SYM Benedict

Pavlov’s SYM Benedict:

Why doesn’t everyone make something as simple as eggs benedict for breakfast? I’ll tell you why…because people make it sound so difficult with specific recipes for poaching eggs, specific recipes for a hollandaise sauce, and use only this or do only that. Horsefeathers! And I’m not talking about a bar in North Conway, NH either. You don’t need pots of simmering water with vinegar, ice baths or even Granny Nusebaums secret hollandaise recipe that requires gladiator sweat and a newt’s ear. You need only a good sized non-stick sauté pan/ skillet with a lid, a toaster, a blender and a small sauce pan along with some common sense.

What you’ll need:

1 Lemon……so put the plastic lemon away and go get a real one…I’ll wait.

2 slices of good sourdough or 1 English muffin split.

2 fresh eggs (size and type are not important so if you want Duck, Ostrich or Quail eggs it’s up to you… I use X-Large Chicken…oh, and I used three because I can.)

2 nice slices of country ham (I cut mine into circles cause I was bored but you don’t have to…also if you’d like you can use any kind of smoked pork product, from a sausage patty to bacon it really doesn’t matter.)

1 stick plus one Tablespoon of unsalted butter…and no, yogurt butter or flax seed butter may not be substituted…This is hollandaise not yoga-daise

3 egg yolks (large or x-large chicken yolks please people…3 ostrich yolks are gonna require enough butter that you can take a bath in the resulting hollandaise…which might sound good to you, but not to your cardiologist.)

1 teaspoon Slap Ya Mama Hot Cajun Seasoning

A couple grinds of Fresh cracked black pepper

1 pinch kosher salt

How to make:

In a large (12-14inch) non-stick sauté pan over medium low heat add 1 Tablespoon of butter and allow it to melt. Once it has melted add your two eggs gently into the pan and on the other side of the pan add your ham. If you are using bacon or sausage cook those separately and hold and cover to keep warm. Once the eggs have started to set you may move them around for a bit just to loosen from the bottom of the pan, then flip your ham and cover again. This should take about 4-6 minutes to get perfectly cooked sunny side up eggs. If you prefer them over easy… go ahead and do so but make sure the yolk stays runny.

While you start cooking your eggs, go ahead and toast that bread or English muffin because this is all going to come together pretty quickly.

At the same time you start making your eggs…over medium heat add a stick of butter and the juice of one lemon to the small sauce pan plus a couple of grinds of black pepper and that pinch of kosher salt…let it heat up until it hits a high simmer (just before boiling) and at this time put your three yolks into the blender plus a pinch of Slap Ya Mama seasoning.

To Serve:

Lay your toast in the plate side by each as they say here in New Hampshire. Lay the ham on top of the toast. Put your perfectly or not so perfectly cooked eggs on top of the ham. Turn the blender on low or high…it doesn’t matter which and slowly drizzle your hot butter/lemon mixture in until gone…let mix for a few seconds and Voila…cheating hollandaise. Pour a la Jackson Pollock style on top of your eggs and sprinkle the remaining SYM seasoning on top for Pavlov’s SYM Benedict.

Don’t stress about breakfast…stress about how to tell your husband you broke his nine iron digging a rock out of the flower bed. Or how you’re gonna explain to your wife that you’re pretty sure that pink color will come out of her white cashmere sweater that is now 4 sizes smaller than she is.

Tell me…how do you Benedict? Love to hear from you!

Pavlov