' EGGS BENEDICT. V-1.1 .'

70 degree C. Egg yolks, Poached whipped egg whites, House hollandaise, Crispy parma ham, Maple bacon curls, Toasted English muffin, Olive herb and Tarragon sprigs.

             

                    Eggs Benedict is a classic breakfast dish that has stood the test of time and the basic four ingredient combination of bacon and poached eggs on an english muffin with hollandaise sauce, has been a target for deconstruction, reconstruction by many a modern day chef. In this version (1.1) I've employed some of the techniques to the eggs made famous by chef Wylie Dufresne's Eggs Benedict served at his world renown WD-50 restaurant. Wylie does his egg yolks sous vide 70C for 17 minutes producing yolks that have a texture of soft dense fudge that coats your mouth. And another of his techniques is to poach whipped seasoned egg whites in barely simmering water, forming a savoury meringue that is delicate and dissolves in your mouth. This plate took me back to the days at Acland St.

St.Kilda in Melbourne where I served time as a breakfast chef, starting my commute to work at 4am to get to the restaurant to set up for busy breakfast crowds of Eggs Benedict and some its variations. My main task and one of the two main tests I had to keep my job was the big batches of 2 dozen egg hollandaise sauce, there would be two to do sometimes three. My first morning on my own after earning the trust of head chef to make the sauce I split the sauce halfway through, a bit of panic set in with the time I had lost not to mention the eggs. I managed to get it back with a little cold water and I was saved, since then I've never had to make such large quantities of the sauce so I use a quick method which is fail proof using a blender.                                                                                                                    
                    I've outlined the techniques and methods to this dish below in order of execution .
70C SOUS VIDE EGG YOLKS- For the yolks I lightly beat the yolks breaking the membrane up and then seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. I then placed the yolks into a sealed piping bag and in a 70 degree C. water bath for 17 minutes but after cutting the tip of the bag and trying to pipe the yolks were still runny so the piping bag was sealed again and placed in for another 30 minutes at which I achieved the texture of fudge.
POACHED WHIPPED EGG WHITES- In a mixing bowl I placed some egg whites with a little seasoning and using the electric whisk, I whipped the whites to a soft peak before adding a little cream of tartar and whipping to a stiff peak. Using two dessert spoons I made quenelles and placed them gently into an 85 degree C. water bath to poach, turning over after 2-3 minutes and then removing with a slotted spoon.
HOUSE HOLLANDAISE- This is my quick, fail proof easy blender version and not the traditional over the stove whisking until your arms drop off in hope through the whole 10-15 minutes that you don't split it and ruin your work. So here goes on the stove I gently melted 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter without letting to much liquid to evaporate off the butter. In a blender I placed 3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, a pinch of both salt and cayenne pepper, blending on a medium speed until the mixture becomes lighter in colour about 30 seconds. The friction from the blades heats the yolks up a bit and the blending motion adds air making the mix light and fluffy. I then turned the blender to low and drizzled the melted butter in slowly while the blender was running, continuing to blend for further 5-10 seconds until the butter incorporates. Store beside the warm stove top until ready to serve.
CRISPY PARMA HAM- I placed thin slices of the parma ham on to a lined baking tray and baked the ham lightly on both sides in a 160 degree C. oven until crispy.
MAPLE BACON CURLS- To make these which give a sweet element to the dish I simple rolled maple cured streaky bacon and fixed them with a tooth pick before basting in maple syrup and pan frying until caramelised and crispy, removing the tooth pick to serve.
TOASTED BREAKFAST MUFFIN- To make this I simply sliced thin slithers of the muffin, rubbing them in the rendered fat from the bacon and maple syrup, before lightly toasting both sides under a grill.
OLIVE HERB & TARRAGON- Both these herbs make the perfect match for egg dishes and were both harvested from our veggie garden to be used as finishing garnish for this plate.

' 64.C poached & fried EGG with ASPARAGUS .'

64 C. poached & fried Free range Hen egg, French Tarragon infused Asparagus ribbons, Crumbled croutons, Balsamic vinegar reduction, Fresh Tarragon and Viola flower.

              The night temperatures have dropped quite rapidly here at the moment but our hens are in their first season and are laying strong through the start of our winter. Hence the egg recipe, which is in fact a recipe from the great Eddie Shepperd, award winning vegetarian chef in the U.K. I chose to use, (copy what ever you may call it) Eddie's recipe because of his use of techniques in making the dish, the simple egg cooked in a way you can really appreciate eating it and accompanied by the perfect pairings. We got our three girls going on 3 months ago now and if there was an eighth day in the week we would get 2 dozen eggs. We couldn't be happier, they couldn't be happier and its a great mutualistic  relationship. Free ranging is a different story, almost everyday the Isa brown gets out and I'm having to go and retrieve her from next doors backyard, the park or half way up the street where she's foraging on someones front lawn. Anyway below I've listed the techniques to this tasty vegetarian breakfast of asparagus and egg with crouton and balsamic reduction.                                                                          
            To begin with I started with the asparagus, setting my sous vide machine to 85C. I then vacuum sealed asparagus spears with a little butter and some fresh tarragon from the garden. The sealed asparagus was then placed in the water bath and cooked for 15 minutes before being removed and placed in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Once the asparagus was cool enough I sliced them into halves or ribbons and dressed them with a little olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a little salt and pepper to season, these were then stored in the fridge and warmed gently before serving. I then set the sous vide water bath to 64C. and carefully placed the egg in the bath with the shell on, cooking the egg for 1 hour. Once the egg was ready I broke the egg into a frying pan, frying the egg for a 30 seconds on one side only before removing and plating immediately. While the egg was cooking I prepared the balsamic reduction and the croutons, beginning with the reduction I placed some balsamic vinegar into a saucepan with and brought to slow simmer, reducing the vinegar by a third. This was then set aside to thicken up. Next I prepped the croutons by tearing up some good quality white bread and frying the pieces in a little olive oil and garlic until golden in colour. I the crumbled the croutons up lightly and seasoned them with salt.                                                                                                                            
               To plate I placed the warmed asparagus in the centre of the plate in a loose bundle letting them sit where they naturally fell. I then placed the hot poached then fried egg on top of the asparagus and seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper. I then scattered the crumbled croutons in a rough line starting from the top of the egg out to the edge of the plate. Delicately dotting the thickened balsamic to make an arch around the egg and finally garnishing with a fresh viola flower and a sprig of fresh french tarragon from the garden.

