Eggs « (y)our food choices™

When life gives you flat Champagne, poach something.

You wake up after a party to find half a bottle of flat Champagne (or Prosecco or Cava) sitting in the fridge. You’re head is pounding and you’re resolutions forbid alcohol for the foreseeable future. What do you do with that leftover sparkling wine? If your first thought is to dump it down the sink, get hold of yourself and take a deep breath. There are uses for the once sparkling stuff.

While researching recipes for the Mimosa post a few days ago Jason came across a recipe for poached eggs in Champagne. It looked interesting enough but when would we ever have left over sparkling wine? It just happens that on New Year’s Day we awoke to a half bottle of Prosecco in our fridge. We had already planned to make Black Eyed Peas and thought the eggs might make a nice accompaniment, but after looking in our fridge a bit more we discovered the makings for an Eggs Benedict sans Hollandaise with the Champagne-Poached Eggs. We had the fixings for Sunday brunch and since the Champagne was already flat it could wait another day.

For the semi-Eggs Benedict we used prosciutto and goat’s milk brie along with rustic potato rosemary bread instead of the traditional English muffin. It’s not that making hollandaise is a difficult process, but sometimes you want it to be as easy as making a toasted sandwich, which I think most of us can handle even on the most difficult of mornings.

The taste of the Champagne infuses with the egg whites and the little bit of butter in the poaching liquid adds a nice richness to them. This is definitely something we’ll make again. We give up alcohol at the beginning of every year for 4-6 months so it will be a while before we prepare it next, maybe next New Year’s Day!

Boil. Toast. Poach. Broil.

Eggs Benedict sans Hollandaise with Champagne-Poached Eggs

4 slices thick rustic bread (we used potato rosemary in our version)
Leftover Champagne (at least two cups)
2 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
4 slices prosciutto
4 slices brie

Lightly toast the bread. Heat the sparking wine with the butter in a sauté pan until it’s a gentle simmer. Boil a pan of water and add the eggs in their shells for 30 seconds. This is a great trick to keep the whites together. Crack each egg into a ramekin and gently pour into the sparkling wine and butter. Poach for 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, under a broiler, place the a lightly toasted piece of bread, with a slice of prosciutto, and a slice brie and broil for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is melting.

Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon from the poaching liquid, gently bloating the bottom on a towel. Place each egg on top of the brie and prosciutto toast. Serve immediately.

This is best served with a glass of Champagne or mimosa, but if you happen to be on the wagon, like us, enjoy with a glass of sparkling water and oj.

Cheers!

Sunday Brunch in San Francisco.

They’re here! San Francisco Bay Area crab season has launched in earnest and everyone who loves seafood couldn’t be happier. Dungeness crab is a wintertime staple in San Francisco and their seasonal arrival inspires an impressive array of extraordinary uses for the sweet, delicate meat. In addition to eating steamed crab with butter and lemon – the most delicious and simple way to enjoy them – there are countless savory concoctions that might include this wonderful crustacean. We can’t wait to start experimenting.

Our craving for eggs benedict this morning evolved into a hankering for fresh crabmeat. The inspiration came not from crab season’s start, although it has been on our minds, but from our local bakery, Arizmendi, and their fresh rustic English muffins. We’ve seen them in the case several times but today was the day we decided to give them a try, toasted as a base to buttery eggs benedict. We picked a couple of them up after hitting the Inner Sunset farmers’ market where we put the finishing touches on the Thanksgiving shopping. As we made our way home, we stopped at Andronico’s to pick up the turkey for Thursday’s feast and that’s where we spied the season’s crab bounty sitting on ice looking great. The store was running through them quickly, so we decided to grab one before today’s haul disappeared. At a reasonable $4.99 a pound we pick one out and had them crack and clean it for us (no extra charge).

Once home, we (Jason) went to work separating the crabmeat from the shell while the poaching water heated and the hollandaise butter melted on the stove. We sautéed a chopped head of Radicchio de Traviso in a bit of butter with garlic and toasted the split English muffins. We then warmed the cleaned crabmeat in a bit of butter while we poached the eggs and finished the hollandaise. The toasted muffins were plated then topped with the sautéed Radicchio followed by crabmeat, poached egg and finally, a drizzle of lemony hollandaise. The finished dish was a delicious mix of sweet (the crabmeat) and bitter (the Radicchio), made fine with creamy hollandaise and rich egg yolks. With just a sprinkle of cayenne and/or a dash of Tabasco, this has to be the ultimate San Francisco brunch dish.

Local nooks and crannies.

Quick and Easy Blender Hollandaise

6 tbsp butter

2 large egg yolks

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and white pepper

Dash of cayenne

Begin by melting the butter in a small sauce pan, warming it until the solids begin to sizzle.

Separate eggs and add the yolks to the blender. Refrigerate the egg whites for another use. While blending the yolks, squeeze the lemon juice into the blender and then drizzle the hot butter into the mixture until fully incorporated. Add salt and white pepper and cayenne, blend for a few more seconds. Pour over the assembled