My favorite sandwich is the Monte Cristo, a roasted ham and turkey with Swiss and processed cheese fried in a milk egg batter. As you may of noticed I have an obsession with eggs Benedict, so why not bring the two together? Let us start with a base of French toast, top it with roasted ham, turkey, Swiss and processed cheese. Then add a perfectly poached egg and cover with a drizzle of strawberry jam thinned into a sauce. Maybe you can add bacon if you want to. I think this creation successfully brings two of my favorites together into one great tasting dish.

Ingredients:

 2 slices day old bread (traditional is challah bread but any firm white bread will do)

 3 eggs

 1 Tbsp. butter

 3/4 cup half and half

 4 slices honey ham

 4 slices roasted turkey

 2 slices Swiss cheese

 2 slices American cheese

 1 tsp. vanilla

 1 tsp. sugar

 powdered sugar for dusting

 strawberry jam

 water

Directions:

 1. Mix 1 egg, vanilla, sugar and the half and half in a shallow dish to form a custard. Soak both sides of the bread in the custard.

 2. Heat a skillet on medium high heat and add the butter. When the butter starts to foam add the bread and cook both sides to golden brown. Keep warm.

 3. Poach the remaining 2 eggs and keep warm. In a small sauce pan heat the jam and thin to a sauce-like consistency.

 4. Build the Benedict starting with the French toast. Stack a slice of Swiss cheese, ham, turkey then a slice of American cheese.  Add a poached egg then drizzle with the strawberry sauce and finish by dusting with some powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

One of the most important aspects of Inspiration are ingredients; especially when an ingredient is in season and at its peak. Pick up and smell a tomato when it is ripe and at its peak or almost any other seasonal ingredient and let the fragrance, appearance and taste give you inspiration. Currently here on the coast it is Dungeness crab season and my neighbor gave me some of his extras. My initial thought was to make crab cakes and then inspiration led me to create a benedict that showcases the northwest. The base has to be that great northwest bread, sourdough; then a great lump crab cake, a poached egg and some sort of a sauce. To make things simple I decided to make a simple sauce, mayo, lemon juice and avocado; both that go great with crab.

Ingredients

 1 pound fresh cooked lump Dungeness Crab meat
 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
 ½ teaspoon cranberry mustard (or substitute Dijon)
 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
 1 large egg
 ½ cup mayonnaise
 2 Tbsp. butter

 ½ cup mayonnaise
 ½ lemon
 1 ripe avocado

 4 large eggs

 4 slices sourdough bread

Directions

 Mix the wet ingredients together then gently fold in the crab then the bread crumbs. Divide into four equal portions and form into cakes. I like to use a ring mold. Melt the butter in a medium heat skillet and fry until crispy on one side, then gently flip and brown the second side. Keep warm.

Mix ½ cup of mayonnaise with the juice of ½ lemon then mash in one half of a ripe avocado. Whip until smooth. Poach the eggs until the desired doneness and reserve warm.

Toast the bread and butter. Place the bread on a plate and add a crab cake on top. Place a poached egg on top, season with salt and pepper and top with the avocado mayonnaise mixture. Repeat for the three remaining benedict and serve immediately. Serves four.

I love to create new and innovative benedicts; using something interesting for the base followed by a complementary piece of meat or vegetable, topped with a lovely poached egg and a sauce to tie everything together. Using Thanksgiving as my inspiration, I thought to use leftover dressing for the base, pressing it into a ring mold and browning it in sauté pan. Next I think a nice piece of turkey would be perfect next level. We could use a circle cutter to make it look a bit more professional or leave the pieces as is for a more rustic presentation. Then the prerequisite poached egg done to your favorite doneness; I like mine with the white firm and a runny yolk. For the sauce, I could use turkey gravy or if cranberries are your thing, top with cranberry sauce. Maybe next year I will work on a cranberry-hollandaise sauce to bring something new to the traditional. This benedict is the perfect brunch dish for your Thanksgiving weekend and is so easy to make.

