food comas

After my belated Thanksgiving celebration last weekend, I had a bunch of leftovers from the meal. I found a recipe online for Not So Humble Pie’s Turkey Eggs Benedict on Potato Cakes and thought it was such a creative way to use up my leftover mashed potatoes to form a “bread” base for a turkey eggs benedict. However, instead of making the potato cakes as I try to stay away from frying food, I baked some yummy Mashed Potato Cheddar Biscuits. My friend Drei suggested I make Cranberry Hollandaise sauce to top it off, and it sounded like a great way to use up some of the leftover cranberry sauce too! I searched for various cranberry Hollandaise sauce recipes online, but a lot of the professional recipes required new ingredients I would have to buy, which sort of defeated the purpose of making a “leftovers” meal. So I ended up just making the Easy Hollandaise Sauce that I made before for my California Eggs Benedict, but then blended in some melted cranberry sauce at the end. It gave the sauce a nice sweet twinge, which was a great balance to the savory potato cheddar biscuits. I served the eggs benny with a side of Skillet Potatoes.

I was super thrilled with how this whole recipe turned out — it really refreshed all my Thanksgiving leftovers. I definitely plan to make this a post-Thanksgiving tradition from now on! Now, I just need to figure out how to use up my leftover cup of pumpkin pie mix… pumpkin bread next?

Thanksgiving Leftovers Eggs Benedict

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 T white wine vinegar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 Mashed Potato Cheddar Biscuits, halved (click for recipe)
• Optional: chopped chives for garnish

For Cranberry Hollandaise:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 C butter
• 1/8 C cranberry sauce, melted

Directions:

To make the Cranberry Hollandaise:

In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks, mustard, and lemon juice. Using a hand held mixer, blend for about 5 seconds.

Place the butter in a glass measuring cup. Heat butter in the microwave for about 1 minute, or until completely melted and hot. Set the mixer on high speed, and trickle a thin stream of the melted butter into the egg yolk mixture. It should thicken almost immediately. Add the melted cranberry and blend. Keep the sauce warm until serving by placing the blender container in a pan of hot tap water.

To poach the eggs:

To poach the eggs, bring 2 to 4 inches of water to a boil in a large deep saucepan. Add the white vinegar to the water, as it prevent the whites from dispersing in the water and thus help the whites set faster.

Crack an egg into a small bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir the water at the edges of the pan twice in a circular motion to get the water moving, then holding the bowl just above the surface of the water, gently slip the egg one at a time into the simmering water. With a spoon, nudge the egg whites closer to their yolks. This will help the egg whites hold together. Poach the egg until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon, and dab on a kitchen towel to remove excess water. Skim and discard any foam that has risen to the top of the water, and cook the remaining eggs one at a time. (The eggs can be poached several hours ahead and stored in ice water in the refrigerator.)

Lastly, it is time to assemble the eggs benny! Warm the biscuits and halve them. Place a turkey slice on each biscuit half, then top with a poached egg. Drizzle with the Cranberry Hollandaise sauce and optionally, garnish with chopped chives. Enjoy!