Eggs benedict is a classic dish, eggs Basevi is one we put together based upon this classic. It is a simple combination of bacon, eggs and hollandaise sauce served on English muffins or toast. For the purist homemade hollandaise will always taste better than anything you can buy however most of us don’t have the time to knock up a batch at breakfast time. We serve this if we have any hollandaise leftover from something else we made. Fresh hollandaise is readily available in most supermarkets and is far superior to the jars of readymade sauce you can buy but if you like hollandaise then an jar in the refrigerator is no hardship really. Muffins are something else we don’t make ourselves, we keep a batch in the freezer and defrost them as we need them, or just use toast simple.
This recipe is for 1 person, increase the quantities for the number of people you are cooking for. If you want a smaller portion cook one egg instead of 2, or divide between two people for a starter.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs poached to your taste preferably soft
- 2 slices of good smoked back bacon
- A good dollop of hollandaise sauce
- 1 English muffin halved and toasted or 2 slices of toast
- A little butter - optional
- A grind of black pepper
Method
- Cook the bacon to your taste, we fry with no oil in the pan and like the fat crispy
- Lay your muffin halves on a plate and spread with butter if you want it
- Place a piece of bacon on each half of the muffin
- Place 1 egg on top of each piece of bacon, it should nestle in the meaty part quite nicely
- Spoon a dollop of hollandaise on top of each egg
- Grate black pepper on the top of the hollandaise sauce
- Eat and enjoy!
Serving suggestions and variations
- Similar to Eggs benedict which uses ham instead of bacon
- For a vegetarian version use fresh spinach leaves instead of the bacon and you have eggs Florentine,
- for a more luxurious version use smoked salmon instead of the bacon and you have eggs royale.
- For a more substantial meal at lunchtime serve with a side salad
- Try Palma ham or one of the other cured meats and salamis available
- Try using mayo instead of hollandaise, they are similar products and mayo has a less strong flavour
- Miss out the sauce and use scrambled eggs instead of poached
- Try crumpets, rye bread or a seeded bread toasted instead of the muffins
Acknowledgements
We came up with this one all on our own and claim all the credit! There are many recipes around that use Hollandaise sauce, we particularly like it served with steak. However whether you buy the sauce or make your own I will bet you have some left over. It would be a crime to waste it so plan in an Eggs Basevi for breakfast the next day and use it up.
Fancy something else from our collection then why not try one of the following;
- Want to share a starter try baked camembert with asparagus dippers,
- our corned beef lasagne is a great twist on the classic lasagne and equally tasty,
- if your making your own hollandaise then use the egg whites up with out Mint Choc Mousse, yummy.
Happy eating!