Misadventures in the wonderful world of sauces!

A few nights ago, I had to come up with something to eat. Charlie and I were both tired and it was getting late, so we decided on breakfast for supper. He had never had Eggs Benedict. He's been wanting to try it and has been asking about it for a few weeks. I thought I'd give it a go. I know it isn't something that is terribly hard to make, as I've made it previously. And it is rather filling. I thought the dish would suit our tastes pretty well for that night. Between that and some crispy homefries, we'd have a pretty delicious meal!

For those who don't know, Eggs Benedict is a split and toasted English muffin; each side topped with a slice or two of Canadian bacon, a poached egg and hollandaise. This dish is quite common on breakfast and brunch menus all over the US, France and many other countries, I'm sure. Some say that the recipe originated at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. Others suggest that it came from a French Provincial cookbook. There are so many variations of the dish as well, but the one thing they all have in common is the sauce. Hollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolks and clarified butter. Add some salt and a splash of lemon juice and you have one of my very favorite sauces in the whole wide world. It's fantastic on veggies, eggs, and many different kinds of meat.

At any rate, I set out to make Eggs Benedict for our supper. Toasting English muffins? Duh. Frying up some Canadian bacon? Again, duh. Poaching eggs? Not always a cake walk, but I usually fare pretty well if I crack the egg into a small dish and carefully float it into the water. (We poached dozens of eggs every Sunday for brunch at the restaurant I used to work at. I've had lots of practice.) Whipping up some hollandaise? I've made it quite a few times in the past and have been successful. But it's been a while...and boy howdy could you tell that it has been a while. Apparently making this sauce isn't quite like riding a bike.

Attempt number 1 was a disaster. The sauce never emulsified. I started out using the double-boiler and whisked manually with no hope at all. I quickly transferred it to a blender thinking that maybe more speed would be helpful. Nope. My last hope of saving it was using a hand mixer. I think all that really did was piss it off . It went from not being a runny mess of warm butter with some egg yolks at the bottom to a broken, gloppy disaster. I believe my issue was not whipping the egg yolks properly before starting to heat them. I also think that my clarified butter was not cool enough. After many tears and a bit of yelling, Charlie made me swallow my pride and look at a recipe he found online. I looked at it, reluctantly (because I'm supposed to know everything), and went back out to the store to get more butter.

Attempt number 2 went so much better. I clarified about a cup and a half of butter and put it in the fridge to cool faster. While that was cooling, I put a small sauce pan of water on to simmer. In a medium metal bowl I put two egg yolks in with about a tablespoon of ice water. Then, I beat the hell out of those eggs. They were frothy, pale, and thick as they should have been. I placed the bowl over the double-boiler and whisked like a mad woman in order to cook the yolks a bit and bring them up to temperature before streaming in the clarified butter. I whisked and whisked and whisked. I whisked so much that my arm was sore for 2 days. But the sauce emulsified properly and was rather tasty, if I do say so myself. It was a little thicker than I'd like, but I still say it was a success. Charlie enjoyed the Eggs Benedict very much, as did I.

I think what made the failure even more hard to take was the fact that I had just been ranting and yelling about how to properly make hollandaise the night before this ordeal. Charlie was watching a news cast of sorts and there was a woman showing a "short cut" in making a hollandaise sauce. She claimed that the sauce would come together faster if you heat the butter. Um, no kidding? Then I realized she assumed that you make it with cold, whole butter. Really?! Whole butter? Wow. That seems like a terrible idea.

The moral of the story, ladies and gentlemen, is this: Patience and a refresher course can make all the difference in something that you may have done in the past, but not recently.

As much as I hate to admit it, I don't know everything.

Elle

Feeling a sense of abandonment?

Why, yes! I believe this blog has been neglected. I was really excited to start this project and then the enthusiasm fizzled as I started reading other foodie blogs. I got intimidated. There are a lot of fantastic writers out there who have far more interesting things to say and share. Most of my reader base is just friends and family, but I feel they deserve to read something a little more attention grabbing, too.

I've been thinking of ways to make this better. I don't want to do a 365 project, because I don't cook every single day. Plus, I have a feeling that I'd set myself up for failure if I tried a Julie/Julia-type project. My boyfriend had a few good ideas that got my little brain to churn. He said that I should take pictures of the food that I do make. Or rather, he would take the pictures since he's such a great photographer. I'll cook and work on my plating and presentation; then write about it and post pictures. [/tangent] Plating and presentation is very important to me. Not only do we like food to be super tasty, but we eat with our eyes first. If it doesn't look good, we're skeptical on how it will taste and we're also less likely to try new things if they don't look desirable. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, but I digress. [tangent] My Aunts also seem to inspire me. They love food and have opened up a whole new world to me. Aunt S is allergic to gluten, Aunt L has nut allergies, and they both can not tolerate a slue of other food products. But they eat fantastic things regardless! Lots of organic products, dairy/wheat alternatives, raw foods, etc. It really does amaze me sometimes. On top of being wonderful foodies, they are amazing writers. Inspiration times 2!

I'm going to be searching for fun new plates, bowls, flatware, etc. in thrift stores, antique stores and junk shops. (So if you love me and find an interesting piece of dinnerware, I hear great things about the USPS. Hintcoughhint.) Hopefully this will give me a bit of a push to stick with it.

I'm also trying to keep with my main goal that I set when I turned the thought of this blog into a reality. I'm going to be sharing rants about the food world, my mishaps throughout my culinary adventures (like that blasted Hollandaise a few nights ago!), and my triumphs as well. I will probably share some recipes. But truth be told, I'm a greedy slore and if I have any chance of putting a recipe in my cookbook I don't really want to put it out there yet. If you're really interested in a recipe I talk about, just send me an e-mail. I'm greedy, but I'm not that mean. I'll at least give you the basics and let you tweak it yourself.

Thank you to Charlie for encouraging me and coming up with great ideas. Thank you to my Aunt L and Aunt S for being awesome. And thank you to Howie for attempting to kick my butt into gear and reminding me that people actually want to read what I have to say.

I also have to change the layout a bit because it looks more like I should be writing about quilting and sewing rather than food. Long story short ("Well it's a bit late for that!")- Watch this space! I won't leave you hanging this time.

Elle