A Fall Breakfast Meeting at My Farm

October 7, 2021

As you all know, I always enjoy entertaining at home.

Yesterday, the weather was slightly overcast, but very mild and pleasant - perfect for a business breakfast I hosted at my Bedford, New York farm. My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, and I, planned a wonderful menu for eight - smoked salmon eggs Benedict with homemade English muffins and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was a delicious meal and a very productive meeting.

Enjoy these photos.

: In my Winter House Brown Room, everything is ready for breakfast. I decorated the table with an autumnal theme – pumpkins and gourds in all different sizes, linen placemats and napkins in shades of brown, and my Drabware plates.

: I love using this room for both big and small gatherings. The table can seat up to 18-guests. For breakfast, we were only eight, but just right for a good discussion.

: All the preparations for the breakfast were done in my Flower Room, or outside kitchen. Chef Pierre and I wanted to make homemade English muffins. I had made them up in Maine over the summer and they were so easy to make and so delicious. The ingredients include warm water, sugar, instant dry yeast, melted butter, flour, salt, and cornmeal. Here, the ingredients are combined, kneaded for five minutes, and then the dough is left to rise for about one hour.

: Meanwhile, Chef Pierre makes the Hollandaise sauce. Hollandaise sauce, formerly also called Dutch sauce, is an emulsion of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice. It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper. It is well known as a key ingredient of eggs Benedict.

: After the dough has doubled in size, Chef Pierre kneads it a bit more and then experiments with the size of the finished muffins.

: Chef Pierre makes each one between 39 and 40 grams – the perfect size for holding the poached eggs.

: Each piece is shaped into a ball, placed on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan, and then sprinkled with cornmeal.

: Chef Pierre then presses them gently into flattish rounds. They’re covered again and left to rise for another 20 minutes.

: They’re baked slightly in the oven and then finished in a frying pan over low heat until puffed and golden in color.

: The eggs, fresh from my wonderful hens, are cracked and dropped into individual bowls ready for poaching.

: Sous Chef Moises prepares them by the stovetop. A poached egg is an egg that has been cooked, outside the shell, by poaching, as opposed to simmering or boiling.

: Chef Pierre tips each bowl, dropping the eggs one at a time. See the short video below for this process. Egg whites are mostly protein and protein starts to set or coagulate as soon it meets heat, so the egg whites set within seconds. Yolks cook slower and even more slowly when they are surrounded by the whites.

: Chef Pierre lets them simmer for two minutes until the eggs are set but still soft. Then he carefully removes the poached egg with a slotted spoon and drops them in room temperature water so they stay warm, but stop cooking.

: The spinach is cooked in a large pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper until just slightly wilted.

: Moises squeezes oranges for refreshing juice. I love this Hamilton Beach Commercial Citrus Juicer. It makes juicing a lot of oranges so easy – I’ve been using these for years.

: Once the English muffins are done, they’re cut in halves, placed on a cooling rack and brought into my Winter House kitchen.

: The smoked salmon, spinach, and poached eggs are plated on my beautiful Drabware dishes.

: And then Chef Pierre tops the eggs with a spoonful of Hollandaise sauce – one generous spoonful over each poached egg.

: Moises adds a sprig of parsley on top, and the dish is ready to serve.

: Here is a plate on its way to the dining room – smoked salmon eggs Benedict. It was such a delicious meal, which made for a very informative and successful meeting. Thank you Chefs Pierre and Moises. Tomorrow, I’ll share photos from the lunch I served later in the day for another business gathering at my home.