Lazy Sunday Morning

Weekends are everyone's favorite. Unless you work the weekend, then your favorite is Monday or Wednesday, or whatever your weekend is! Like many other people, we also love weekend brunch. But sometimes it is nice to stay in your jammies, make a warm carafe of coffee and just eat at home.

I made this delicious brunch the other Sunday, and the hubbie loves it. I only got the finished product on film, but the process is easy. It is a take on eggs benedict that you find at many restaurants: smoked salmon benedict. The components are simple: poached eggs, english muffins, arugula, smoked salmon (sockeye salmon in this case) and hollandaise sauce.

The hollandaise sauce is certainly the only complicated part of this meal. I received Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques for Christmas. This book is amazing for helping with technique (obviously). I had attempted to make hollandaise before, and failed. Using the step-by-step instructions in this book my second try actually turned out! After my first failed try, in which my sauce broke, I realized that our burners, although gas, still do not have a low enough heat for something as fragile as hollandaise.

As a side note, I had heard a lot of talk of "broken sauces." This is simply when your sauce separates out. With hollandaise, it creates an oily top layer that is separate from the whipped egg yolks. There are tips in the book on how to "fix" a broken sauce; however, those did not work for me. I dumped the entire first try and started over. This time I whipped the yolks over the heat, then held the sauce pan above the heat while whipping in the butter. The sauce turned out beautifully, although it is WAY more sauce than two people need. It is impossible to save hollandaise sauce (at least, I haven't found a way yet) so I will need to invite friends over for the next brunch!

One the hollandaise is complete, you have to poach the eggs. Everyone has their own technique for poaching eggs. I start the water boiling with a couple splashes of vinegar while I am still whipping up the hollandaise. Once the water is boiling rapidly, you can drop in the egg. I prefer to crack the egg into a small 1/4 cup measuring cup. I can then drop the egg quickly into the water. I let the egg poach for a couple of minutes, and then remove the egg with a slotted spoon once the whites have set. I drain the egg on a paper towel (sometimes I need to pat the egg dry to remove the excess water).

Once the hollandaise is made and the egg is poached the assembly of the breakfast is simple. Toast the english muffins and place on a plate. Layer the arugula on top of the english muffins. Place the smoked salmon on the arugula. Top with a poached egg. Then drizzle hollandaise sauce on top -- as much or as little as you would like!

A delicious, lazy Sunday morning brunch. Still in our jammies, the sun is shinning and the day is warming. A great start to the last day of our weekend.