Eggs Benedict

The star dish of a great breakfast

Eggs benedict is a classic on breakfast menus at the best hotels in the world. This recipe consists of toasted bread, a slice of bacon or pancetta, and poached eggs topped with a creamy hollandaise sauce.

Its origin, like in almost any recipe, is somewhat uncertain. One of the most corroborated versions is that the recipe dates to 1942, when the retired Wall Street broker Lemuel Benedict asked the Maitre D’ of the Waldorf Hotel, Oscar Tschirky, for some eggs that could cure his hangover. The result was tan exquisite that, in the end, the famed hotel included the dish on their breakfast menu.

Hollandaise sauce also enjoys a great amount of fame, given that it is one of the most popular sauces in the world, along with Béarnaise, béchamel, mayonnaise, and Spanish sauce, among others.

Hollandaise sauce consists of an emulsion of butter, lemon juice, and egg yolk. Though its name makes reference to the Netherlands, it is French in origin, like the majority of sauces.

Treat yourself for breakfast and prepare this classic to get your day off to a good start.

Ingredients for 2 people

• 2 slices of bread
• 5 g butter
• 2 slices of pancetta
• 1 liter water
• 15 ml vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 1 avocado

For the hollandaise sauce

• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 60 g butter
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Step-by-step preparation

For the hollandaise sauce

1. Heat the water in a saucepan and, on top of it, place a wide and deep bowl, creating a double boiler.
2. Place the butter in the bowl and melt in the double boiler. As it is heating, it will begin to foam on the surface and a residual layer will form at the base.
3. Remove from heat and transfer the foam to another bowl and save. You can throw away the residual base layer.
4. Put the egg, salt, pepper, and lemon juice in a cup deep enough for a hand blender. Introduce the hand blender into the cup and turn on, without moving the base.
5. Add the clarified, room-temperature butter little by little without turning off the hand blender.
6. Move the hand blender only once the butter has begun to emulsify to keep it from cutting.
7. Keep the hollandaise sauce warm in a double boiler until serving.

Eggs and Assembly

1. Spread a thin layer of butter on the two pieces of bread and toast on a grill on both sides. Reserve for later.
2. Fry the slices of pancetta until they are golden brown. Remove from heat and reserve.
3. Heat the water and vinegar in a saucepan. Turn off the heat once the water begins to boil and add the two eggs, without their shell, with much caution.
4. Cover the saucepan and leave for 3 minutes.
5. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and cool in a bowl with cold water. Remove any strings that may have formed on the whites.
6. Cut the avocado lengthwise, peel one of the halves, and slice thin.
7. When putting everything together, put the bread on the bottom, cover with the sliced avocado, then pancetta, then egg.
8. Top with the hollandaise sauce and sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley and black pepper on top.

‘Harmonies in Flavors and Fragrances’ by Juan Muñoz Ramos.

We like to offer our friends all or almost all of the new wines and drinks that appear on the market and that demonstrate an excellent combination of water-wine-dish, a trilogy that is not always easy to perfect because many times we combine red wines with fish and whites with meats. We guide ourselves by the world of aromas and flavors, in perfect harmony with the mentioned trilogy.

In this case, the excellent combination of these eggs paired with nothing or almost nothing. Imagine them just with water, S.Pellegrino, because its intensity and effervescent creaminess are sufficient to contrast this excellent egg recipe.

But that wouldn’t be entirely perfect. To achieve perfection, we must add a wine that is new on the market that seems excellent to me. Yes, a Jean León Xarel-lo White wine, body, fruitiness, acidity, balance, and personality, perfect synergies between the water and wine that will create an impeccable cushion to balance the smoothness of this dish where the very strong flavors of the pancetta, the sauce, and the eggs require acidity, freshness, and a little bit of bubbles to aid in digestion.

We finish the dish and find ourselves perfectly agile thanks to an unbeatable combination.

Tips

• Hollandaise sauce is very delicate and making it with a hand blender offers the best results. It is very important that the blender remain immobile until all of the butter is added. Only after that is done can you move it so that the sauce is well mixed.
• It is a sauce to serve immediately or almost immediately. It cannot be reheated. To keep the sauce warm, you must use a double boiler.
• It is better to make poached eggs with fresh eggs, as the whites won’t scatter. If you don’t have fresh eggs, you can simply trim the whites before plating.
• You can also make the eggs covered in plastic wrap, which will result in a cleaner looking product.

Make it a perfect meal with our  Tuna Empanadas… find the step-by-step recipe here!

End this amazing meal with a Black Forest Cake, click here to see the complete recipe.