The Nameless One
It's here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SqC_m3yUDU
My long-time followers will be aware that I greatly enjoy the French Canadian classic dish poutine, which is pretty much french fries, gravy, and cheese curds.
A little over a month ago, however, I went to the Marmalade Café for Sunday brunch and had a twist on Eggs Benedict using potato skins instead of English muffins. That got me thinking.
So today I present a variation on a classic. After much hype, I have finally assembled and consumed a prototype of my latest dish, an artery-clogging monster with the working name of "poutine benedict" (although I've advertised it as "Chips Benedict" to a friend and I like the sound of it).
The basic idea is simple. You start with a bed of fries. You add a breakfast meat of your choice (I strongly recommend crispy bacon). Then you throw a couple runny-yolked poached eggs on top, pour some hollandaise sauce over the whole thing, and garnish with whatever else takes your fancy (I decided to keep it simple and garnish only with paprika and parsley -- didn't even add salt to the dish).
The result is excellent, if I say so myself. The idea is to blend a series of textures and savory tastes to make the ultimate comfort food. The fries should be crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. The bacon should be crunchy to balance the soft wobble of the egg. As for taste, the relatively simple and bland potatoes make an excellent base for absorbing the salty-smoked bacon flavor, the vaguely sulphuric stickiness of runny egg yolk, and the tart tang of hollandaise sauce.
For my trial run, I was harried and had to settle for very run-of-the-mill ingredients. While my taters and my eggs were quality, I used plain old bargain-basement bacon (neither salty nor smoky enough) and powdered hollandaise sauce. I can only imagine how much nicer it would have been with Smithfield bacon and homemade hollandaise.
Anyway, here are the pictures for you visual types. You can click on each image for extra-huge resolution. You can also click directly on the description as well to go straight to the image.
Pre-hollandaise:
The finished product:
Closeup:
Thus endeth the prototype. Going forward, here are some tips for anybody brave enough to try in it their own kitchen:
-Go hearty on the fries. My impression is that this dish would be fantastic with thick crunchy potato wedges with the potato skin still attached.
-Splurge on the hollandaise. If you can home-make it, do it. If you can't, get the highest-end hollandaise you can afford -- it will make a difference.
-Try brown gravy instead of hollandaise (or even with the hollandaise, sayeth my Italian-chef-trained friend). My personal sense is that gravy might be too heavy and salty for the lightness of the poached eggs, which might necessitate a little tweaking; perhaps Canadian bacon instead of the crunchy kind?
-Try adding cheese curds or freshly grated cheese on top. Aside from the obvious cheddar (I'd recommend a milder cheddar, btw), provolone or smoked Gouda would probably complement this dish quite well.
Go forth and try it, y'all.
--R
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SqC_m3yUDU
My long-time followers will be aware that I greatly enjoy the French Canadian classic dish poutine, which is pretty much french fries, gravy, and cheese curds.
A little over a month ago, however, I went to the Marmalade Café for Sunday brunch and had a twist on Eggs Benedict using potato skins instead of English muffins. That got me thinking.
So today I present a variation on a classic. After much hype, I have finally assembled and consumed a prototype of my latest dish, an artery-clogging monster with the working name of "poutine benedict" (although I've advertised it as "Chips Benedict" to a friend and I like the sound of it).
The basic idea is simple. You start with a bed of fries. You add a breakfast meat of your choice (I strongly recommend crispy bacon). Then you throw a couple runny-yolked poached eggs on top, pour some hollandaise sauce over the whole thing, and garnish with whatever else takes your fancy (I decided to keep it simple and garnish only with paprika and parsley -- didn't even add salt to the dish).
The result is excellent, if I say so myself. The idea is to blend a series of textures and savory tastes to make the ultimate comfort food. The fries should be crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. The bacon should be crunchy to balance the soft wobble of the egg. As for taste, the relatively simple and bland potatoes make an excellent base for absorbing the salty-smoked bacon flavor, the vaguely sulphuric stickiness of runny egg yolk, and the tart tang of hollandaise sauce.
For my trial run, I was harried and had to settle for very run-of-the-mill ingredients. While my taters and my eggs were quality, I used plain old bargain-basement bacon (neither salty nor smoky enough) and powdered hollandaise sauce. I can only imagine how much nicer it would have been with Smithfield bacon and homemade hollandaise.
Anyway, here are the pictures for you visual types. You can click on each image for extra-huge resolution. You can also click directly on the description as well to go straight to the image.
Pre-hollandaise:
The finished product:
Closeup:
Thus endeth the prototype. Going forward, here are some tips for anybody brave enough to try in it their own kitchen:
-Go hearty on the fries. My impression is that this dish would be fantastic with thick crunchy potato wedges with the potato skin still attached.
-Splurge on the hollandaise. If you can home-make it, do it. If you can't, get the highest-end hollandaise you can afford -- it will make a difference.
-Try brown gravy instead of hollandaise (or even with the hollandaise, sayeth my Italian-chef-trained friend). My personal sense is that gravy might be too heavy and salty for the lightness of the poached eggs, which might necessitate a little tweaking; perhaps Canadian bacon instead of the crunchy kind?
-Try adding cheese curds or freshly grated cheese on top. Aside from the obvious cheddar (I'd recommend a milder cheddar, btw), provolone or smoked Gouda would probably complement this dish quite well.
Go forth and try it, y'all.
--R