THE DAIRY KITCHEN
Black Bean Benedict
By Julia Wharington - Paddock 2 Pixel
Serves
4
Difficulty
Advanced
Preparation
25 MINS
Cooking
45 MINS
Eggs benedict is a classic breakfast dish featuring eggs with silky, buttery hollandaise sauce. This recipe has an added twist: it includes a savoury black bean stew and rice cakes.
Ingredients
1 lap cheong sausage, finely chopped½ small onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1½ teaspoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons fermented black soybeans, soaked in water for 1 hour, then drained and rinsed
½ red capsicum, diced
½ green capsicum, diced
130ml water
1½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon chilli paste (sambal oelek)
1 teaspoon corn flour dissolved in extra 10ml water
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon white vinegar
250g Australian unsalted butter, clarified*
Salt and white pepper, to taste
Lemon juice, to taste
300g cooked sushi rice
2 tablespoons white vinegar, extra
4 eggs
40g baby spinach, for serving
Coriander leaves, finely chopped, to garnish
Handy Tips
To help with timing, the black bean stew may be prepared ahead and reheated for service, and the hollandaise sauce keeps for up to 2 hours at 40°C.
Method
- Fry sausage in a dry pan until it releases the oil. Add the onion to the pan and cook for 2 minutes before stirring in the garlic, ginger, black beans and capsicum. Pour in 130ml water, the soy, vinegar and chilli paste and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the capsicum is tender and the liquid has almost completely reduced. Thicken the sauce with the cornflour mixture and keep warm.
- To make the hollandaise sauce, in a medium bowl, combine yolks and vinegar and whisk over a low heat water bath to ribbon stage. Be careful not to scramble the eggs. Remove from the heat and gradually pour in all but 2 tablespoons of the clarified butter*, whisking continuously. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. If the sauce is too thick, use a few drops of warm water to bring back to a pouring consistency. Keep warm.
- Form 4 rice cakes with wet hands and fry them in the reserved 2 tablespoons of clarified butter until crisp and lightly golden on both sides.
- Meanwhile, bring a deep pot of water to the boil. Pour in extra white vinegar and reduce to a simmer. Carefully crack the eggs into the water and poach until the whites are fully cooked but the yolk is still runny.
- To serve, place a rice cake on a plate, top with spinach leaves, followed by a layer of black bean stew. Top with a poached egg, then spoon over hollandaise sauce. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
- * Clarified butter is the butterfat from the butter without the milk solids and water. It is made by melting the butter over a very low heat, eg over a water bath. The milk solids will sink to the bottom. When the butter has melted, remove from the heat and stand for 5 minutes without stirring. Skim the foam from the surface and then gently pour the clarified butter into a separate dish, leaving the milk solids behind. (Alternatively, the melted butter may be poured through a cheesecloth lined sieve that will catch the milk solids). Clarified butter has a higher smoke point so it is ideal for sautéing and frying food. It is also lovely on popcorn!
