Rich with Hollandaise sauce
Eggs Benedict: How to make breakfast with poached eggs at home
Breakfast, it is often said, is the most important meal of the day. Or to put it very simply: what you eat in the morning will be burned again by the evening. So why do we in Germany often attach so little value to a good breakfast and content ourselves far too often with a slice of toast?
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Again, it’s worth looking across the Atlantic. Admittedly, not everything served in American hotels and restaurants is always healthy. But all too often it is one thing above all else: elaborate and substantial. A classic American breakfast that is far too underestimated in this country is Eggs Benedict: a poached egg with hollandaise sauce on bacon and a breakfast muffin, a kind of toastie, like you can find in supermarkets in this country.
The nice thing is: Pescetarians or vegetarians don’t have to do without it, because there are just as tasty variations: Eggs Royale with smoked salmon and Eggs Florentine with spinach, each instead of bacon.
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Eggs Benedict: Who Invented Them?
There are essentially two stories about its origin. In 1894, stockbroker Lemuel Benedict is said to have ordered what was an unusual combination at the time as a hangover breakfast at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York – namely the Eggs Benedict, which was later named after him. Legendary restaurant manager Oscar Tschirky, who provides much of the material for Kitchen Stories, is said to be so impressed that he included it on the regular breakfast menu.
But there is another, not entirely improbable theory: According to this, the Eggs Benedict was previously created in the New York restaurant Delmonico’s for the banker LeGrand Benedict. Tschirky was working in the same restaurant at the time. So he could very well have picked up the Eggs Benedict recipe there and brought it with him to his new job at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. One thing is certain: the dish found its way into the recipe collection “The Epicurean” by Charles Ranhofer, the then chef at Delmonico’s, as well as into that of Oscar Tschirky (“Oscar of the Waldorf”).
Recipe for Eggs Benedict
The key to Eggs Benedict is the poached eggs. To do this, bring a pot with two liters of water and three tablespoons of vinegar to a boil. The vinegar helps the coagulation. The water should boil but not form large bubbles. Then create a swirl in the water with a whisk or a spoon. Carefully break an egg into the center of this vortex. For the inexperienced: simply pour the egg into a coffee cup beforehand and pour it from the cup into the strudel. Either way, the yolk must not be damaged!
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Keep stirring gently with the spoon – the purpose of the strudel is to wrap the egg whites around the yolk. Depending on the desired consistency, the egg should cook for a total of three to five minutes.
For the Hollandaise sauce, melt 125 grams of butter. In a bowl, combine 2 egg yolks, 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, a pinch of salt and a splash of ice cold water. Stir a saucepan of simmering water until the sauce thickens, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then remove from the stove and stir in the butter. Season with a squeeze of lemon juice and pepper.
Meanwhile, toast and slice the breakfast muffin. Cover one half each with the bacon, salmon or spinach. Place a poached egg on top of each and pour over the hollandaise sauce. Finished!
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