Eggs Benedict

Kelani has been asking to have this for breakfast since eating it at The Epicurean in Steamboat Springs. Ours is the Turkish version as we did not make crab cakes nor did we have English muffins. We did enjoy though.

We took rye bread, spread it with dijon mustard, put on a couple of slices of a beef salami (no bacon here), then some slices of sweet onion, on top we put a mixture of hard cheese (like parmesan) and a sheep or goat feta. We then heated it up in the oven.

I poached the eggs (I need to work on that), placed on on top of the bread combo and added the Hollandaise sauce.

 Sauce Hollandaise- from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

  

So that the egg yolks will thicken into a smooth cream, they must be heated slowly and gradually. Overcooking scrambles them. You may beat them over hot water or over low heat; it makes no difference as long as the process is slow and gentle.

For 1 to 1 ½ cups hollandaise- serving 4 – 6 people

• 6 to 8 ounces of butter ( to 1 cup or 1 ½ to 2 sticks)
• A small saucepan 

Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in the saucepan over moderate heat. Then set it aside.

• A 4 to 6 cup, medium weight, enameled or stainless steel saucepan
• A wire whisk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Big pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cold butter
• 1 tablespoon cold butter (one for the beginning one for the end)
• Salt and white pepper

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute in the saucepan, or until they become thick and sticky.
Add the water, lemon juice, and salt, and beat for half a minute or more.
Add the tablespoon of cold butter, but do not beat it in. Then place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whisk until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water, beating the yolks to cool them. Then continue beating over heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whisk.

 Immediately remove from heat and beat in the cold butter, which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking.

 Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whisk, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoonfuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.

 Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.