project 52 | 4: hollandaise sauce
This past weekend I woke up and all I could think about was eggs florentine for breakfast. Great! But we didn’t feel like motivating and going out to brunch. Besides, it’s not like you can just roll around the corner to the diner and get killer eggs benny… Why? Because there IS no “diner around the corner”, nor “killer eggs benny” in Istanbul.
So what to do? Yep, make it from scratch. Difficult? Actually, surprisingly easy. And might I add, quite delicious. Here is the recipe:
Hollandaise Sauce
Difficulty Level: easy-medium
Servings: two 2-egg servings
Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter, firm
1 Tbs lemon juice
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
Instructions:
Separate egg yolks from the whites. In a metal bowl, whisk the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne and place the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Make sure your pot is small enough to hold the bowl so that the bowl is not touching the water (think double-boiler). You may want to have an oven mitt handy since the metal bowl will get hot.
Add half of the butter and mix in with the egg mixture continuously with a spatula. The yolks will start to become stringy if the temperature reaches over 110 degrees F. Remove the bowl from the pot if the temperature gets too hot and wait for it to cool. Add the other half of the butter once the first half is completely melted. If the yolks start to separate add a little cold water and beat with the whisk. Once the butter is melted and the sauce has thickened, voila you have hollandaise sauce!
Now, for those wanting to complete the picture…
For eggs florentine, you will need poached eggs. Crack the eggs first and place them each into a separate containers/cups. Boil the water with a tablespoon or two of white vinegar added. Now stir the water in a wide circle and add the whole eggs, one at a time. The slightly acidulated water will set the eggs quickly, while the whirlpool of water will keep the egg in a ball. Poach at a simmer for four to five minutes for set whites and soft yolks. Timing of the eggs and the sauce is important because you want both to be warm, but not overcooked.
To assemble, on top of toast or toasted english muffin place your steamed spinach, then poached egg, and top with your hollandaise sauce. Enjoy!
For more information on Project 52, read here.
pondering the pants
This morning I tried on 26 pair of pants. Why, you might ask? Because that’s how many pair of dress pants I own. In my previous life in New York, I managed sales for the fashion and luxury goods categories at a large publishing company, so needless to say I had built up quite a nice and fashionable wardrobe. But in the past 18 months since moving to Istanbul, I haven’t really had the need to make regular use of this plethora of pants. Unfortunately. But I recently started working, again dealing within the luxury sector, so it was time to survey my work wardrobe once again.
The only problem is that none of the pants fit. I take that back – one pair still fits (clearly this was the one pair that didn’t fit before). But I tried on 26 pants that I used to wear on a daily basis, and only one fits now. Why? Why has this new life in Turkey caused an expansion of me? Why, when I eat more healthily here and enjoy a drink only once in a blue moon now? Why, when I work out a minimum of 4 days a week? Why, when I get full nights of sleep and have nowhere near the stress level that I did in New York?
Could it be that I don’t have the same level of stress keeping me thin? Or I’m not running all around the city in my 4-inch heels, literally sprinting to catch subways and cabs with 7 minutes left to get my next meeting 15 minutes away? Did the carbs I ate and the regular drinks I enjoyed actually keep my metabolism moving? Was not working out actually a good idea? Or could it simply be that this is what happens after you hit 30?
Whatever the reason(s), I’ve decided that I need to accept my new body situation and move on. I mean it’s not the end of the world, and who’s 100% happy with their body, anyway? Nevertheless, this is what prompted my try-on session this morning. Every time I get ready for a meeting for my new job, I manage to become depressed when I realize I can’t fit into yet another pair of pants. So today was elimination day. Thankfully it didn’t take all that long to go through them as most of them didn’t make it past upper-thigh. Yes, 10 lbs does make a difference. So today I put 25 pair of pants into semi-retirement until I see that day once again that I can look, be, and feel fabulous again in them.
Until then, I shop.
