Eggs Benedict with Asparagus

Sometimes trying to figure out what to have for dinner can be really hard.  My husband suggested, why don't we do breakfast?  I thought sure why not, simple and easy but I just didn't want simple eggs and bacon. I figured lets do something a little different which is how I came to do this for dinner.

Here is what I did:
2 Sourdough English Muffins, fork split and toasted
4 pieces of Canadian Bacon, heated
Several stems of asparagus, depending on how many you want on each muffin, steamed
4 poached eggs (*recipe below)
hollandaise Sauce (**recipe below)
Place bacon on top of each muffin half, add poached egg (one to each muffin side), place asparagus over top egg then add hollandaise sauce.

Poached Eggs by Julia Child
To poach up to 6 eggs, bring 1-1/2 quarts of water and 1/4 cup white vinegar to a simmer in a saucepan 8 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep.  Have a kitchen timer and slotted spoon at hand.  One by one, starting near the pan handle and moving clockwise, hold the egg as close to the surface as possible, and break it into the water. (I break my eggs into small dishes first, it makes it easier plus you don't have to worry about the egg breaking, etc).  Rapidly continue with the rest.  Maintain the water at a simmer and poach exactly 4 minutes - the white should be softly set and the yolk liquid.  Clockwise from the handle of the pan, remove the eggs one by one with the perforated spoon, and drop into a basin of cold water to wash off the vinegar. (if you don't mind the taste of vinegar or the vinegar taste isn't strong you can skip this step).

Hollandaise Sauce by Julia Child
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and hot
More salt, freshly ground white pepper to taste
Beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk in a stainless-steel saucepan for a minute or two, until they thicken slightly and turn lemon-colored.  Whisk in a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon cold butter.  Set over moderately low heat and whisk continuously at moderate speed, removing pan from the heat now and then to make sure the yolks aren't cooking too fast.  When they cling to the wires of the whisk and you can see the bottom of the pan between strokes, remove from hear and stir in second tablespoon of cold butter.  Start by beating in the melted butter by little dribbles at first, until a good 1/2 cup of the sauce has thickened, then add it a little more quickly as the sauce thickens into a heavy cream. (I continue to use my whisk as this seems to be the easiest thing to incorporate the ingredients) Taste and correct seasoning.

I love using Julia Child recipes, they are proven recipes and she makes them easy to understand.

Breakfast for Dinner with Poached Eggs

We had a change in our plans this evening and so we didn't have anything laid out for dinner.  So we did a old favorite breakfast.

Pancakes:
1-1/4 cup of flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk ***
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.  In a bowl combine milk, egg, oil and vanilla add to flour mixture stirring until blended but still slightly lumpy.  Pour batter onto a hot skillet, about 1/4 of a cup of batter for each pancake.  Cook until bubbles start to form and pop then flip pancake and continue to cook until golden.  Serve with maple syrup.
***I used goat milk kefir instead of milk.  I thought that kefir which is has the same consistency of buttermilk.  I found that by using this gave the pancakes great flavor.

Poached Eggs:
Poached eggs are really easy.  I found a recipe of Julia Child's a couple of years ago and this works like a charm every time.  The biggest thing you need to do is have the freshest eggs possible.  I use farm fresh eggs.
In a pan bring about 1-1/2 quarts of water and 1/4 cup vinegar to a simmer in a sauce pan.  I break the eggs in a small dish first because it seems that every time I break and egg open a get shell with it.  So my me doing this makes it easier.  Also when you are cooking several eggs it makes it easy to slide them into the pan.  When the water is at a simmer slide the eggs into the water (stay as close to the water as you can), set timer for 4 minutes.  When removing the eggs from a pan, scoop them out in the order they went in.  Use a slotted spoon to remove eggs.  We served the eggs on a piece of toast.

Bacon:
We like to cook our bacon in the microwave, it is fast and easy clean up.  All you need to do is have a microwave safe platter, line platter with paper towels (a fair amount since this will be soaking up the grease) and then line the paper towel with your slices of bacon.  Add more paper towels over top of the bacon.  Place in microwave.  Now our microwave only takes about 3 minutes for 5 slices of bacon.  Remove bacon to another platter, add more paper towels as needed and cook the rest of the bacon.

Poached Eggs and Toast

I wanted some protein for breakfast this morning but didn't want just scrambled egg so I decided to do poached eggs and toast.

 The eggs in the pan cooking

 The eggs on the toast

Perfectly cooked