EGGS BENEDICT

The Ultimate Chefs Breakfast

This is one of those ultimate rich breakfasts that you can or should only eat occasionally, for me a once a year obsession that has me salivating as that annual mothers day breakfast date arrives, the eating excitement starts with the gorgeous decedent sumptuous moaning joy of the first few mouthfuls of the rich buttery hollandaise sauce with a touch of lemon thickly draped over organic corn feed poached eggs on top of our home reared Gloucestershire Old Spot ham, on a bed of garden wilted spinach in butter topped on a thickly buttered crispy toasted English muffin, but by half way through I am struggling and honestly almost forcing the last three or four rich forkfuls in, groaning with over indulgement, after all it's going to be a another year before I have this again and possibly because the greedy part of me has two eggs benedict!  There is a lot of glorious wonderful grass feed butter in this breakfast which is why it's also known as The Chef's Heart Attack Breakfast!

Prep & Cooking time 15 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 2)

The Hollandaise

3 egg yolks

200g hot melted butter

1 lemon juiced

1 pinch Himalayan sea salt 

1 pinch white pepper

1 tbsp fresh chopped chives

Poached Eggs 

4 eggs

50ml white wine vinegar

The Fixings

4 slices high welfare Ham

200g spinach

100g butter

2 English muffins halved

This is a simple dish to make but because your cooking four elements at once, not dissimilar to a full English breakfast there is a couple of techniques that make this a much easier breakfast to pull together.

This is a cooking all at the same time breakfast, so you need octopus arms, it comes together fast so be ready to serve.  Bring two saucepans full of water to a rolling boil, place 50 ml white wine vinegar in one saucepan, the other one of the saucepans needs to double as a double boiler for cooking the hollandaise sauce, place a third saucepan on a medium heat and add the butter to melt and stay hot.

Crack the eggs individually in to small bowls, these can be poached a few minutes ahead of time and then 30 seconds before serving drop them back in to the hot water off the heat to warm back up, this really helps lower the pressure on bringing this whole dish together at once.  To poach the eggs whisk the water creating a vortex in the centre gently slip one egg in count to 10 then slip the second egg in poach the eggs for two minutes, remove and place on a plate to one side, repeat with the remaining two eggs.

To make the hollandaise place the egg yolks in a glass bowl with the lemon juice, place the bowl over the simmering water and whisk the egg yolks keep whisking for about 30 seconds the egg yolks will fluff up and thicken, remove the bowl from the heat and slowly whisk in the hot butter this is now done, leave to one side.

Place half of butter in to the saucepan used to melt the hollandaise butter, place on a medium heat, add the spinach and stir this will only take one minute to welt.  Place the muffins under the grill to toast, generously butter and place on your plates, top with the spinach and ham, meanwhile place the poached eggs back in to the hot water off the heat and place the hollandaise back over the double boiler for 30 seconds whisking all the time, take the hollandaise sauce off the heat, season with white pepper, take the poached eggs and place on top of the ham on the muffins and spoon over the warm hollandaise sauce, sprinkle with chives and that’s it, enjoy this breakfast of chefs.