Eggs Benedictine

Day 17

Eggs Benedictine is what Cora's calls this...well, Eggs Ben et Dictine is their actual name for it. It features Swiss cheese and asparagus in place of the meat. At least, I don't think they serve it with meat, but it's been awhile since our Cora days. It's super easy to make at home and we make it a lot - you know, every month or two. For awhile we made this every Sunday. We would definitely miss this meal if we ever went full-on vegan.

Eggs Benedictine

We usually serve this with fruit or potatoes, like Cora's does. But, it definitely stands alone as a meal, too.

Ingredients (makes 4)

• 4 eggs
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• 12 stalks of asparagus
• 2 English muffns
• 1 package Hollandaise sauce
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• Water for boiling

Eggs Benedictine ingredients

Poached Eggs
The eggs are poached. We usually only make one each, when we have it with hash browns, but tonight there was no time to bake a potato so we opted for 2 eggs each.

To poach an egg we add about 2" water to a pot, and when it comes to a boil we add 1/4 cup vinegar and then crack the eggs into the pot. The vinegar helps keep them from dispersing, and although they will a little bit, they mostly stay intact. They take about 10 - 12 minutes to cook for a hard yolk.

Asparagus
We just throw these in a non-stick skillet with a bit of water and cook on med-high about 15 minutes or until tender. I did snip the last inch of stalk off first. You'll notice these asparagus stalks are nice and skinny! I chose this bunch for that very reason, since the more slender they are, the more tender they are. If you can't find thin asparagus, you'll have to buy the thicker ones and peel them so they won't have a woody texture.

Asparagus cooking

Hollandaise Sauce
You could make this from scratch, but we've never found a reason not to just buy the packets. You just melt 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan, add the Hollandaise mix when it starts to boil, take it off the heat, slowly add 1 cup of milk, then put it back on the burner for a minute to thicken. Easy peasy.

Clockwise: Kettle for my tea, Hollandaise sauce,
poaching eggs, asparagus

English Muffins & Cheese
Slice 2 English muffins into 4 halves and toast them. As for the cheese, we often will use only 1/2 slice, but tonight we were naughty and used a full slice for each egg.

English muffins and cheese

Assembly

Place your English muffins on the plates, place the cheese on top, then the asparagus, the egg and finally top with a healthy (yes, let's go with that) amount of Hollandaise of sauce. Salt and pepper to season according to preference and enjoy!

Eggs Benedictine

Reviews/Comments

If you find yourself licking your plate, the meal scores a 10. That's a rule right there! So, this one gets a 10 according to my new Plate Lick Default Ten rule.