post#100 - ' the GOLDEN NESTED EGG .'

Beetroot marbled free-range Hens egg in Nest of Golden Sweet Corn Silks accented by Nasturtium petals & leaves, Pea greens, Olive oil leaf herb, Water Hyssop and Edible Wild rocket flowers.

                         Post number 100 @ food play and I'd like to give thanks and appreciation to the support out there, the forwards, the comments and the general help to spread the site globally. A special thanks to my wife for early pursuits in spreading the word and for encouragement and praise, but I guess mainly for her taste buds and their critique. This blog started October last year and has been viewed by over 30 countries and has had thousands of page views, I would never have thought. So for the 100th instead of the golden nest egg, I've done 'the GOLDEN NESTED EGG'.                              

                         The idea for this dish came from applications I've seen similar with the root of the concept coming from a soup that uses every part of the corn ear but the kernels are only used for garnish. Starting with striping the husks which are roasted and the silks were fried for a crunchy accompaniment, the spent cobs were grilled and charred and used with the husks for the base of the chowder. Upon doing more prying I've seen a number of chefs using the corn silks to form nests to present various egg preparations. I thought it would be appropriate to post a breakfast for #1oo as the very first post was a breakfast post as well.

                         To make this dish I first put a pot of water on the stove and brought to the boil, adding a little vinegar to the water I cooked some eggs for 5 minutes and 12 seconds before plunging the eggs into cold water. In a blender I added chopped beetroot, rice wine vinegar and a little water before blending to a juice. This was then passed through a sieve and poured into a tall glass filling to three quarters in height. I then made cracks all over the egg shells with the back of a spoon before placing into the beetroot juice and set aside for about 2 hours or enough time for the beet juice to penetrate the cracks and stain the egg whites with pink fuchsia. Next I heated some oil in a saucepan to around 180 deg. c. and deep fried corn silks in the arrangement of a birds nest, once the silks had puffed and turned from light green to golden I removed the nest with a slotted spoon and drained onto paper towel. And next I foraged the gardens in the backyard for some fresh accents for the nest, these were arranged around the rim of the nest and placed in the centre of the plate for serving. Next I drained the egg from the beetroot juice and under a trickle of running water I carefully peeled the egg revealing the stained beetroot marbling. I then placed the egg in the nest of corn silks and seasoned with smoked sea salt and cracked black pepper before serving.
                                                                                                       

' BREAKFAST of BLUEBERRIES .'

Breakfast of Blueberry Bagel & Mousse on a Granola of shortbread , rolled oats , chia seeds & honey served with Blueberry coulis & gelee , Creme cheese , Cinnamon myrtle flowers and fresh blueberries.

               At my work a section of the warehousing has recently become a storage facility and north side   Brisbane distributor for a well known bread company. So we pick orders for all sorts of bakehouse products including bread, pizza bases and bagels. Amongst their range of bagels they have a blueberry flavoured bagel of which has often been my breakfast of a morning. Sitting their at smoko with my warm buttered bagel and coffee has lead me to think what would I be wanting with this bagel right now if I could. Which to cut a long story short became the process of thought behind this breakfast dish. The bagels I've been eating for smoko is the bagel I used for this dish.                                                                                            
               The blueberry mousse was the first of the preps for this dish and to make this I heated some cream to the boil before removing from the heat and adding melted white chocolate, crushed blueberries and a little agar agar powder at 1%, this was then brought back to a gentle simmer whisking to dissolve the agar powder. Once the powder had dissolved the mix was then spooned into a greased plastic tube, three quarters of an inch in diameter and 3 inches long, this was then wrapped in clear film and placed in the fridge to set. The granola was made by mixing crushed shortbread biscuit, chia seeds, rolled oats and honey, this was then spread on a flat baking paper lined tray and placed into the oven at 160 deg.c. for about 10-15 until the granola was starting to brown. It was then removed from the oven allowed to cool and crumbled into 5-6 mm pieces. I made the coulis by placing crushed berries, lemon juice, sugar and a little water in a saucepan and simmering until all the sugar has dissolved and the fruit was collapsed. This was then strained and pushed through a sieve and set aside. The gelee is a combination of water, blue and red colouring, blueberry coulis and agar agar powder at 2%, brought to a simmer in a small saucepan while whisking to dissolve the powder. This was then poured on to a flat tray and set in the fridge. Once set using different sized biscuit cutters I cut circles from the blueberry agar gelee.          
                  To plate this breakfast I placed the gelee circles on to the plate, on top of these I spooned the granola which acted as a base for the mousse which was pushed out of its tube moulding using my thumb and cut into serving sized pieces to go on top of the granola. Each was accompanied with creme cheese, fresh blueberries, torn pieces of bagel and topped with blueberry coulis and edible flowers.