Mother's Day Brunch: looking for pointers
So I'm tackling a few things that I've never done before tomorrow for brunch for my Mother-in-Law. Eggs Benedict and roasted breakfast potatoes.
I'm not so concerned with making the Hollandaise, actually. I can make buerre blanc and lemon curd, so I figure the sauce won't be hard. I'll be using Alton's tip to store it in a pre-warmed thermos until service time. Edit to add: Is it OK for me to put a tad of lemon zest into the sauce? I really like my Hollandaise to be lemony.
I'm nervous about making good poached eggs though. I've read about it - fresh, room temp eggs and vinegar in the water are the main tips I've heard so far. The water at a high simmer, right? Anything else I should know? How long should it take to poach large eggs to the perfectly-runny-yolks stage? I'm gonna practice some tonight - I bought extra eggs.
My other vexation is the potatoes. I want to make deep, dark brown roasted red potatoes - like the "breakfast potatoes" served in restaurants. Whenever I've tried in the past, it's been very hit or miss.... I'm looking for sure-fire tips to make knockout roasted potatoes.
The rest of tomorrow's menu will be pineapple-swirl muffins and a strawberry & banana fruit salad with mimosas, of course. I'm still working on building the muffin recipe, but I'll finish it my just barely mixing in a whole fresh pineapple's worth of pineapple sautéed in some butter and dark brown sugar.
I'm not so concerned with making the Hollandaise, actually. I can make buerre blanc and lemon curd, so I figure the sauce won't be hard. I'll be using Alton's tip to store it in a pre-warmed thermos until service time. Edit to add: Is it OK for me to put a tad of lemon zest into the sauce? I really like my Hollandaise to be lemony.
I'm nervous about making good poached eggs though. I've read about it - fresh, room temp eggs and vinegar in the water are the main tips I've heard so far. The water at a high simmer, right? Anything else I should know? How long should it take to poach large eggs to the perfectly-runny-yolks stage? I'm gonna practice some tonight - I bought extra eggs.
My other vexation is the potatoes. I want to make deep, dark brown roasted red potatoes - like the "breakfast potatoes" served in restaurants. Whenever I've tried in the past, it's been very hit or miss.... I'm looking for sure-fire tips to make knockout roasted potatoes.
The rest of tomorrow's menu will be pineapple-swirl muffins and a strawberry & banana fruit salad with mimosas, of course. I'm still working on building the muffin recipe, but I'll finish it my just barely mixing in a whole fresh pineapple's worth of pineapple sautéed in some butter and dark brown sugar.