Egg Benedict

Teh:

I remember when i was learning driving and had to tackle a particularly difficult turn, i said to my teacher "so difficult!". My teacher replied "It's only difficult because you haven't learned how to do it.". His words always come back to me whenever i encounter difficulties in learning new things. After i've learned how to do them, they were a piece of cake.

Learning how to do poached eggs was a daunting task. I had a few failed attempts and wondered why. As i only learned what i see and read from the internet, it took a few trial and errors to finally get it right, and beautiful! Without further ado, let's get to it! It's a step by step post, and probably the longest yet.

Poached Egg

I learned a neat trick to get rid of the floating messy white bits that swim around in the water while you wait with bated breath for the poached egg to form - use a slotted spoon. As you can see i cracked the egg onto a ladle with holes to "drain" away the liquid-y egg white, while leaving the "solid" whites intact with the yolk. We have all read that only the freshest egg can make a beautiful poached egg. But how do we know which is the freshest? What i did was check the expiry dates on the packaging and picked the one that was going to expire the latest.

Next, boil a pot of with enough water so that you will be able to submerge the whole egg. When the water is boiled, turn the heat down to the lowest so that the water is simmering. This step is crucial! A pot full of boiling water (aka big bubbles) will definitely ruin the poached egg. There is no need for swirling the water nor putting vinegar in this recipe. Just plain water.

When the water is simmering, gently slide the egg into the pot and remove the slotted spoon. The egg will sink to the bottom of the pot. Don't worry. It shouldn't stick. It takes around 2 to 3 minutes to cook, depending how runny/firm you like the yolk to be. You can scoop the egg out with the slotted spoon to test it's firmness. When it is done, submerge the egg into a bowl of water (tap water will do!) to stop the cooking process.

After egg slide into the pot

After cooking for 2-3 minutes

Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise sauce

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks

1 tsp mustard

1 tbsp lemon juice

a pinch of cayenne (optional)

110g of butter

Method:

1. Combine egg yolk, mustard. lemon juice and cayenne into a blender. Blend for 30 sec to 1 minute until its well mixed.

2. Melt butter in a pan.

3. Pour the melted butter immediately but slowly into the blender to mix with rest of the ingredients while it is on high. As soon as you finish pouring the butter into the blender, it should take only 10 to 15 seconds for it to come together to form a thick rich sauce that is bright yellow in colour.

Egg Benedict

Take a muffin, cut it into 2. Toast and use only 1 half of it. Put a piece of cooked bacon on the muffin. Put the egg and topped it off with the hollandaise sauce. Viola! Of course you can substitute the bacon with smoked salmon or spinach to make Egg Royal or Egg Florentine. It's entirely up to you. Enjoy!

Egg Benedict