My First Eggs Benedict!

I'm a HUGE fan of brunch, but there are some weekends I just can't get to it. So this morning I decided to make my own brunch. Only recently have a discovered the deliciousness that is hollandaise sauce, so I thought it was time for me to learn how to make it for myself.

The first thing I needed to do was learn how to poach an egg. I always prepare my eggs scrambled, over-medium or as an omelette. It's about time I learned what a poached egg is all about.

I used THIS video and found its technique really easy!

Definitely follow it closely, with the separate bowl, white vinegar in the simmering water and I used a pot with a lid. Everything worked perfectly. The eggs didn't even need to be touched once I put them into the water.

I wanted to make sure the white of the eggs were fully cooked, so I let them simmer for exactly 3 minutes. I had everything prepared a head of time so I could take the eggs out and pat the water off with a paper towel.

Above are the poached eggs after 3 minutes.

Here are my delicious jewels drying on some paper towel.

I had already prepared the hollandaise sauce, which I did while my sausage was cooking and my water was heating up. I wanted to make sure everything was nice and hot when I was ready to pour the sauce over everything.

I used THIS recipe for the hollandaise sauce and it came out really well! I used Smart Balance instead of butter, since I don't usually buy butter. It cooked up just fine and it tasted really good regardless of the substitution. I actually halved the recipe since I was only cooking for one. So I just used one egg yolk (I saved the egg white for tomorrow's breakfast), half tablespoon of lemon juice, half tablespoon of warm water, a dash of salt and cayenne pepper and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Many of the recipes for hollandaise called for Worcestershire sauce, so I figured it was important. Once the sauce was made, I began setting up my dish while my eggs were cooking.

To set up my eggs benedict, I used spinach pancakes, which I bought at a health food store. They looked really good, and figured they might be tastier than a regular english muffin. I cooked these in the oven at 425 degrees for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile I needed a little protein, so I went with chicken and apple sausage by Simply Good. I really liked these sausages since they have less sodium and are far healthier than their competitors. I grilled these on my cast iron griddle.

After patting the eggs dry, I placed them on top and was ready to pour the freshly made hollandaise sauce.

Here's the final product:

Here's from another angle.

I thought the eggs were cooked perfectly. I would rather have less runny yolk but fully cooked egg whites. So I was really pleased with the result.

It was really a DELICIOUS dish. It was by far the most delicious breakfast I've ever made. I wished I could have shared it with someone. I'll be sure to make this the next time I have guests over for brunch. I would have easily paid $15 for this in a restaurant. It just goes to show that with a little patience, you can make tasty food in your own kitchen.

In the end, I licked the plate clean! It was just the right amount of hollandaise sauce, the eggs were easy to cook and everything tasted amazing. I'll be sure to experiment with different types of breakfast meats, veggies, and the starch base.