Christmas "Eggs Benedict" クリスマスエッグスベネディクト

This was what we ate for Christmas day lunch. For breakfast we had just a cup of cappuccino and assorted home-baked Christmas breads such as stollen and panettone. So for lunch, we decided to splurge and made this Christmas  egg(s) Benedict with smoked salmon. We have posted this variation before. I added green (broccoli) and red (tomatoes) for Christmas color.

  

The bread was homemade English muffin bread which my wife baked on Christmas eve. I garnished the Hollandais sauce with chopped chives and paprika.

We had just enough Davidson's pasteurized eggs to make the Hollandais  sauce and two poached eggs.

I made the Hollandais sauce as before (for 2 servings) with one egg yolk, lemon juice (I used juice from one Meyer lemon), cayenne pepper and half a stick of cold unsalted butter. I first mixed the egg yolk, a pinch of cayenne pepper and the lemon juice in a double boiler. I whipped the mixture for several minutes until it became frothy and doubled in volume. I added thin pats of butter and mixed until one pat completely got incorporated before adding the next. After adding half a stick of butter, the consistency of the sauce is like soft or slightly runny mayonnaise. I tasted it and I initially thought it was too spicy but on the poached egg, it was just fine. I seasoned it with a pinch of salt. This was one of the better Hollandaise sauces I ever made probably because I added enough cayenne pepper and the lemon juice was from a Meyer lemon.

So, this was a rather luxurious lunch. We liked this version with smoked salmon better than Canadian bacon or ham.