Making Eggs Benedict with the Daring Cooks

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

When this month's challenge was announced I read through the introduction to the recipes and did a quick scan over the ingredients list.  What I realized when I did so was that I had nearly all of the required ingredients on hand at the moment.  Not only did I have the necessary ingredients but since I waited until the last minute to make my souffles last month, I still had the yolks sitting in the fridge waiting to be used.  Perfect!  I made a quick substitution of regular bacon for the Canadian bacon and started whipping up a batch of English Muffins since they were the only thing I was missing.  I made these within days of the announcement so it makes total sense that I am posting it at the last minute, right?  No procrastination happening over here.

I can't even begin to describe how incredible these were.  I would love to say that I will be making these often but the two sticks of butter in the sauce kind of put a halt on that thinking.  And it is a good thing that whisking the butter into the yolks was kind of time consuming (anyone else with a sore shoulder the next day?) because otherwise these would be all to easy to indulge in more often than I should.  That's not to say that I won't make these again because, wow, they were so awesome.  I wanted to eat the sauce with a spoon and probably would have if Hey, Babe wouldn't have made fun of me.  I it the same as the challenge recipe except I added a little onion powder and mustard powder to the sauce and then I topped mine with some chopped dill.  I'm actually kind of sad remembering these because they are all gone now.

From what I understand the sauce isn't supposed to keep well but since we had leftover sauce I decided to see what would happen to it the next day.  I found that if you reheat it very gently and slowly over a double boiler while stirring, it was usable but not quite as pretty as the day before.  It didn't bother me though, and I had it over a piece of toast and a fried egg the next day.  I miss this sauce.  What I would like to know is why no one ever told me how incredible Eggs Benedict taste. 

The English Muffins were also great, and relatively easy to make.  I used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, originally from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhardt.

Breakfast Burritos

While I was talking on the phone with Mom yesterday she mentioned that she was thinking of making some sort of freezable breakfast sandwich so that my siblings who all need to be out the door early would be able to grab an easy, full, hot meal beforehand.  There is always the option of buying such a sandwich, but then you risk buying something loaded with chemicals, preservatives, way too much sodium, lesser quality ingredients, etc. and paying a premium for it.  It just so happens that I made these delicious burritos earlier this week.  I hadn't intended on posting them right away, there are other recipes in line ahead of them, but since Mom is looking for a recipe like this they get to jump the line.

Honestly, this is such a simple thing to make.  Most people who swear that they can't cook are still able to scramble themselves an egg and heat up some breakfast meat to go with it.  That pretty much sums up the recipe.  Well, I suppose it is a bit more complicated than that, but not by a heck of a lot.  What I liked about this recipe was that it is very versatile, you can swap around each of the components to cater to your preference or to just change it up so that they don't get boring.  What Hey, Babe liked about these was that they tasted soo good he felt like he was making a meal out of snack food.  I think that's supposed to be a good thing.  I think that they are better with the tortilla a little bit crispy, it almost tastes like a buttery pastry crust once they crisp up.

These are actually supposed to be Freezer Breakfast Burritos, and I have two of them sitting in my freezer now.  I can't vouch for them just yet, we are planning on eating them as a quick breakfast before we do our monthly grocery trip really early on Sunday morning.  Once we've tried them I'll head back here and update to let you know how it works out.

Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Butter
1/2 lb. favorite breakfast meat: bacon, pork roll, ham, Canadian bacon, sausage etc. (I used bacon)
Favorite Veggies:  diced peppers, diced onions, sliced mushrooms, broccoli, etc. (I used peppers and onions)
6 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup chunky salsa
1 cups Favorite Cheese: Cheddar, Pepper Jack, Colby, American, etc. (I used Cheddar)
12 10"whole wheat flour tortillas

Instructions
In large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add your choice of breakfast meat, cooking until completely done.  Carefully remove only the meat (not the oil) to cutting board and chop into bite sized pieces.

Adjust the levels of grease in the pan, if there is not enough add some butter/oil, if there is too much drain a little off.  To the hot pan add your choice of vegetables.  Or not.  Some people don't like vegetables in their eggs (or really ever), so that is totally up to you.  I like my onions well cooked, so I added them right away and cooked them til they were nice and softened.  However, I do not like mushy peppers, so I didn't add them at all here.  Mushrooms would need to be added now also.  Cook your assortment of veggies until they are done to your specifications.  Remove cooked veggies from pan to a plate.  Or don't.  If you leave them in they won't be as pretty, but you won't dirty another dish.  (I left mine in.)

In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk together, adding salt and pepper to taste.  Add eggs to hot pan (again, adjusting oil first), stirring frequently until scrambled and set. Add cooked meat, veggies, and salsa to egg mixture.

Warm tortillas as directed on package.  You want them soft enough so that they don't tear when you are rolling them up. Place about 1/2 cup egg mixture onto each tortilla (just divided up the pan into even portions equal to how many tortillas I had) and sprinkle with some cheese.  Fold in the ends of each tortilla and roll up, making burritos.

At this point you can go one of two ways.  You can place them all on parchment paper lined cookie sheets and freeze until solid. Then wrap individually and package in zip-lock freezer bags.  Or you can put them all in a baking pan and bake them at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until hot.  I did both.

When you're ready to eat the frozen ones, unwrap the burritos, wrap loosely in microwave safe paper towel and heat in the microwave on high power for 1-3 minutes until hot and cheese is melted.  Or for those of us who do not use microwaves (me) you can also thaw burritos in the refrigerator overnight and either place them in a baking dish or wrap them individually in foil and bake.  Apparently, the thawed burritos can also be deep fried for 3-5 minutes until golden brown and crisp.  It sounds good but I don't usually deep fry things so I probably won't try it.  Let me know if you do.

edited to update:
We've tried the ones that I froze and they were excellent!  I prefer the burrito to get a little crisp, so next time I won't bother with defrosting it before I put it in the toaster oven (unwrapped so it gets crispy!) for about 15-20 minutes, by then the insides will have defrosted and heated up.  I plan on making a huge batch of these to freeze this weekend.