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You are here: Home / Recipes / Breakfast & brunch / Smoked salmon eggs Benedict for an anniversary breakfast

Smoked salmon eggs Benedict for an anniversary breakfast

by Jeanne Horak on April 28, 2008 17 Comments in Breakfast & brunch, Recipes, Waiter, there's something in my...

smoked-salmon-eggs-benedict

Fact:  marriage is hard work.  And I have a suspicion that everyone reading this who is married will agree with me on this…!

Of course it’s also fun, rewarding and comfortable, but anybody entering into it with the idea that it is going to be moonlight and roses is in for a painful reality check.  You know that part about “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health”?  Well, the minister is not making that bit up – it pretty well sums up the gist of the thing!  But when it works it’s also a wonderful thing.  If two people can figure out a way of meshing together their two hitherto separate existences and share every aspect of their lives, 365 days a year, for any significant length of time, something new and surprisingly comforting is created that is both fragile, yet stronger than the two original parts. 

And the longer you can maintain this arrangement in a state of approximate equilibrium, without a family murder, the bigger the celebration should be :o)

Which is why Nick and I renewed our wedding vows in Vegas in 2005, and why in two years time I hope we will be doing so again somewhere in a beach surrounded by friends.  This year, though, things are more low key but I could not let our anniversary this week pass by unnoticed!  So today while we spent a day cocooned at home I declared it Anniversary Brunch Day and treated us to a little taste of affordable luxury in the shape of smoked salmon eggs Benedict.  The ingredients are relatively simple… but together they make up more than the sum of their parts.  Like me and Nick.

There is some debate about the origins of eggs Benedict,  but is generally accepted to have developed in the USA in the late 1800s.  The two stories that are most likely are:

  • In 1894, Lemuel Benedict, a Wall Street broker with a hangover wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in New York and ordered “some buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a hooker of hollandaise sauce”. The Waldorf’s legendary chef, Oscar Tschirky, was so impressed that he put the dish on his breakfast and luncheon menus after substituting Canadian bacon for crisp bacon and a toasted English muffin for toasted bread.
  • In the 1860s, a Wall Street banker named LeGrand Benedict and his wife, regular patrons of Manhattan’s Delmonico’s restaurant, complained that they were bored by the menu. The response of chef Charles Ranhofer was toasted muffins topped with ham, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.  This version is further supported by the fact that Charles Ranhofer’s cookbook The Epicurean contains a recipe for eggs benedict (although apparently not the first 1984 print).

Either way, it has become a byword for luxury breakfasts and therefore the ideal treat for a cosy morning at home.  The only problem is that I’d never poached an egg.  Sure, we’re always frying, boiling and scrambling them – even coddling.  But never poaching.  It always seems like an art, and never having tried it I wasn’t sure if I would master the art.  But recently week I saw something on a blog which made me decide to throw caution to the wind and give poaching a go.  Nicky of Delicious Days shares with us a novel way of getting your poached eggs into a regular shape:  trap them in plastic wrap!  Being the proud new owner of a bag of handy resealing clips from Ikea, I decided that the universe was conspiring to steer me down the path of poached eggs – who was I to refuse?

Despite slightly overtoasting the English muffins (read: doing too many things at once!) and slightly overpoaching the eggs (read: performance anxiety!), the dish turned out fabulously well and is definitely being added to our brunch repertoire when we feel in need of luxury.

Eggcollage

SMOKED SALMON EGGS BENEDICT (serves 2)

Ingredients

2 English muffins
4 eggs
About 100g smoked salmon (I used trimmings because they were in the fridge – probably prettier to use slices)
A jar of Hollandaise sauce (I used Maille)
For this method of poaching you will also need polythene wrap, plastic clips and 4 ramekins for preparing the eggs.

Method

If you are making your own hollandaise sauce, you should probably start by doing that.  I decided to be lazy and bought a jar of the excellent Maille hollandaise.  Besides, all the eggs in the house were needed for the poached eggs!

Line one ramekin per egg with polythene wrap and brush with a little sunflower oil.  Carefully break one egg into each lined ramekin, taking care not to break the yolk.  Seal the plastic, trapping a little air inside to keep the surface of the poached egg smooth.

Bring a pot of water to boil, at least 2 inches deep.  Lower the egg parcels into the water and boil for 2.5 minutes (for small eggs) or longer (for large eggs or for a solid yolk), turning the parcels every 30 seconds or so to ensure even cooking – the parcels tend to want to lie on one side only!  The original recipe suggests removing your eggs after 2.5 minutes and plunging them into cold water to stop the cooking process. I, on the other hand, removed mine and noted that parts of the white were still translucent, and popped them straight back in the boiling water!  I think getting the timing just right will take a bit of practice.

Split each muffin into 2 discs and toast lightly (they are meant to be crisp and warm but, ahem, not brown!).  Butter each lightly and top with smoked salmon.  Remove the eggs from the polythene wrap (they come away fairly easily) and top each muffin half with an egg, then top each egg with hollandaise sauce.  What could be easier!

Mine also benefited from a generous grind of black pepper and then just I sat back and enjoyed the delights of brunch… and married life 🙂

 

Eggsbenedictcollage

I’m submitting this post as my entry into this month’s Waiter, There’s Something In My… event, hosted on a rotating basis by Johanna, Andrew and me.  The theme Johanna chose was breakfast and you still have until the end of the month to get your inspired breakfast dishes to her!

