Eggs Benedict
Serves 2

There’s something delightfully cute and contained about poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. It’s both celebratory and incredibly simple looking and tasting. Like anything else with minimal ingredients, quality is always important. The food stylist secrets are to “double yolk” your eggs and stack the ingredients, helping you create dramatic height and an elevated feel of fanciness.

For the eggs:
4 eggs
Salt
1 English muffin, halved and toasted
4-5 slices of prosciutto, thinly sliced
2-3 handfuls of spinach, sautéed down producing about ½ cup total
1 cup pan-roasted mushrooms, roughly chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Finishing salt, such as fleurs de sel or Maldon

For the sauce:
1 egg yolk
Salt
Juice of ½ lemon
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled slightly

Heat a small saucepan filled with water to a boil. Using a small bowl, place a long piece of saran wrap over the top of the bowl and spray the interior of the bowl (now covered with plastic wrap), with cooking spray. Add 2 eggs to the bowl and then using the saran, press out excess air and tie off to create a double yolk. Repeat for second two eggs.

Place egg in boiling water and cook for 7-8 minutes. Remove and cool slightly before removing from the saran wrap.

While the eggs cook, make the sauce. Place an egg yolk in a medium bowl and season with salt and lemon juice. Using a whisk, beat the egg as you hold the bowl over the pan of hot water. The egg will begin to get light in color. Continue to beat until egg yolk mixture is just hot to the touch.

Remove bowl from the heat and slowly whisk while you pour in the melted butter, a drop or two at a time. Season again with salt and set aside, keeping warm until eggs are done.

Place prosciutto slices on a toasted English muffin half and then layer with sautéed spinach, mushrooms and egg. Top with sauce and garnish with more salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve while hot.

To make the sautéed spinach: heat a small skillet up over medium heat and add a touch of olive oil. Place spinach in pan and season with a sprinkling of salt. Stir until spinach is wilted and remove from heat.

To make the pan-roasted mushrooms: wipe out that same small skillet you used for the spinach and heat over medium heat – do not add any fat to the pan. Add whole mushrooms and “pan roast” until charred on all sides. Remove from heat and place mushrooms on a board, roughly chop and season well with salt and extra virgin olive oil.

USED IN THIS RECIPE // CLICK TO BUY.

Products

Paesano Olive Oil // $22

This is one of my favorite olive oils. It’s from Sicily and is pretty much available everywhere. It’s about $10 more than standard olive oil but is worth it. If it seems too luxurious, use this sparingly to garnish salads or dip in bread. Noteworthy… olive oil only lasts a year so don’t let it sit too long or it will develop a bitter taste.

French Whisk // $10

A good whisk is hard to find. You want something with thin but plentiful of wires. Note: the more wires in a whisk, the faster the ingredients come together.

Maldon Sea Salt // $11

Maldon Salt is essential in every kitchen and while a bit pricer it makes even the simplest dishes. Known as a "finishing salt" use it to top off items like sliced steak, salads, vegetables and pasta.