One of my favorite community cookbooks is Louisiana Entertains – A Complete Menu Cookbook from the Rapides Symphony Guild in Alexandria, Louisiana – copyright 1978. The first 54 pages of this cookbook are devoted to breakfast and brunch. These menus offer a Southern breakfast at its best! I’ve set the table on the porch for the menu “Table for Two.”
Mimosa
Eggs Sardou or Eggs Stravinsky
French Bread
Dessert Pancake
Fruit
French-dripped Coffee
The cookbook then gives the recipes for these delights. I’ll give you the recipe for the Eggs Sardou today.
Thanks for joining me at my Southern Breakfast Tablescape. Check out the other lovely tablescapes at Between Naps on the Porch.
Today’s Lagniappe: Eggs Sardou
Delicious – If you don’t want to make these yourself, just head on down to New Orleans and order it from one of their great restaurants! It was created at Antoine’s and named after French playwright Victorien Sardou
4 Poached Eggs (See below)
1 Recipe Creamed Spinach (see below)
1 Recipe Hollandaise Sauce (see below)
4 Artichoke bottoms
Paprika for sprinkling
Divide the creamed spinach in the center of two heated plates, nest two artichoke bottoms per plate on the spinach. Place a poached egg on each artichoke bottom then top with a generous portion of Hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle with Paprika. Serve.
Serves 2.
Poached Eggs Recipe
Fill a dutch oven with 1? of water, heat until just below a simmer. Add a few dashes of white vinegar. Crack the eggs and gently drop them into the water, keeping the shell as close to the water as possible when dropping them in. With a slotted spoon, gently move the ghost like strands of white back to the yolk. The eggs are done when the whites are no longer transparent, and the yolks are still runny. Remove with a slotted spoon and gently dry off with a towel.
Creamed Spinach Recipe
1 Cup Cooked and chopped Spinach, squeezed in a kitchen towel to remove excess water
1 Pint Heavy Cream, reduced by 3/4 of its volume
A pinch Freshly Grated Nutmeg
A pinch of Cayenne
1 tsp Crystal hot sauce
A few drops of Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt to taste
Hollandaise Sauce Recipe
2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
3 Egg Yolks
1/2 Cup Clarified Butter, warm
Kosher Salt & Cayenne Pepper
1 Dash Crystal Hot Sauce
A few drops Worcestershire Sauce
Place the vinegar, lemon juice, and egg yolks in the top deck of a double boiler. The water in the lower deck should be hot but not boiling.
Whisk slowly until you see the yolks start to coagulate on the sides. If the pan gets too hot, remove it from the heat for a minute, whisking constantly.
Whisk while cooking, minding the bowl temperature, until the yolks are lighter in color and do not leave yellow streaks when the whisk goes through them. If you see any signs of scrambling, remove the bowl from the heat.
When the yolk/acid mixture is good and thick, remove from the heat and slowly drizzle in the clarified butter, whisking constantly, until incorporated.
Add the hot and Worcestershire sauces, and season to taste with the salt & cayenne.
If the sauce is a little too thick, you can thin it down with a few splashes of hot water.
Makes about 2/3 Cup.
P. S. – I’m still getting around to visit all of the outdoor Wednesday folks. Eye Doc dialated my pupils and it really put a kink in things!
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