Wtsim_logo_april

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  1. Annette says

    April 29, 2008 at 1:55 am

    OMG…these are the best…we tried something like this a while ago but there had been vodka, champagne, whiskey and koolaid involved…and that was the night before. We will have to try this recipe–SOBER…
    Cheers,
    Annette

    Reply
  2. Pille says

    April 29, 2008 at 6:47 am

    Happy wedding anniversary, dear Jeanne! May you and Nick have many-many-many happy returns and renewed wedding vows:)
    Salmon eggs Benedict is _the_ luxury breakfast. I’m tempted to pop across the street to a deli-cafe that makes a pretty decent eggs benedict.
    PS I’ve tried that egg-poaching method, after seeing it on Nicky’s blog -excellent!

    Reply
  3. Suganya says

    April 29, 2008 at 7:01 am

    Happy wedding anniversary, Jeanne. You can even poach eggs in the microwave. But you gotta be careful. They explode even if over cooked for 2 seconds.

    Reply
  4. johanna says

    April 29, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    very nice… smoked salmon is a winner every time. and you know how addicted i am to eggs benedict! never having had problems poaching eggs before, i tried this version as well and i don’t know why, but i had a hard time separating the eggs from their bags… not a method i’ll repeat until someone tells me what i did wrong. did you baste the cling film with butter?
    thanks for this wonderful addition to our WTSIM, it’s promising to be an scrumptious round-up!

    Reply
  5. Nilmandra says

    April 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    I love all the ingredients in eggs benedict and they taste sublime together. I remember having eggs benedict for breakfast when we were on honeymoon! Happy anniversary 🙂 Ours is coming up soon too.

    Reply
  6. Robyn Vickers says

    April 29, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Oh wow! That’s just what I need after having been up since 5am with The Puppy Who Wouldn’t (insert verb here). My favorite way with the Benedict, although I’ll do a Florentine just as easily.

    Reply
  7. Gloria says

    April 30, 2008 at 1:29 am

    This is really nice. Happy wedding Anniversary!!!I know about what you talk!!! Gloria

    Reply
  8. Nicisme says

    April 30, 2008 at 10:05 am

    I really like smoked salmon, and would love this (minus the eggs, although they do look beautiful.)
    Happy anniversary Jeanne and Nick!

    Reply
  9. katie says

    May 1, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    What a clever idea to poach in plastic! I will admit, up until about 4 years ago I was terrified of poaching an egg. Then a friend showed me how simple it is… (Although, I still get performance anxiety if anyone is watching)
    What I really like about your method is the lovely shape they stay in!
    And Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon …drool, slurp, drool….
    And, as to marriage… We’re hitting the big 30 this year.!

    Reply
  10. Niamh says

    May 3, 2008 at 2:54 pm

    This looks like beautiful smoked salmon. I saw the poached eggs recipe on Delicious Days also – I really want to try it.
    Happy Anniversary!

    Reply
  11. Kat says

    May 3, 2008 at 7:27 pm

    OMG. These look mouth-watering. Breakfast like this alone is probably a guarantee for a long an happy marriage 🙂

    Reply
  12. Elizabeth says

    May 4, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Mmm, eggs benedict with smoked salmon. How delicious sounding. What a perfect way to celebrate. Happy anniversary!
    I wonder if a few capers scattered around the plate would be overkill. Or maybe a few chives?
    I’ve never poached an egg either, but it’s by choice – never been wild about poached eggs. When we have eggs benedict, I like my eggs hard boiled. But my husband poaches his. (No plastic pouches for him though… he adds a little white vinegar to the boiling water to keep the egg uniformly shaped.)
    Hmmm, our chives are coming up nicely in the garden. It isn’t our anniversary for six months but maybe we could start celebrating early. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Helen says

    May 4, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Oh my goodness Jeanne! As if eggs benedict wasn’t one of the best dishes in the world ever to begin with, you’ve added smoked salmon! This is so decadent. I’m drooling (well, not quite but I could if I didn’t stop myself…)

    Reply
  14. Eva says

    May 8, 2008 at 2:06 am

    Many thanks for this recipe – although I’ve only been married for less than three weeks, my husband has already started to ask “Can’t you make eggs benedict, with salmon, please?” Now armed with this recipe, I can face the good as well as the bad times..;-)

    Reply
  15. Eloise Leask says

    August 31, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    I’m not much of a cook but I’m definately inspired 🙂 I can’t wait to try this recipe out. Finally I’m feeling confident that I’ll be able to poach an egg. My past attempts have been quiet sad experiences. Especially since I know what I want and drooling for it but just cant achieve the dream. Eggs benedict is my favorite choice of breakfast but I think making it with salmon is going to be a winner.

    Reply
  16. Terry says

    January 16, 2010 at 5:50 am

    Hmm, never tried it with smoked salmon, quite tasty! http://www.helpwithcooking.com/sauces/hollandaise-sauce.html recipe #2 is a quick and simple sauce, no nonsense about holding the water at 163.264 degrees or what have you. Also, tuna cans with top and bottom removed are quite handy, and can be used for the eggs. No need to bother with the plastic. Best used in a non stick pan.
    Try adding some nonpareil capers to the sauce.

    Reply
  17. Anthony says

    March 12, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Its A great meal try it with a new York Bagel instead of the Muffin it works wonders, My wife & I have been making this for our weekend breakfasts as we both do not enjoy the salty bacon choice.

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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