Day Five, Part Two

Now for something happier! Hollandaise! Just in time for the weekend. And I can feed 3-4 people Eggs Benedict for the same price as feeding just me at a restaurant.

Hollandaise, as it turns out is not as tricky as everyone says. The real trick I found it timing everything right so you have nice smooth sauce, warm crispy English muffins, and hot running egg yolks all at the same time.

This Hollandaise recipe has worked well for me in the past, so I'm using it again here. http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_hollandaise.htm

Here are the ingredients:

2 tbls warm lemon juice (about one lemon)
3 tbls boiling water
3 large egg yokes
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 tps cayenne
1/2 tps salt

For the rest of the Benedict:

English muffins (I tried the fancy, fluffy ones once and it didn't taste as good as just regular old EMs.)
eggs (I serve two per person.)
cheddar (I like to put a little sharp cheddar on the muffins while they are toasting, but it's optional.)
prosciutto or smoked salmon (Again, optional. I serve one with and one without on each plate.)

Here we go:

One of the tricks I've found to Hollandaise is to have all of my ingredients ready to go. So I start by getting my double boiler ready. Again, the inside pot is not to touch the boiling water below. I get my eggs out, I start my kettle for the boiling water, I'm melting the stick of butter on another burner, the lemon juice is warming in the microwave, my cayenne and salt are measured and ready to be thrown in at the very end.


Same goes for the other Benedict ingredients. My EMs are separated and cheesed, the prosciutto is out of the fridge, the broiler is on, a medium pot of water with a little white vinegar is boiling on my remaining burner.

Back to the sauce: yokes go into the double boiler bowl. I whisk until they are starting to thicken. One at a time I pour in the three tablespoons of boiling water. Again with the whisking. It's not thickening very quickly so I throw the eggs in for poaching and by the time I am done the sauce is beginning to thicken again. Then I add the lemon juice and remove it from the heat.



I throw the muffins into the broiler for browning. (I usually set the timer for this kind of thing as I frequently forget to check on the broiler until I smell burning.) Returning to the sauce, I pour in the butter while whisking. Then the salt. Then the cayenne. And we have Hollandaise! Now quickly back to the broiler to check on the muffins, then quickly back to the eggs. I remove the eggs from the pot with a slotted spoon, place them carefully onto a plate lined with paper towel (to soak off the water), and season with salt and pepper.

Muffins are out from the oven. One of each pair gets a slice of prosciutto. They both get an egg. Then big dollops of special sauce and we have brunch success!