family to sit down to a delicious feast full of warm bagels with all the fixings, an abundance of summer salads, and fresh fruit and veggies. No matter how much I adore the meal we have for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (yup same meal for every holiday), I love that our Mother's Day meal is different yet just as delicious! This year due to busy schedules and other matters, we were unable to do our big family brunch. This is where I stepped in. I know how much my mom loves that Mother's Day brunch, so I decided to prepare her a special intimate brunch featuring her all-time favourite brunch dish eggs benedict.
I have wanted to make eggs benedict for quite a while now but had never given it a try, always too intimidated at mastering the art of hollandaise sauce and poached eggs. After hearing so many stories about failed attempts at thickening the hollandaise and rubbery eggs, I feared that I would soon be the one spouting out eggs benedict horror stories. After a bit of research (thank you allrecipes.com and chow.com) on the best and most reliable ways to prepare the indulgent brunch dish, I felt fairly confident that I was ready to take on the task!
Running on a mere two hours of sleep, and my mind swimming with thoughts of the previous evening, I was pretty nervous that my less than sharp brain may cause me to have another kitchen blunder (if you have me on Twitter you'll know that I've had my fair share of those). Luckily all of my eggs bennie research paid off! The final product turned out incredible! The eggs were perfectly cooked with that vibrant yellow yolk pouring out of the egg upon first bite, resting atop crispy bacon slices and a soft and buttery english muffin, and generously topped with tangy, velvety hollandaise sauce and a sprinkle of chopped chives. This could have very well been Daughter's Day considering how much I enjoyed my eggs benedict and how simple it all was to prepare. The trick to eggs benedict success is well...learning the tricks! Below I have provided a clear instructional video from CHOW on how to poach eggs as well as an easy no-fail blender hollandaise sauce recipe that will have you finding excuses to celebrate every weekend! Happy Sunday anyone?
Tip: Turn this into a vegetarian eggs benedict by skipping the bacon and adding some sauteed spinach and even a little cream cheese for flavour and creaminess.
Ingredients:
8 slices of bacon
2 English muffins, split, or 4 crumpets
4 tsp white vinegar
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 pinches of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup butter + more for spreading on English muffins
4 large fresh eggs
fresh chives, chopped for garnish (optional)
salt and pepper to season
Directions:
1. Fill a medium saucepan with water leaving about 2 inches at the top. Place on stove and set to medium-low heat to bring water up to a slow simmer.
2. While the water is heating up, start frying the bacon. Fry bacon in a pan set to high heat. When the edges of the bacon begin to curl up, flip the pieces of bacon over with a fork. Continue cooking until bacon has reached desired crispiness. Drain bacon slices on paper towels to remove excess oil. Set aside until assembly.
3. Now make the hollandaise sauce. In a blender, combine the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Cover and blend until well combined.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove until completely melted and hot. Remove the feed piece from the top of the blender and set blender to high speed. With the blender on high speed, slowly pour in the melted butter in a thin stream. Blend for an additional 3 seconds.
5. Make the poached eggs following the instructions in the video above. While eggs are poaching (this should take about 3 minutes) toast the English muffins.
6. To assemble to eggs benedict lightly butter each English muffin with butter. Top each muffin with 2 slices of bacon. Set the poached egg on top of the bacon and pour over desired amount of hollandaise sauce. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chives. Serve immediately.
1 comment:
Those eggs look just perfect!
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