Eggs Benedict! It's not as hard as you think

If you can learn to make this, I promise your friends and family will not stop asking for it, and you will become their hero ;) 


It is best to start with the hardest part, the Hollandaise sauce. For this you will need: 2 eggs (yolks only), cup of water, 1/4 cup of vinegar, shallot, black peppercorns (a few), and 3 sticks of unsalted butter (12 ounces) that you should clarify, but do not have to.  You clarify butter by putting it into a pot and heating it up on about medium to melt it, scoop off the foam off the top and throw away, and pour what is left into a measuring cup, do not pour the fats that settled into the bottom of the pot.  You will need a glass or stainless steel large bowl (not aluminum) and a pot of hot water that you can set that bowl on top of, kinda like a make shift baine marie (or double boiler) 


So what you will do is cut up the shallot, you can just dice it up, and add to a small pan, with the vinegar and couple peppercorns, heat on medium until it reduces by half.


Add the two egg yolks into that large bowl, add about 1/4 cup of water and whisk really well, then take that vinegar off the stove, and strain into the yolk bowl, and whisk well, then place over that hot pot of water, and slowly add a couple of drops of the clarified butter, you must do this slowly as if you do it too quickly the butter and yolk will separate. 


Keep adding drops of butter little by little as you whisk, if you notice the egg mixture starting to cook, take the bowl off the heat and keep whisking, allowing it to cool a bit, it is important to keep the mixture warm, but not too hot.  As it thickens you can start adding the butter more and more until it is all mixed into the bowl.  If it gets too thick add a couple drops of water as you whisk to thin it out.  When done cover with saran wrap and keep on the stove somewhere where it can stay warm.  It must stay warm...check on it periodically mixing it as you move onto the eggs. 


Now that the sauce is done, you will now move onto the poaching of the eggs and preparing your plate.  What you will need is English muffins (1 per plate) that you will cut in half, canadian bacon (2 pieces per plate), 2 eggs per plate you are making (this recipe can make enough for 4 plates), tablespoon of vinegar, big pot of water, and a pan to cook the muffin and canadian bacon on, and some butter.


First you will Poach the eggs, to do this you will bring that pot of water up to below boiling, add the vinegar (it will help bind the proteins of the egg so the whites dont spread too far) some people like to put mason jar lid rings on the bottom of the pot so that they can put the egg right into it, it worked for me!  What you can do if you do not use the rings is crack an egg into a ramekin, or little cup, stir the water around in a circle creating a whirlpool effect, and slowly SLOWLY dump the egg into the center of the whirlpool, it will cause the egg whites to swirl around back onto itself, then after its settled a bit, add another egg, and just let them cook.  Some egg whites will float to the top that is ok, that you do not want on your plate, so you can scoop that out so you can see better if you want, or just push them aside to see your eggs, it should probably take about 5-7 minutes depending on how runny you want them, but get a slotted spoon, and bring an egg to the surface, press it lightly to see how ready it feels, it should give a bit, you want this kinda runny! Now at this same time you want to put some butter in the other pan, and place the canadian bacon in there along with your muffins, to cook them up (or you can just toast the muffins) and cook the canadian bacon in the pan .. place each half of muffin on your plate inside up, one slice of canadian bacon on each slice, and then put your poached egg on top of that .. then get your hollandaise sauce, make sure its not too thick, if it is add some warm water and whisk again, and pour over your poached eggs! 


Bam ... you got yourself Eggs Benedict! Tanner loves it :) and so do I!