Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Our Special Breakfast

This breakfast is the one reserved for special occasions in our house. We like to celebrate with a lot of butter!!
Anyhow, this is a simple prairie eggs benedict...

You're going to need bread, eggs, butter and lemon juice. I'm not sure why the bowl had to be in the picture...


First, we're going to separate 4 eggs. I don't use a fancy-smancy egg separator, just the chicken-made one, thank you very much. Put the yolks in a small saucepan and the whites in a bowl to scramble for your daughter's breakfast. By the way, this is how REAL eggs separate, with the white all intact. This is a farm fresh, pastured egg, just how God intended!


There are the four lovely ladies! Or, rather, the efforts of four lovely ladies...


Add 1 and a half teaspoons (or a good dribble) of lemon juice.


Get your flat whisk, remember this is my favorite kitchen utensil and to quote Woody from Toy Story 2 "If you don't have one...GET ONE!"


Give the yolks and lemon juice a brisk whisk to get them combined and a little lighter in color.


Yes, we are using both halves of this stick of butter. Absolutely, positively, no margarine may be used in the recipe, or ever really, not as long as I have breath!


Slice the first half stick of butter into smaller pieces. How many is really up to you and how anal retentive you are in the kitchen or in life.


Drop them into the yolk mixture. Turn the burner on LO, do not succumb to the temptation to go any higher.


The butter will slowly begin to melt, give it a stir every now and then to keep things moving.


After just a few minutes, the butter will be melted.


Then what? Add more butter, of course!! Slice up the second half of that stick and drop them into the pot.


Ahhhhhh, doesn't that look great?


After the second round of butter melts, the sauce will begin to thicken. This is really all there is to a hollandaise sauce! I don't know why anyone would buy those terrible powdered packets when the real thing takes less than 5 minutes. You can serve this sauce over steamed veggies, fish, chicken, ice cream. OK, maybe not ice cream, but it's a great sauce!


I'm a sucker for chives, I'll put them in anything! So I raided my herb garden outside my front door for these fresh chives (dried will do just fine) and snipped them into the sauce. You don't want to add them any earlier or they will cook and who wants cooked chives?? Ick.


Just as the sauce is finishing, get the eggs going on the griddle. Traditional eggs benedict is served with a poached egg. Good night, if you have time to poach eggs I have some gardens that need weeding. I don't poach, I fry over easy to over medium. Same thing, less headache.


Take your bread. Any bread will do, this happens to be a honey whole wheat.


Pop 'em in the toaster to your desired doneness. Me, just warmed and slightly crispy on the edges. My mother, burnt black. It's all up to you.


Lay the eggs on the toast. In case you couldn't tell, this is the hubby's plate!


Spoon the sauce over the top. It got a little thicker than I wanted because I was waiting on the hubby to get to the table before I served. You can snip a few more chives on top for a garnish.


This is my plate, with a slightly different presentation.


This is our special breakfast and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

1 comment:

  1. Annie, this is a good one. Had no idea that that sauce was soo easy. :) thanks.

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