Poached Eggs, Asparagus, Hollandaise

I have to admit, while my blog is called dinner at Maya’s, my favourite meal of the day has to be breakfast! I think it’s the combination of the meaty sausages or bacon, the soft egg yolk, seedy wholesome bread and salty butter all washed down with a mug of strong slightly sweetened tea that makes my mouth salivate at the thought.

The other thing, particularly good about a weekend breakfast is the spontaneity. It is possible to plan a breakfast the previous day, but night-time inebriation often means planning gets pushed aside. So for me at least weekend breakfasts means stumbling into the kitchen, peering into the fridge and coming up with something to satisfy my grumbling stomach and heavy head and salivating mouth. I get my vegbox deliveries on a Friday and my boyfriend tends to unpack it so I don’t really know what veggies I have until the next morning.

The previous Saturday morning I was delighted to find a bunch of new season asparagus sitting on the bottom drawer of the fridge. I knew exactly what I was eating- soft poached eggs with home-made hollandaise drizzled over steamed buttery asparagus.

The sad part was the fact that I didn’t have any muffins and wasn’t really ready to make my own muffins or leave the house to get them. I had planned therefore to have the eggs and asparagus sans bread. But my boyfriend wanted to have HP sauce so he asked for eggs in baskets and as I was cutting the rounds out of the bread I figured I could stack them to make faux muffins.

Yummy yolk

Needless to say as we sat for breakfast, with the sunshine streaming through the windows, I could see envy on my boyfriend’s face from my towering colourful breakfast. This is a spring breakfast/brunch and totally worth the effort in the morning.

Eggs in baskets

Ingredients
2 whole organic Eggs, 1 Egg Yolk
2 tsbp Vinegar
juice from ½ a Lemon
50g Butter, melted
Salt & Pepper

1 English Muffin (or 2 slices of Bread, cut into rounds with a cookie cutter)
small handful of Asparagus
knob of Butter

Recipe
To make the hollandaise, put the yolk in a bowl and whisk in a bit of salt and pepper. Add vinegar and lemon to a small saucepan and heat until it starts to bubble. Pour this into the egg mixture and whisk in. Then slowly pour the melted butter in a thin stream into the bowl as you whisk away. The sauce should be thick and creamy.

Fill a medium sized pan with water and add 1 tbsp of vinegar. Heat until boiling, then turn the heat down. Crack eggs into a cup or small bowl and lower into water. Set timer for 4 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a kitchen towel. I like to set my asparagus steaming over the pan with the poaching eggs.

Assemble onto dish and eat.