Adventures in the kitchen: Eggs Benedict

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(Daily Record/Sunday News — File)

Let’s get fancy.

Sometimes it’s nice to make your sweetheart — or yourself — a delicious, hearty breakfast to kick off your day. And it might be a way to make Valentine’s Day or any random Thursday a little more special.

Eggs Benedict is one of my favorites, but many versions of the decadent dish are high in calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium — so it isn’t a regular indulgence. But, I found a few recipes that wont bust my diet.

And Eggs Benedict isn’t difficult to prepare — once you master poaching an egg.

Poaching terrified me until I found a “secret” for keeping the egg together while cooking. (Find out on the jump.)

The following recipe, which is much more waist-line friendly than a traditional Eggs Benedict recipe is adapted from one called Recipe Rehab: Eggs Benedict by thatsfit.com for Huffington Post Healthy Living and from one by Tyler Florence, via FoodNetwork.com:

Hollandaise sauce, Recipe Rehab

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (fresh is preferred but not necessary)

Melt the butter in a pan on the stove and keep it warm. Whisk together the buttermilk and cornstarch in the top of a double boiler and over boiling water until the sauce begins to thicken.

Whisk in the egg yolks and water and continue beating until the mixture comes to a simmer.

Once the mixture starts to bubble, heat for another 15 seconds and remove from heat. Add the lemon juice, melted butter and spices.

Cover and place in a warm spot until ready to use. If the sauce gets too thick, whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.

Eggs Benedict, adapted from Tyler Florence recipe

(yields 4 servings)

• 4 slices of Canadian or turkey bacom
• 2 English muffins (regular or whole-wheat), halved
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 4 eggs (or egg whites)
• salt and pepper to taste
• Hollandaise sauce
• chopped parsley for garnish

(Bloggers note: I suggest you practice poaching a few eggs before you try to serve the dish to someone else. Unless, unlike me, you are a whiz in the kitchen.)

Brown the bacon in a skillet and toast the English muffins. Fill a 10-inch non-stick skillet half-full with water.

Add the vinegar to the water and bring to a slow boil — it will help hold the egg together when it’s cooking. (I made the mistake of skipping the vinegar the first time I attempted to poach an egg and it was a disaster!)

Crack the egg into the water and be careful not to break it. Another way to make it easier, and to make sure you don’t drop any of the shell in the pot is to crack the egg into a small bowl and carefully pour it into the water.

Cook for about 3 1/2 minutes until the white is set but the yolk still is soft. Remove egg with a slotted spoon and allow egg to drain on a paper towel.

To assemble you plate, put a slice of  bacon on top of each English muffin half. Put the poached egg on top of the bacon and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the Hollandaise sauce over the eggs and garnish with chopped parsley.

Nutrition information for Eggs Benedict with the Recipe Rehab Hollandaise and turkey bacon, whole-wheat English muffins and egg whites is as follows (in parenthesis is the information for an Eggs Benedict recipe at Perkins, according to MyFitnessPal):

• 204 calories (560 calories)
• 9 grams of fat, 3g of that is saturated fat (32 grams of fat, 15g of that is saturated fat)
• 17 grams of carbohydrates (39 grams of carbohydrates)
• 5 grams of sugars (5 grams of sugars)
• 2 grams of fiber (1 gram of fiber)
• 14 grams of protein (30 grams of protein)
• 445 milligrams of sodium (1500 milligrams of sodium)

Bonus

I love asparagus with Hollandaise, so when I make the sauce, I like to roast asparagus to enjoy with my meal.

To roast the asparagus, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and lay out trimmed asparagus on the sheet without overlapping any of the spears.

Drizzle about 2 tables spoons of extra virgin olive oil over the asparagus and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Roast for 10 minutes (if the spears are skinny, you might want to check them after 8 minutes so they don’t get burnt, limp and chewy).

Remove from the oven and drizzle with lemon juice. Then plate the asparagus with the Eggs Benedict and drizzle Hollandaise over the spears (a little goes a long way).

Yum!

Other diet-conscious recipes for Eggs Benedict can be found at the following sites, too:

• X-Ceptionally healthy Eggs Benedict from food.com
• Healthier Eggs Benedict from Food Republic
• Eggs Benedict from Hungry Girl

If you’d like some more healthy recipes and fitness and wellness tips, head on over to No Sweat York.

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