Eggs Sardou

This is a family favorite on Alex's side. His dad grew up in NOLA (New Orleans) and brought a love of regional dishes to the family. Eggs Sardou is a delicious combination of poached eggs, creamed spinach, and artichoke hearts on a toasted English muffin, covered with creamy hollandaise sauce.

This recipe is most definitely not Weight Watchers friendly, so I resisted the urge to eat two and just had a small one. Alex's family knows about my blog and they wanted to be a part of the pictures, so the pictures are my brother-in-law, Pete, and sister-in-law, Mariel, posing with their delicious brunch.

Eggs Sardou

Ingredients:

Poached Eggs (1-2 per person)

Creamed Spinach (recipe to follow, but any kind will work)

Artichoke Hearts (canned or jarred)

Hollandaise Sauce (recipe to follow)

English Muffins (optional)

Paprika (optional)

Poached Eggs:

Fill a saucepan or dutch oven with water and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, gently crack in eggs, getting close to the surface of the water when you crack them. With a slotted spoon, gently move the white strands back onto the egg so it cooks together. It's done when the whites are no longer transparent and the yolks are still runny. Remove gently with a slotted spoon.

Creamed Spinach:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 bag or 2 boxes (16 to 24 ounces) frozen spinach
salt and pepper
dash nutmeg

Melt butter in top of double boiler over low direct heat (place a heatproof glass bowl over a pot of gently boiling water). Blend in flour until smooth. Cook until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Gradually add milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Add spinach. Cover and cook over boiling water, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Blender Hollandaise Sauce:

3 egg yolks

1/4 tsp Dijon mustard

dash Tabasco sauce

1 TBS lemon juice

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

In the container of a blender, combine the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce. Cover, and 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 blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. It should thicken almost immediately. Keep the sauce warm until serving by placing the blender container in a pan of hot tap water.

Assembling Eggs Sardou:

Toast english muffins, and top with creamed spinach, artichoke hearts and then a poached egg. Drizzle hollandaise over everything and sprinkle with paprika.

It helps to have the creamed spinach made before-hand. We used Thanksgiving leftovers so it was easy to throw everything together. It's an impressive brunch dish! Just be sure to have some hot sauce on the table for those true Nawlins folks.