Egg Benedict with Smoked Salmon and Avocado on Baguette with Hollandaise Sauce

Happy New Year 2014 to all my readers. The new year also marks my first anniversary in the blogging world and what a better way to celebrate with a good hearty breakfast.

It's the holidays and I've been wanting to make poach eggs for quite a while since hubby likes to eat them and they are not cheap at cafes and restaurants. So after a few click of the mouse and a bit of read up I decided to take the plunge and attempt the recipe. The first try was a BIG disaster, I had scrambled eggs swimming in the pot of water. I had to have a visual tutorial of how it is done and where else to go then the reliable youtube, after watching a few videos I realize what my mistake was. I had drop the egg too high the top and the egg had spread all over. This I thought was a good Video it was well explain and easy to follow.

How to Poach Eggs:

1. Working with 1 egg at a time, crack an egg on to a saucer. Fill a wide saucepan with water until approximately 8cm deep. Add vinegar and 1 tsp salt. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat to low-medium - water should be just simmering, with small bubbles rising from the base of pan and small ripples across the top of the water.
3. Fill a bowl with cold water and set aside. Using a wooden spoon or whisk, stir simmering water in one direction to create a whirlpool (this will help to give your poached eggs a neat shape).
4. Slide egg from saucer into centre of whirlpool, as close to water as possible. Cook for 2-3 minutes for a semi-soft yolk or 3-4 minutes for a firm-set yolk, without stirring.
5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer egg to the bowl of cold water (this stops the cooking process). 
6. Remove and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. During and between cooking eggs, use slotted spoon to skim any foam from water surface.
7. Repeat with remaining eggs. 
8. To reheat eggs, bring a clean pan of water to the boil then remove from heat. Add eggs. Stand, covered, for 1 minute. Remove and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Hollandaise Sauce:

Salt & pepper to taste
A bunch tarragon
3 large egg yolks
175gm butter cut into cubes
2 tbsp lemon juice

• Place a heatproof bowl over a medium saucepan that is quarter-filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly into the pan without touching the water (lift the bowl to check and remove some water if it does).

• Remove the bowl, cover the pan and bring the water to the boil over high heat. Uncover and reduce heat to very low so the water is barely simmering (there should be almost no movement at all). It is important that the water is barely simmering while making the sauce - if it is too hot, the egg yolks will cook too much and the sauce will curdle.

• Place the egg yolks and the 2 tbs water in the heatproof bowl and place over the pan. Use a wire balloon whisk to whisk the mixture constantly for 3 minutes or until it is thick and pale, has doubled in volume and a ribbon trail forms when the whisk is lifted.

• Add the butter a cube at a time, whisking constantly and adding another cube when the previous one is incorporated completely. (It should take about 10 minutes to add it all.) If butter is added too quickly, it won't mix easily with the egg yolks or the sauce may lose volume. At the same time, it is important that the butter is at room temperature and added a cube at a time, so that it doesn't take too long to be incorporated - if the sauce cooks for too long, it can curdle.

• The sauce will begin to thin when you start adding the butter. However, once the emulsion is established (after about the third cube), it will begin to thicken again. It will continue to thicken as the remaining butter is added. If the sauce curdles or separates it can be saved as long as it isn't grainy and the eggs haven't set.

• Remove the bowl from the pan and place on a heatproof surface. The cooked sauce should have the consistency of very lightly whisked thickened cream. Whisk in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

To assemble I had toast the baguette in the oven, spreaded it with avocado and top it with smoked salmon. I place the poach eggs on the top of the salmon and drizzle the hollandaise sauce. I had thumbs up from the family and they said it was worthy to be served in a restaurant. Well they are my family and could be biased in their opinions but I was happy with the end result.

BON APPETIT!