Hungry Husband: Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon.

* This series of posts was inspired by the desire to create a home filled with love, and memories to count for. I’m no chef, just a busy woman desperate to cook decent, tasty and healthy meals for her well-deserved hungry husband. The “Hungry Husband Posts” series was put together after friends started asking me how I made these meals with my limited time. My cooking philosophy? Food must be cooked with love, with beauty and under 30 minutes. So here’s sharing some recipes- enjoy!

 

After a few weekends of playing around with the Big Breakfasts series, I decided to turn up the “Cafe notch” and try my own hand at poached eggs.  Seeing how pricey the menus at cafes for brunch can be for the simplest ingredients was a great motivation, heh.

Eggs. Toast. Salad. How hard can it be, right? 

Heh. So I ventured on a little adventure, choosing the day we simply had to go for the longest early morning bike ride. (Kudos to the Hungry Husband Cliff for his patience!) After about 45 minutes, he tuck into my first attempt at eggs florentine with smoked salmon. The extra time taken came from cleaning up my mess of a prodigal egg which slipped onto the floor, and cooking some spinach as well, a great addition as a power food filled with iron, folate and calcium. If you choose to do without the spinach, this will easily take under 30 minutes when rehearsed! If it’s your first time and you’re new to cooking like me, expect to take about 40 minutes.

I, a new wife who is still getting herself acquainted with cooking, sorta succeeded on my first attempt, so tell yourself: it can’t be that hard! 

Food For Love:

 

1. Bread: Any kind, really! I find that focaccia works brilliantly for this. Don’t think too fancy- actually, for just under $3, you can find it at just about any gas station or convenience store nowadays. 

 

2. Smoked salmon (for cost-saving purposes, ham will do justice too.)

 Love Tip: What I love about salmon is that it’s full of omega-3 oils, which help to increase your good cholesterol, and cut down your risk of heart disease and stroke. Compared to ham which is processed and preserved, smoked salmon is the winning pick any day.

 

3. Why eggs, of course!

 

4. Spinach: This is purely optional, especially if you’ve cleverly set aside some boiled spinach from a previous meal.

 Love Tip: One of my favorite foods, spinach is a power food, full of iron, folate and calcium. 

 

5. White distilled vinegar, the magic of your Perfectly Poached Eggs.

 

 

Food For Beauty:

Same old! Salad, cherry tomatoes and toasted mushrooms- you can read more about preparing these easy sides here.

One rule of thumb I personally like to keep is to ensure every meal comes at least half-filled with vegetables.

It’s part of the Healthy Plate anyways. 

 

 

Cheat Sheet: 

When I first posted photos up for this meal, everyone asked me how I made the hollandaise sauce. I brazenly confessed: When I make this hearty breakfast, it’s usually after a long morning run or bike ride, so here’s the great time-saver. You can get hollandaise sauce off the shelf at Cold Storage supermarket: 

 

 

Perfect for the busy wife! 

(Told you I was no cordon bleu chef!)

 

 

The Acrobatic Act:

Making eggs florentine or benedict for the first time can be an acrobatic act,

but play the scene in your head a few times and you should get the hang of it! 

 

1. Yes, rule number one. I cannot emphasize this enough: Lay ALL your ingredients out at the start: salad, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, salmon, bread and the cheat-sauce, heh. You won’t want to find yourself raiding the fridge while trying to eye a precariously balanced ladle of egg poaching itself over the stove. Just. A. Bad. Idea. 

 

2. Boil some water in a pot at low heat. While waiting for this, start by preparing the sides: Round all your raw veggies together and wash them in a basin. 

 

3. Since the eggs need to be freshly cooked and brimming with gooey lava yolk waiting to explode, start by buttering your mushrooms with a baking brush or your fingers and stick them into the toaster at low heat for ten to fifteen minutes. While they bask under the toasty heat, you can get busy. 

 

4. If you’ve ham or smoked salmon, use this opportunity to lay them aside within convenient reach.

 

5. Get your bread slices ready to pop into the toaster once the mushrooms are cooked and heated. (How do I know if the mushrooms are done? I try one, heh!) Having some cheese on your toast can be lovely too. 

 

What you want is for everything to be close by and ready to pop onto your plate as soon as your Perfectly Poached Eggs are ready.

 

 

4. Now the fun begins!

 

Now that the water is boiling, add a generous half-ladle of white vinegar. This helps the eggs to curdle. Don’t worry, there’s no visible chemical reaction when you do this!

 

I don’t have any fancy equipment, just a soup ladle deep enough to hold an egg. All you need to do is to crack an egg into a bowl, and slip it into the soup ladle, submerging it under the boiling water. Don’t let it run away! 

 

Watch your egg in your soup ladle like a hawk. But don’t be too anxious to take it out too soon. After about 3 to 4 minutes, it should curdle beautifully into a white cumulus cloud. The trick is in getting it out of the soup ladle onto your assemble, while keeping the yolk intact. You really want the golden yolk to spill with abandon at meal-time, not now! One lesson I learnt, is to be patient to let the egg whites curdle-I know my egg is ready when I turn my soup ladle upside-down and it still sticks.

 

So with octopus-like agility (remember I mentioned to keep your toast and plate and bread within arm’s reach?), put your little tower of browned toast, pink salmon, lush-green spinach (if you have some-this can be easily boiled the night before or earlier) together and gently slip the egg on your ladle on the pretty pile. Ideally, one should have what they call a slotted spoon (a ladle with holes) to drain out the water- but as mentioned, I’m just an ordinary cook learning how to be a decent wife in the kitchen, so I just use whatever I have! I overcome this by simply using another spoon to gently scoop out the egg from the ladle and drain the water while doing so. You might take a few tries to get this step right. Don’t be discouraged if, after all that fussing, your egg gets away. I always use the first egg as practice and save it for myself- save the pretty ones for your Hungry Husband or loved ones instead!

 

 Voila! There’s your Perfectly Poached eggs.

 

 

My second attempt at poached eggs.

I was hoping this attempt would be less eventful. Well, it was! (if you discount the fact that my toaster caught fire from the dripping cheese, ha!) No eggs got lost this time though!

 If you look closely, you’ll notice that the yolk of the first egg ran away but no matter:

As long as the meal puts a smile on someone’s face, count it a Success.

(You can always “save” the meal by disguising your boo-boos under the hollandaise sauce.)

 

 

At least the second yolk burst at the right time- when Cliff’s fork pierced it!

 

And my favorite picture of all…

 

 

 

Remember, there’re no failed attempts, only opportunities for practice.

 

With each try, we get one step closer to creating a Home filled with Love.

 

Enjoy this recipe!