I LOVE Breakfast!! I love making it, the smell of it, the sounds (bacon frying in a pan!!) & of course...eating it!! To celebrate my birthday weekend, I wanted to kick our Saturday morning off right with a superb meal!
Ham & Asparagus Benedict was definitely the winning choice!
What You Will Need: Eggs, vinegar, bread of your choice, ham, asparagus, butter, olive oil, salt & pepper.
**ignore the lemons...those are part of the "lesson learned"
Preheat your oven to *350 & bring a large pot about half filled with water to a simmer on the stove.
Trim and lay your asparagus out on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper.
Cut two, thick pieces of bread & spread the top with butter. Once the oven is preheated, place the asparagus and bread in the oven at the same time. The bread will finish first, about 2-3 minutes, the asparagus (depending on size) should take about 5-8 minutes.
In a small sauté pan, heat up your ham on low. Feel free to use any protein you would like for this recipe...bacon, turkey, crab meat..or get rid of the meat completely and just have the asparagus.
Two eggs per person, crack each egg into a small dish...this helps when placing it into the simmering water.
When the water is simmering, add in a about 2 T. of the vinegar then using a spoon, start swirling the water in one direction.
While the water is still spinning, slid your eggs in one at a time & allow to cook for 4-5 minutes.
Now time to assemble!!
Layer on your seared slices of ham, followed by a couple pieces of your roasted asparagus.
Using a slotted spoon, carefully place two poached eggs over the asparagus & season with S/P.
To finish the Benedict, I made a super quick sauce by using a mixture of cream cheese & a little milk. Heated it through till I had a smooth consistency. It wasn't my original plan for this dish, but it ended up working out very nicely since the sauce didn't take away from any of the other ingredients, just added a creamy finish.
Garnish with some sliced green onions & serve!
The sauce for this dish is where the lesson was learned!
My original idea for my sauce was to do a hollandaise, which done correctly, takes some efforts. You whisk the yolks over a double boiler till your arm is about ready to fall off. Then you slowing drizzle in the butter and continue to whisk till your arm cramps up and you die....just kidding, but its not my favorite thing to make in the kitchen.
I was watching an episode of the Pioneer Woman & she made a quick version in a blender that took a whopping whole minute. Thinking of saving myself some time & some arm muscle cramps, I decided that this is the way I would make the sauce come Saturday morning. I had everything ready to plate and quickly whipped up the recipe for the sauce. Before pouring the sauce over the poached eggs I gave it a quick taste and gagged..yes gagged at how horrible it tasted!! I was furious, my food was hot, ready to be eaten and I needed a sauce in about 30 seconds due to me falling for a recipe that TV made look so good.
This was the second recipe of hers that I tried to make and both have failed miserably! Which for me, confirms my husbands theory that majority of the people on Food Network are complete fakes with no real cooking talent, just a personality that can sell an item (which I'm now guilty of falling for...twice!!)
I don't know if I was more upset about the recipe not working or with myself for trying to cut corners and take the easy route. Either way, I have learned two things...the first, being that Ill never follow another recipe from the Pioneer Woman & the second, something like hollandaise is great because of the sweat and backbone you put in when making it! Good things take time. When you rush something, your finished product just isn't going to be the same.
This is how we learn, trial and error. If it doesn't work the first time, do it again..keep trying till you get it right. Mistakes are made but thats what makes you better! Not to mention the little extra bit of proudness you feel when you end up making something work out rather well when your original plan falls through!
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Enjoy & Always Cook with LOVE!!
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