Brownwood Benedict

from Chef de Cuisine Morgan E. Robinson of The Turtle Restaurant - Brownwood , Texas .

Should serve about four.

This dish is made up of a few different components, so we'll take them one by one and bring it all together to finish. Quantity of ingredients will vary by the amount of people you hope to serve, so keep that in mind. Some things you should know: All salt is kosher salt, all pepper is freshly ground. All butter is raw-milk butter from Martha Aranda ( Dublin , Texas , 254-445-3321), eggs are from Newman Ranch (May, Texas , 325-646-6361) and all vegetables come from the Brownwood Area Farmer's Market when in season.

For the bacon confit :
Ingredients:
10 strips of fatty bacon, the bad-for-you kind.

Method:
Jam the bacon into a small baking dish and bake for an hour to an hour and a half at 250-300F. Low and slow. It is finished when you can't pick up a strip of bacon without it falling to pieces. Mmm, perfect.

The idea is for the bacon to braise in its own fat until it falls apart completely, so you'll need a small but not shallow baking dish. And some time.

For the hash browns :
Ingredients:
5 small red potatoes, cut into quarters. (white or Yukon gold work, too)
- You want small pieces, about the same size, so they cook evenly.
- Be careful if you cut these too far ahead of time, as they'll turn brown. If you need time between cutting and cooking, stick them in cold water.
1 each red and green bell peppers, medium dice.
- You really only need one, but it's prettier with different colors.
A pinch of minced garlic, if you have it.
A pinch of small diced shallot, if you have it.
- You can sneak by these two with a little garlic salt or powdered garlic for the minced garlic, and by adding red onion in with the bell peppers for the shallot. This is not recommended, but it will do.
Some butter, to cook with.
Salt and pepper, always.

Method:
Melt a little bit of butter in a pan over low heat. Once the bottom of the pan has been coated, add the diced bell pepper (and onion if you had to cheat). Toss (or stir) just a little to coat with the butter , season with salt and pepper, and leave until the bell pepper begins to soften, careful not to burn. Add the garlic and shallot now, if you have it, and toss (or stir) once more. Remove to a holding area (a bowl would be best, but a plate will do) for now. Then, add a spoonful of butter to the same pan and, once melted, the red potatoes (drained, if you had them in water). Turn the heat up to medium or so and cook until the potatoes look like hash browns, meaning they have browned and cooked through completely. Drain off most (but not quite all) of the butter and toss (or stir) the bell pepper in with the potatoes, season well with salt and pepper.
Keep these in a warm place (an oven set to 200F is great) while you move on.

For the black pepper hollandaise :
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks (save the whites for something else!)
1 teaspoon white wine (or similar) vinegar (as long as it isn't plain
distilled or plain white)
- We use a vinegar reduction which is made by slowly simmering vinegar with some shallot, a few whole peppercorns and a sprig of thyme, but you don't have to.
1 pound of butter, slowly (slowly!) melted and skimmed, kept warm
- When you melt butter it splits into three layers: water on the bottom, butter in the middle, and solids on the top. Skim the solids off the top, but keep the rest.

Salt and pepper, always.

Method:
In a stainless steel bowl, with a stainless steel (or silicon-coated) whisk (piano whip), whisk the egg yolks and vinegar for just a moment until they come together smoothly. Then, either directly over a flame (for the pros) or over a double-boiler (a pot with a couple inches of boiling water, big enough that the bowl will sit nicely on top, without falling in, and deep enough that the bowl will not touch the water) whisk the eggs steadily (if you are over direct flame, spin the bowl constantly to keep the heat even).
This takes awhile, what you are looking for is what we call the "ribbon stage" where the eggs have thickened to the point that they keep their shape for just a moment before melting back together. Be careful not to scramble them, however, or you'll have to start from the beginning. Once you've made it to the ribbon stage and you feel like you can't possibly whisk for another moment, it's time to add the butter.
Slowly (very slowly!) begin to ladle the butter into the egg yolk, whisking constantly, and fast. Watch closely for the butter to be incorporated into the egg and if it begins to become thick, send your ladle deep into the melted butter and pick up some of that milky water at the bottom. This
will thin your sauce so that you'll be able to add more butter. Continue until about three-quarters of the melted butter is gone, then add salt and black pepper to taste, then add just a little more black pepper.
Keep this sauce warm, not in the oven, but definitely somewhere between there and room temperature. Also, don't keep it for more than about two hours. If the sauce gets too hot or too cold, it will separate and you'll have to start again.

For the poached eggs :
Save this for last, the eggs will continue to cook after you're finished so you simply cannot do this until the last moment.

Ingredients:
8 whole fresh eggs (2 per serving)
1 tablespoon vinegar, almost any will do (not distilled white or plain white)
A pot of simmering (not boiling) water (shallow or deep is your preference, we use shallow)

Method:
Your simmering water should be in a pot big enough to hold at least two eggs at a time with enough spare room for them to move around, or, if you are more industrious you can try to do them all at once. Add the vinegar to the water and give a gentle stir with a slotted spoon (one with holes big enough to let water through, but not an egg or pieces thereof). As the water is swirling (gently!) around in the pot crack an egg into the water (be sure it falls a very short distance, no diving!) and then continue with as many eggs as you dare. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot, or your eggs will stick together and be difficult to deal with.
Once the egg whites have firmed up, but before the yolk has begun to cook, gently (gently!) remove the eggs from the water with your slotted spoon.

To assemble!
Place a spoonful of hash browns in the center of the plate with a little nest in the center for your eggs to sit snugly. Put a scoop of bacon confit on the top of the hash browns and then gently place two poached eggs over that. Sprinkle the eggs with a little salt and pepper and then cover with the black pepper hollandaise sauce. Serve immediately, as the eggs will continue to cook and the yolks will be hard in only a few minutes.