Eggs Benedict were, apparently, created for the fist time by a chef in the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 for Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, who needed a cure for his morning hangover. A man by the name of Oscar Tschirky was the maître d’hôtel and liked it so much that he put it on the menu but changed it a little – he ordered it made with bacon and toast instead of the original ham and a toasted English muffin. As with all dishes, there are other theories as well and it has been suggested that a man by the name of Commodore Benedict made it from his mother’s recipe, another that  gives  credit to

a certain Mr. and Mrs. Benedict who regularly ate at Delmonico’s and then, of course, the French also lay claim to the recipe because they consider the traditional French dish, œufs bénédictine, made with a puree of refreshed salt cod and potatoes and spread on triangles of fried bread, topped with a poached egg and swirled with hollandaise sauce to be the original. Since the latter is a different dish altogether, we’ll consider it at a later date – for now, the only thing that’s important is the breakfast so here goes:

Ingredients

• 4 large fresh eggs
• 8 slices pancetta
• 2 English muffins, split in half
• Chopped chives

Method

• Poach the eggs in water;
• Grill the pancetta until crispy;
• Toast the muffins on both sides
• Top each muffin half with a poached egg and two pieces of pancetta and then pour over the hollandaise sauce.
• Garnish with chopped chives (optional)

Grill for thirty seconds and serve immediately.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

There is nothing difficult about Hollandaise sauce so here’s one – the method is a tad unusual, but the results are really great.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 eggs, yolks only
• 125g butter
• lemon juice,
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Put the vinegar in a small pot with the peppercorns and the bay leaf and reduce it until there is only 1 tbsp left.
• Strain the peppercorns and the bay leaf from this reduction.
• Put the egg yolks in a food processor with the vinegar reduction and then melt the butter over low heat so that the butter solids fall to the bottom of the saucepan.
• Turn the blender on to slow (or the food processor) and pour the butter on to the egg yolks with the motor still running very slowly – the sauce will start to become thick but stop as soon as only the butter solids are left in the pot.
• If the sauce is too thick, add a little hot water and check and correct the seasoning and add a drop of lemon juice if it tastes too bland.

• ttery and delicious.