13 | September

Eggs Fiorentina … Breakfast Fit For Little Red Riding Hood!

September 13, 2010 in Uncategorized

Saturday was a rainy, dull day here on the East Coast. My Essenwood Market trip gave me a great excuse to wear one of my fabourite pieces of clothing – my red coat. The moment I don that coat I lose about 30years off my life and feel like a little girl. If my mum were still alive I could ask her if I perhaps had a red coat as a little girl which would explain the feeling I get when I wear it. Aaaaanyway – combine my red coat, with a shopping bag and I have one of those regressive moments and feel about 6 again.

So um er, strike that 30 years off my life – it’s more like 43 years off my life. Gawd ………. That’s such a long time!!! I was quite happy to walk down the road in the rain on Saturday morning – no umbrella – no scarf – just my red coat. The steamy aroma of the rain coming off the tarred pavement triggered memories of walking home after an early summer storm – barefoot – watched miniature tsunamis waves washing my feet as I walked against the flow in the rain gutters!!!

Steamy summer memories…..

Essenwood Market eagerly offered up her booty and I walked away with – awesome Gumbo’s (Giant/Jumbo) Eggs, armfulls of flowers for my breakfast table, fabulous mustard sprouts to garnish the eggs Florentine, 5M of black and white checked ribbon to tie up my napkins with, fresh rosemary and green shiny plump greenbeans. My niece and nephew Monique and Dean were still in town after their uncles’ funeral and seeing as I had not had much time to chat with them at the funeral I invited them and their darling baby Ethan over for a champagne breakfast on Sunday morning.

The East Coast blossomed on Saturday morning – the sun shone brightly in a perfect sky – a perfect accompanyment to a Champage Breakfast. They, along with everyone else happily woofed down Ouva Fiorentina – commonly know at my house as “Green Eggs” according to Max. His order went something like this,” Hey Ma – please can I have two muffins – two poached eggs but NO GREEN STUFF!” …………… I give up!!

Eggs Florentine

For 8 people

It’s rather a good idea to make the spinach and the Hollandaise sauce for eggs Florentine in advance. It’s always a bit of a stretch to get up – set table – sort out flowers, food and face (I need eons to polyfiller my crevices these days!) BEFORE guests start arriving at 8am.

Ingredients for the Spinach

2 large packets of baby spinach leaves – Woolies

1Tbs of chopped garlic

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Wash your spinach leaves well and drain in a colander.

In a large pot – heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your pot or pan

Fry the garlic until caramelised – add the spinach leaves in two batches.

Do not add any water – the leaves will wilt done in 1 minute. Fry them until the water has gone and season well with salt and pepper.

Leave them overnight in a colander – place a saucer on top of the fried spinach

And push down to force out any excess water.

Just before you are going to assemble the dish

Chop 1 packet of smoked streaky bacon and

Fry this until browned nicely then add the spinach and fry together

Again – check for seasoning because spinach needs quite a bit

Of salt to bring out it’s natural flavour.

Ingredients for the Hollandaise Sauce

I never make my Hollandaise sauce – a la bain Marie style! I am just too lazy for

All that whisking etc. This is my cheat cheat quicky Hollandaise sauce!

8 egg yolks

400g butter – melted in the microwave

3 – 4 tsp hot English mustard

The juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp of cayenne pepper

Salt – approx 1tsp

Place the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and salt into a blender.

Melt the butter in a jug in the microwave

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute (to get them to ribbon stage) in the

Blender –

start adding the butter, which must be nice and hot, drop by drop.

Add a drop – blend for about 10 secs

Add another drop – blend again

Once you have added about 1/3 of the butter you can add the rest – with the liquidiser running – in a slow steady stream.

Check for seasoning and then remove to a bowl and cover with cling film.

Don’t keep this in the fridge – leave it out – if you attempt to heat the Hollandaise it will cook like scrambled eggs!!! So leave out and use it at room temperature.

A Champagne Breakfast is an event worthy of some window dressing.

There are many ways to dress your table that are cost effective and

Pretty – seeing as we are all Springy and Summery here on the East Coast of South Africa – I chose an Italian meets Spring Flowers theme!!

A wee bit of Napkin Magic and the whole look

Of your table is transformed in a flash!

NB: Don’t be tempted to crowd your table with unneccesay bits and bobs.

Keep it simple – set the champagne and orange juice table separately – and don’t mix the orange and champagne together – it’s better to place the open bottles in a cooler this allows your guests to choose

What type of champers they wish to drink …. And to mix their own according to personal preference!!!