- What's up everybody,
Chef Billy Parisi here from billyparisi.com, and we're still rolling
through with breakfast, and I'm going to be hooking
up and insanely delicious, classic eggs Benedict recipe. (upbeat music) I've been making eggs Benedict. as far back as I can remember, to my early culinary restaurant career working at a country club in St. Louis. We would have brunch Sundays where all the club members would come in. I would, of course, be responsible
for making eggs Benedict. Seriously, like whipping up a 50,000 gallon vat of hollandaise. Oh my gosh, I never wish to
go back to that time period. Man, that was crazy! But of course, per usual,
I want to give you a little bit of history around the
classic eggs Benedict recipe. I found two different stories,
both aren't really validated but that's what everyone goes with. The first one in the 1860s, a woman named Miss LeGrand Benedict, walked into the first ever
fine dining establishment, or so they say, Delmonico's
Restaurant in New York, was bored with the menu, told the chef whip me up something new,
essentially what he brought up is what we know as
modern day eggs Benedict. Sounds like a fun story. The second one being,
a Mr. Lemuel Benedict, who was a Wall Street broker, woke up hungover as all get out, just needing some grease, some food, went over to the Waldorf
Hotel in New York and said, here's what I want, I want
some toast, some bacon, some eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Stack it up and bring it out ASAP. I don't know, I like that story, but I also like the first one. Regardless, eggs Benedict is awesome. I'm gonna show you from
start to end how to make this including the hollandaise sauce, which is the first thing we're gonna kick off in this recipe. What we need to do is clarify some butter, so go ahead and add a few sticks to a small size sauce
pot over medium heat. I'm adding in a few extra because I like to use clarified butter. What we want to do now is cook all those milk fats right to the top. You'll see these sort of white
foamy substance at the top. Those are the milk fats. Once they start coming to the top, you wanna use a ladle or a
spoon and simply take those out, set them to the side in a bowl, do not throw those away because you can add them to popcorn, you can put them in
sauces, it's delicious. Once you get to a point
where all the milk fats have sort of been cooked out
and have been scooped out, you'll see that the butter
starts becoming more clear. You can see the bottom of your pot. What we're gonna do now is
take the clarified butter off the cooktop, go
over to your countertop. I've got a large measuring cup, it's a measuring quart actually. We're gonna use a chinois, if you don't have a chinois, use some cheesecloth over a strainer. We're gonna pour it,
strain any excess milk fats that maybe we couldn't
get, right over the top. Boom, we are done with this. Let's set it to the side. Now, go back over your cooktop, add a medium pot of
water over medium heat. We're gonna use it as a double boiler. Now, go over to the countertop. I've got a large metal
bowl, make sure it is metal. We're gonna add in some egg yolks, Next we're gonna squeeze in
a little bit of lemon juice. I'm gonna stop right here because a lot of recipes in hollandaise
call for using water. You know what, I learned, white wine. It's got more flavor, it's got a little bit more acidity
to it, it's just better. To me, you can use water,
don't get me wrong, you can use water, but I
think white wine just adds another level of complexity
to the hollandaise, makes it super, super good. So add in some white
wine, whisk it vigorously, I mean, crazy, like animal, okay. Go nuts here. Once it is nice and foamy, we're gonna go over to the cooktop where our double boiler is,
or our boiling pot of water, or water over medium heat, rather. Add the bowl right to the top of that, whisk it really, really well. Continuously whisk this,
you don't want to stop because the eggs can cook. If you feel like the egg started cooking, just simply lift the bowl out of the water while continuing to whisk. Just gonna cool the bowl
down just a little bit. Add it back down when you feel
like you're at a good spot. You'll know it's ready enough
because it'll be really foamy, and there'll be no sort of egg liquid at the bottom of the bowl. It will be completely emmulsified. Now at this point, we need to add in some of that clarified butter. You wanna add in just
a little bit at a time. That's why I use a measuring
cup instead of a ladle. Just easier to pour in. It will take about four to
six ounces max of butter. If you do anything more than that, it's gonna break and
then it's just gonna look really just nasty and not taste very good. So at this point, go ahead
and set it to the side. What we're gonna do is season it up with a little bit of sea
salt, and cayenne pepper. Give it a whisk, and that's it. All right you guys, the
hollandaise is finished. That's by far the most
complicated part to this recipe. Now everything else is gonna
move quickly, so pay attention. We're gonna add a medium size pot of water to our cooktop, over medium heat. Next what we wanna do is add a large saute pan to another burner. We're next gonna add some butter to that pan over medium heat. Once the butter is
melted, what we want to do is sort of crisp up, brown up,
heat up our Canadian bacon. You can absolutely use some leftover ham if you have it here. You wanna get it just
until lightly browned. Go ahead and give it a flip, turn the heat off because
that pan's still hot, it's gonna keep our
Canadian bacon plenty warm. Now go over to the water, hopefully you go a nice
little simmer there. We're gonna add in a
little bit of vinegar. It's just gonna help with
smells, nothing else. Eggs can kind of smell funky
when you're poaching them. Now what we wanna do to cook these eggs, we wanna poach them. The best way that I know how
is by using the vortex method. So grab a spoon and stir
it as fast as you can without that water going everywhere. Be careful here, stir it fast and then add an egg right to the center. You can see it sort of wrap up the whites, wrap right around that yolk beautifully. Simply cook it for three minutes max. You wanna still have a nice egg that will pour that yolk
out once you cut into it. I like to set them to
the side on a sheet tray lined with just little bit of paper towel, sort of drain it off. Season it up with a little sea salt, cracked black pepper, and now
the last part of this recipe. I've got some English muffins. We're just gonna go in
the oven on 400 degrees, gonna toast them, gonna
take maybe four minutes. You got a toaster, feel
free to put them in there. All right you all, everything is done, let's plate this beauty up. Go ahead and add our toasted
English muffin down on a plate. We're next gonna add on our lightly seared pieces of Canadian bacon. Next we're gonna hit it with
that poached, seasoned egg. And of course, last but not least, we are gonna top it off
with that beautiful, beautiful, delicious
hollandaise that we made. And for a little garnish, some chopped fresh parsley
and diced fresh chives. Boom, let's try this out. I'm not sure it gets any
more classic when it comes to breakfast than an eggs Benedict. It's at every single
brunch you've ever been to. It's on every breakfast menu that you've ever witnessed, I swear. It's pretty easy to make
once the hollandaise is done, and the hollandaise, honestly,
isn't that hard to make, once you have the clarified butter. You know, it really only takes
about three or four minutes. And the clarified butter,
make plenty extra, because it's awesome in cooking, the milk fats again, popcorn,
you could just put it into any batter, whatever it is,
it's really, really tasty. So now, let's not waste any more time, and get into this breakfast episode. Yeah. This hollandaise is
super creamy, you guys. Maybe I should've used a
steak knife or something. Golly, let's go! This is a large bite. Mm. What is not to love? A toasted English muffin,
salty delicious Canadian bacon, a perfectly poached egg,
and a delicious fatty, buttery egg yolk delicious
sauce right over the top. Oh my gosh, is that good? I gotta chew, I know it's
probably gross hearing me chew. I'm out, we'll see you all next week. Mm, mm.
