It all started with an all consuming need for Eggs Benedict! It was super early on a Sunday morning in Fernie B.C. and I just couldn’t get the thought of hollandaise out of my head. I mean… is there a better sauce? I don’t see how it’s possible with all that velvety texture, and supreme richness! We walked into what was supposed to be the best breakfast place in town, and ordered 2 Eggs Benedict and a large hot chocolate. I asked for hash browns in place of my English muffin, and it’s really my fault for not asking more questions. Over 30 minutes later, our breakfasts were placed in front of us, and after the waitress left, Tyler looked at me and said ‘where’s the rest of it?’. I laughed out loud because he was right, the portion was tiny with just 1 almost miniature egg each, and the worst part was there was no visible hollandaise on my plate! I mean… everyone orders Eggs Benedict for the hollandaise right? There was a about a tablespoon of sauce between my ham and my lonely poached egg, but not so much that you’d actually taste it. And as if that wasn’t bad enough… it would seem that no one makes hash browns anymore because my egg was sitting on a tater tot!
It’s not like I don’t like tater tots, but the flavor was really off paired with Eggs Benedict. The place was jammed and we didn’t have the heart to say anything, so we finished off our breakfasts in less than 5 minutes, and then waited another 30 minutes to get our bill, (which was almost $40 dollars with just 2 breakfasts and 1 hot chocolate). Overall this is a story about how not to do breakfast on a weekend! Needless to say, this experience left me craving Eggs Benedict even more than I was before. So the next weekend I did what anyone would do, and I got myself a fix. I made homemade Eggs Benedict from scratch because sometimes that’s just what your cravings desire. And while the classic is always fantastic, there’s more than enough recipes out there already, although I do really recommend Gourmet’s Blender Hollandaise Sauce recipe. It’s much easier than whisking in butter by hand, and takes a lot of the stress out of making this classic.
So after my initial craving was satisfied, I went in a completely different direction, headed south, and made Eggs Benedict Latin style! And while it might sound crazy to make hollandaise out of avocado, trust me, it’s the way to go when you’re adding salsa to the mix. The avocado hollandaise pairs much better with the fresh salsa flavors that the traditional butter sauce, (I tried both and the avocado wins in all the combinations I tried other than the classic version). Another great thing about Avocado Hollandaise is it comes together in just a few seconds in the blender. I use a ripe room temperature avocado and lukewarm water to make the sauce. Some recipes call for hot water, but I’ve found the hollandaise always turns brown after 15 minutes or so when you use hot water.
For the base, the Eggs Benedict is sitting on crispy tostones. I like to cut up the plantains on the diagonal so that when they’re smashed, they make a bigger base to pile the ham and eggs on.
To make tostones, they get fried twice just like french fries. First they’re cooked until just golden and slightly tender, they you smash them flat…
… and fry them again into perfect golden brown deliciousness!
The tostones are then stacked with pan fried ham, perfectly poached eggs, fresh Mango Salsa, and creamy Avocado Hollandaise. Now this is the weekend breakfast of my dreams! 5 from 3 reviews
