It’s the first weekend of Christmas. My favourite festive season of the year is finally here!
The reason why many people (well, in my opinion) like Christmas, is because it happens at the end of the year when everything related to work starts to slow down, people disappear into nowhere, school is closed, and holidays appear everywhere in media. People relate Christmas to everything fun and relaxing – gifts and presents; parties and feasts; friends and family. How can I not like Christmas?
Even the boy, without knowing too much about the origin of Christmas, loves Christmas. He knows to expect a gift from everyone because of it. How can he not like Christmas?
Anyway, here goes the first of my Christmas recipes throughout the month. The first in this series will be eggs benedict – an American breakfast or brunch selection which includes toasted English muffins, poached eggs and most importantly, the hollandaise sauce. This recipe is tricky. It is not easy to prepare two out of three of these elements – the egg and the sauce. I can’t poach eggs like a chef and the sauce, it takes an expert to know by experience when to stop whisking it. So this dish, as simple as it looks, is a great challenge for me. But I’m glad I tried. It didn’t turn out too horrible, but there’s definitely (lots of) room for improvement.
I will definitely appreciate this dish much more the next time I order it from the cafes and restaurants.
Ingredients:
- Oil: 1 tbsp
- Ham (or back bacon): 4 slices
- English muffin: 2, halved
- Vinegar: 1 tsp
- Egg: 4 whole + 3 yolks
- Lemon juice: 2 tbsp
- Salt: 1/4 tsp
- Butter: 115g
- Light cream: 2 tbsp
Method:
- Heat oil in pan. Fry ham till lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
- Place muffins cut side down on pan. Toast till lightly browned.
- Plate the muffins. Place one slice of ham on each muffin halves.
- Bring shallow pan of water to a boil. Stir in vinegar.
- Stir the water with a spoon. Break an egg into a small cup.
- Slide egg into water. Use a spoon to turn the white around the yolk. Cook 3min.
- Remove egg carefully and place on a paper towel to dry. Trim edges if required. Scoop egg onto ham. Repeat steps 5 to 7 with remaining 3 eggs.
- Whisk 3 egg yolks, lemon juice and salt together for 15sec.
- Melt butter in pan till bubbling but not browned.
- Gradually pour melted butter into egg yolk mixture while whisking.
- Place egg mixture into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Continue whisking egg mixture till thickened.
- Stir in light cream. Whisk quickly to combine. Do NOT overwhisk.
- Scoop hollandaise sauce over poached egg to serve.
Tricks:
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Repeat – make sure that you do not overwhisk your hollandaise sauce. Once it thickens. Stop! Otherwise, the sauce will curdle and the fat will break up, and there goes all the precious eggs and butter into the bin. Repeat steps 8 to 12.
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Attempt this recipe in the above stipulated steps (don’t skip or jump any steps) for a better preparation sequence.
Disclaimers:
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This recipe was kindly adapted from the book ‘The Complete Book of Party Food and Appetizers‘.
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My poached eggs were a mess. Despite watching how Gordon Ramsay does his, I am still unable to get a perfect looking, perfectly runny poached egg except for the one you see in the above image. Will try again next time (when there’s time)!
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I couldn’t get English muffins from the supermarket this time and had to make do with brioche buns. In my opinion, it doesn’t make much of a difference though.
Serving:
2 persons
