How to Make Seafood Eggs Benedict with Asparagus
Shrimp and Nova Scotia Lox Elevate this Traditional Brunch Offering
Dec 9, 2008
Nova Scotia Lox is the kind you may be more familiar with on your bagel. If you're not familiar with the delights of a bagel with lox and cream cheese schmeer, you owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage to 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.
Your lox need not come from Nova Scotia. The name refers to a style of brining and lightly smoking the salmon. Hot-smoked salmon, by contrast, has a chunkier texture similar to tinned tuna. Good for many things, but not this recipe.
The recipe also calls for croissants rather than the usual English muffins or crumpets. Croissants have a lighter airier texture better suited to the seafood, but in a pinch, English muffins could pinch-hit.
Eggs Benedict with Shrimp and Nova Scotia Lox
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 6 medium size raw shrimp, shelled, cleaned and sliced in half, length-wise
- 8 fresh asparagus, tough ends snapped off
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 thinly slices Nova Scotia lox (or similar)
- 2 croissants, cut in half
- Hollandaise Sauce (see below)
- Seasonal garnish (see below)
- Using a large frying pan filled with boiling, salted water, parboil the asparagus for about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- In the same pan, parboil the shrimp until barely cooked (turning pink). Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Stir vinegar into the water. Break each egg into a saucer and slide egg into simmering water taking care not to break yolk and let poach for 3 to 5 minutes. You can also use an egg poacher.
- While the eggs are poaching, make the hollandaise sauce (see below) and lightly toast croissant halves.
- Remove eggs with slotted spoon and place in individual bowls.
- Put asparagus back in water to reheat, remove, do same process with shrimp, be sure not to overcook. When shrimp begin to curl, remove immediately, (about 20 seconds).
On each breakfast plate, place a halved croissant. Decorate with an asparagus spear on each side of croissant. Add a slice of lox to the croissant. Perch a poached egg atop. Stir the sauce and spoon it over the eggs and asparagus. Top with three shrimp halves.
Garnish according to what is available in the season. Fresh snipped dill or chives. Lemon zest. A fresh strawberry or other fresh fruit is nice unless you already have a fruit plate as part of the brunch offering. A nasturtium blossom or other edible flower adds a special touch. In the dead of winter, even a sprinkling of paprika will pep up the plate.
Variations: Cooked shrimp could be substituted for the raw. That eliminates the need to parboil them, but they should be warm. Crab meat would be another nice variation instead of the shrimp. That's always cooked (unless you're buying live crab), so only warming is necessary. Lobster or bay scallops would also make tasty variations.
Hollandaise Sauce:
- 3 egg yolks, room temperature
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
- In the top of a double boiler over (not touching) gently boiling water, add all ingredients except the butter. Whisk briskly continuously until the egg mixture thickens and lightens in color to pale lemon-yellow, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Drizzle butter into egg mixture, 1 drop at a time, whisking rapidly. Continue adding butter in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly.
- Remove from heat, keep warm until served. Makes 1 cup.
What Benedict, you ask? It's easier to say who not. Not Saint Benedict and not Benedict Arnold. Too many myths to enumerate here, but most revolve around a patron --last name Benedict-- at either Manhattan's Delmonico's restaurant or the Waldorf Astoria in the late 19th century. Said patron either requested, suggested or inspired the chef to create this dish.
Check this out for more easy fish and seafood recipes, including:
- Mussels Steamed in Wine & Herbs
- Scallops in Pernod-Tarragon Cream
- Cioppino to Die For
- Tuna Salade Niçoise with Asparagus
- Grilled Halibut with Fresh Herbed-Tomato Relish
- Sweet Potato Hash w- Fennel Salmon
- Pasta with Salmon and Gorgonzola
- Salmon in a Packet with Lemon & Herbs
- Pan-Fried Trout with Almonds
More Breakfast and Brunch Recipes, including::
- Champagne Cocktail Normande
- Bosun's Bloody Mary
- The World's Best French Toast (with Peaches)
- Caramel Apple French Toast
- Crepes Normande
- Camembert and Apple Omelette
- Asparagus Cordon Bleu Crepes
- Seafood Eggs Benedict with Shrimp, Nova Scotia Lox and Asparagus
- Sweet Potato Hash with Smoked Salmon and Fennel
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