Here’s a great new way to serve Eggs Benedict for a week-end breakfast. When I saw the recipe for Hash Brown Benedict in a Williams-Sonoma catalog, I knew it would be what I’d make on Christmas Day for breakfast. We usually go to Jason and Katie’s home early in the morning to watch Blake open his gifts from Santa.
This twist on the traditional Eggs Benedict uses hash-brown potatoes as the base instead of halved English muffins. It’s a bit time consuming to make since you serve two Benedicts per person, and so have to form and fry 12 hash-brown patties (to make six servings). Only three patties will fit into a skillet at a time and so, it takes while to fry them. I’m always “up” for a cooking challenge and knew I could make this work—at least until the big snow storm hit and Blake came down with strep throat.
My original plan was to make the hash browns and Hollandaise sauce at home and bring them, ready to eat to Jason's and Katie's home. Then all I would have left to do would be to poach the eggs and heat the Canadian bacon. Because of the snow storm and Blake being "under the weather", we ended sleeping in Jason and Katie’s basement on Christmas Eve which meant that on Christmas Day, we had to start from scratch to make our special breakfast— in a rather small kitchen. Didn’t I say earlier that I’m always “up” for a cooking challenge?
When things get tough in the kitchen, I get bossy—don’t tell Jack I said that. While I was frying four batches of hash-brown patties, I started to make assignments: “Jack, you are going to have to poach or fry seven eggs.” “Katie, would you make the Hollandaise Sauce?" (Katie had never made a Hollandaise sauce before but was happy to try it.) “Jas, while you are watching Blake, could you also set the table?”
Here is Jack serving up the eggs over the hash browns and Canadian bacon. Katie poured the Hollandaise Sauce, she made, over the top of every serving. Notice how cold and snowy it looks in the front window.
We served the Hash Brown Benedicts on red plates for our Christmas-Day breakfast. They would be fun to serve for a Valentine's Day breafast too since it falls on a Sunday this year.
We simplified the recipe a little and I want to make some additional changes to it so it will be fun (and easier) to serve to guests, up at our cabin in northern Wisconsin. Here are some of my ideas:
1. Try to "fry" the hash browns the oven on a jell-roll-pan. I wonder if I spray them with cooking spray if they will bronw and get crisp? Has anyone ever tried this?
2. I put the Canadian bacon in a foil packet and heated it in the oven—resulting in less cleanup than using a skillet to fry it in.
3. Jack decided to cook the eggs sunny-side-up, because it was easier than poaching them for him.
4. Katie found a recipe for "Blender Hollandaise Sauce" online, which is the easiest way to make it. Use pasteurzied eggs if you use this method. The Egg Board has a recipe for Hollandaise Sauce where you don't need to use a double boiler, if you don't have one.