Benediction: mouth-watering egg dishes — the best weekend brunch event in Budapest
Location: Hotel Kempinski Hotel Corvinus, The Living Room (every Saturday and Sunday between 9:00 and 14:00)
Although there are infinite amount of variations for this dish, once there was a first one — as always. The original eggs Benedict come from a retired stock-broker from New York, who ordered poached eggs with bacon, toast and hollandaise sauce to cure his unforgiving hangover. It was a love at first sight for the restaruant’s chef and the recipe has traveled to every corner of the world.
The Hedonist went behind the scenes with Roland Holzer, the chef of Kempinski Hotel Corvinus to get some hints and tricks for the perfect eggs Benedict.
For the Hollandaise, “the mother of sauces”
- 3 egg yolks (free range eggs for better taste)
- 250–300g of liquid butter( about 80% fat and white in colour which will leave you with more babeurre or buttermilk after the heating )
- white wine (dry) reduced with 1–2 bayleaves and some black pepper(only use the liquid for the sauce)
- pinch of salt
- a bowl for stirring the ingredients
- about a litre water in a pot heated and kept on about 80 °C
- an egg-beater
Place the egg yolks, the reduced wine in the bowl and add slowly the liquid butter which shouldn’t be too hot(before adding make sure you extract the fat that appeared on the top). Don’t forget to add the babeurre(white in colour like milk) from the bottom of the liquid butter.
You can chose the sauce’s acidity with the amount of babeurre you add. Pinch of salt. Start stirring it above the heated pot of water. Make sure you don’t stop the stirring to avoid the scrambled eggs effect. Once your sauce stays on the egg-beater like that, its ready.
Egg poaching
- pot of water on about 80–85 °C (Don’t boil it because it will split the eggs)
- basic white vinegar added to the water(10%)
- pinch of salt
- a ladle( ideally with holes )
Break the eggs into the ladle and place it into the heated water. While lowering the ladle slowly into the water, let the eggs flow out slowly into the water. Don’t place more than 2 eggs in one pot, unless your are a master of eggs Benedict. Leave it inside for about 3 minutes, until the white hardens and surrounds the yolk.
While you poach, you can prepare the English muffin and the ham.
English muffin (you can substitute with anything that can serve as a sponge beneath the eggs) and slices of ham
Cut the muffin in half, butter and grill both halves until they are golden and crispy. Heat up the slices of ham until slightly grilled and crispy. Don’t overdo it.
Putting everything together
Place the muffins on the plate. The slices of ham on the top. Try to build a bagel form with a hole in the middle for the eggs. Carefully get the eggs from the water and place them in the middle. If your ladle doesn’t have holes on it, you might need some mopping to avoid the watery taste. And now the best part comes: slowly pour the hollandaise sauce on top of the egg. The more sauce the better, so dont be greedy. Garnish and ready! Your first eggs benedict.