Option: To work properly your stuffing should be moist and be able to be compacted into the form. If you don't want to make this dish with leftover stuffing why not use the Stuffin Muffin recipe and use a egg ring instead of a muffin pan to create a form similar to an English muffin. You just have to trim off the top to make it flat.

Ingredients

 2 slices of turkey

 2 cups of moist turkey stuffing or dressing

 2 poached eggs 

 turkey gravy or cranberry sauce

 butter


Directions

 1. Using greased round egg molds, divide stuffing and press to fill. Heat a skillet on medium heat, add butter and the stuffing in the molds. Brown on one side, unmold and brown on second side. Reserve until needed.


2. Using a circle cutter the same size as the egg mold, cut the turkey slices into rounds or if you prefer a more rustic look use a slice. Warm and place on the stuffing rounds.

3. Poach two eggs and add on top of turkey

4. Finish with warmed gravy or cranberry sauce. (you could also add the cranberry sauce to hollandaise for a fancier offering)

Earlier this month was Mother's Day and I fixed traditional Eggs Benedict for our monthly church breakfast. I love poached eggs and when you serve them on a crispy English muffin with grilled Canadian bacon covered with rich hollandaise sauce, there is a special dish. I want to add an example showcasing the first Translation technique, substitution. I have seen variations on Southern Benedicts at various restaurants, but here is my version. Examining the purely Southern theme, the English muffin can be replaced with a airy southern style biscuit (see Basics for recipe) and continuing with the theme, biscuits traditionally go with a country white milk gravy along with the prerequisite country fried steak. I prefer a more refined presentation so I like to use a circle cutter a little bit bigger then the one I use for biscuits to cut out perfect circles for my chicken fried steak. After breading and frying they will shrink a little and match the size of the biscuits. I can dice the rest of the meat, bread it and use it to make a complementary home fry side.

Southern Style Eggs Benedict

Ingredients:

 2 biscuits split in half. (See Basics)
 4 poached eggs (See Basics)
 Chicken Fried Steak (See Below)
 Country Style Spicy Gravy (See Below)
 
Instructions:

 Split the biscuits in half and place on plate. Top with chicken fried steak, then a poached egg. Ladle gravy over top and serve immediately. Serves four with one egg each or two hungry people with two eggs each. The remaining beef can be used to make  a special home fries dish.
 
Chicken Fried Steak

Ingredients:

 1 pound beef (bottom round)
 1 Cup all purpose flour
 1 large egg
 3 Tbsp. canola oil
 Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

 Tenderize beef using a jacard or pounding with a meat tenderizer to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a ring cutter, cut a circular piece of steak slightly bigger than the diameter of the biscuit being used. The remainder can be used in an other application. In two small shallow dishes, add the flour to one and beat an egg in the other. Season both sides with salt and pepper then dredge in the flour fist, shaking off any excess. Next dip in the beaten egg then dredge in the flour again. Let rest on a wire rack. Heat the oil in a medium skillet, then fry each piece in the oil until golden brown on both sides. Reserve warm until needed. 

Country Style Spicy Gravy

 Ingredients:

 2 pounds good quality pork sausage
 1 large sweet onion finely diced
 1 cup all purpose flour
 1 tsp. dried thyme or 4 sprigs fresh thyme
 1 pinch red pepper flakes
 Hot sauce to taste
 2 cups whole milk
 Salt and pepper to taste

 Instructions:

 Heat a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. When the pan is hot, skin and break up the sausage into small pieces, season with salt and cook until brown and most of the fat has rendered out into the pan. Remove the sausage and reserve retaining the fat in the pan. Add the onions and cook until they become translucent. Add the thyme and red pepper flakes and continue to cook until the onions just start to brown. Whisk in the flour and stir until fully mixed. This is in fact a roux. I need to continue to stir until the raw flour taste is gone which should take a minute. Continue to whisk and slowly add the milk. I now will increase the heat to medium high, stirring frequently, then when the mixture begins to boil I reduce the heat to low. Now is the time to season with salt and pepper to taste, and to add the hot sauce to achieve the heat you want. Keep warm until needed.