Road to the Wolf

Last year we did a renovation of our master bath.  It was a long drawn out process that found me making concessions to hubs at every turn.. Who knew a guy could have such strong opinions about taps? He did.  Fast forward to this year when we are planning for our kitchen renovation.   Hubs also has strong opinions on cabinets, appliances, countertops, etc. despite the fact that he has no idea what is kept where, in the kitchen.  He rarely goes into the kitchen except to retrieve a beer or lately, make himself breakfast of pancakes that takes me a week to scrub off my skillet.
I don't do breakfast. anything aside from coffee before noon is an affront to my system.  However, with the new kitchen I really want my 6 burner dual fuel Wolf range.  Even at this I have backed down from the 48" dual fuel Wolf with infrared charbroiler.  See, I'm reasonable.  So with the Wolf in mind, I decided to make Sunday breakfast.  I despise pancakes - which are nothing more than soggy dough, soaked in sugary syrup - so I thought I'd go for a more upscale treat.  Eggs Benedict.  Food of the gods.  I love a perfectly poached egg and what's not to love about buttery rich hollandaise with a snap of lemon and cayenne?

























I used Alton Brown's recipe, which was perfect, since I didn't feel like dinking around with a double boiler.  If you think hollandaise is a pain give his technique a try - it's a snap!!  I pan fried pancetta, instead of canadian bacon - a good trick for keeping it flat is just to take the lid of a smaller pot and plop it down directly on the pancetta slices as they cook.

The poached eggs give many people problems and I kind of cheat.  I have some rings that I place in the bottom of my pot before I heat the water.  Be sure to add some white vinegar to the water to help the egg whites stay together during cooking.  If you are new to poaching eggs, I recommend putting a candy thermometer on the edge of the pan and keep the temperature at 200 degreed F and simmer the eggs for about 5 minutes.  make sure you use the eggs immediately or they will continue to cook.  The runny egg yolks are the key to perfect eggs benny!

And, yes, I also cheated by using store bought english muffins that I heated in the toaster.  Sue, me, it is Sunday after all!  Do you think this breakfast is Wolf-worthy?  Here's hoping hubs does.  Although, it may have backfired since he just commented that I obviously don't need a Wolf, if I can make a breakfast like that on a stove with wonky heating. Damn, foiled again.