Oeufs Poches, Sauce Hollandaise, Epinards Etuves au Beurre

(Poached Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Buttered Spinach)


Have you poached an egg before? Have you made hollandaise sauce by hand? Have you made spinach properly? I can now say yes to all three questions.

I started with the spinach, because there are multiple steps of preparation before the buttered spinach recipe. I buy my spinach from Costco, so it is a huge bag, which is good because spinach cooks down so much. I love, love, love spinach! I have been cooking spinach, simply by throwing fresh spinach leaves into a saucepan, with a little butter and salt and pepper. Today, I removed the stem and tough tendrils on the underside of each leaf and washed them in a bowl of cold water, pumping up and down and leaving any sand on the bottom of the bowl. Then, I blanched the spinach for 2 minutes and ran cold water over the cooked spinach. I picked up the spinach in small batches and squeezed out as much moisture as I could and then chopped it. I literally gave each piece of spinach a little lovin'. I took a half a cup of spinach and cooked it covered with a little butter, s&p, and a pinch of nutmeg for about 10 minutes. From now on, I will always cook spinach this way ~ it is wonderful!

"One pound of fresh spinach yields about 1 cup of cooked spinach, and we shall consider that enough for 2 people."

 The hollandaise sauce can be made in an electric blender, but Julia recommends making it by hand.

"It is extremely easy  and almost foolproof to make in the electric blender... but we feel it is of great importance that you learn how to make hollandaise by hand, for part of every good cook's general knowledge is a thorough familiarity with the vagaries of egg yolks under all conditions."

So I did. I cut the recipe in half, because the recipe is for quite a bit, so I was nervous about the quantities. The amount of butter that is added is so important and a little too much can prevent the sauce from thickening. Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It was a beautiful color and consistency. Yay!

Now for the egg.... I have never poached an egg before. The first egg turned out perfect. The yolk was creamy and runny inside the soft egg whites. I tried two other eggs after that to see if I could do it again. Was it beginners luck? Yep. The eggs I have are also from Costco. Maybe the eggs are not as fresh as they should be? I'll have to try it again with eggs from the local grocery store and maybe I'll be able to cook more than one. Luckily, one poached egg was plenty for me this morning.

I plated a bed of buttered spinach, then the poached egg on top (the first egg I attempted) and topped the egg off with a little hollandaise sauce. Wow! The flavors together are so fresh and so decadent. The little bit of lemon juice from the hollandaise sauce brought out the other flavors of the dish. A fork full of buttery spinach, creamy egg whites, runny egg yolks and fresh lemon juice in the thick hollandaise sauce was basically a mouth full of delcious-ness. I can't describe it any other way.

The portion I had was small and I think a healthy breakfast. There wasn't a TON of butter in the spinach, none on the egg, and... well the hollandaise sauce is basically butter... BUT in small proportions, egg & spinach isn't a bad way to start your day. :)

Oeufs Poches, Sauce Hollandaise, Epinards Etuves au Beurre 

The finished meal. :)

(Poached Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Buttered Spinach)

<-----   A look inside the egg...

While the first egg I poached turned out very good, I can't say the same thing for the two after it...

Fail.