Florentine eggs on Sourdough Muffins

In the cooking terminology, Florentine refers to foods cooked in the style of Florence, Italy - typically eggs, meat and fishes that contain spinach and creamy Mornay-style sauce. As the story goes, Catherine de Medici, an Italian wife of France's Henry II, introduced spinach to the Court of France n 1550. In honor to her Italian heritage, she decided to name any dishes containing spinach "Florentine". I was short of spinach leaves and so used tomato slices for half of the sliced muffins. I hope Catherine would approve.

You may consider this a cheating recipe that strays from the "traditional" way of making Hollandaise sauce. It sure safes time when you are either in a hurry or not in the mood for messing the sauce up. And hey! With a winning combo of sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard, you know this cheater rocks!

I did a revisit to a couple of my previous posting: Cinnful Apple Fruit Salad and Mulled Hot Chocolate.

This hot chocolate is so hard to disappoint; it's a no fail recipe. Adrian had it with a shot of espresso, which was not to my liking but approved by the coffee connoisseur himself. As for the salad, I thought it was strange that it wasn't as flavorful as the last time: apparently I left out the vanilla extract.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 Eggs, poached

2 sourdough muffins, split, toasted

1 cup Fresh baby spinach leaves, cooked

Dash of pepper

1. In a double boiler, mix sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard. Stir till warm. Set aside. You can also use microwave.

2. Meanwhile, spread about 2 tbsp sauce on each English muffin half. Top each with half of the cooked spinach leaves.

4. Place poached egg over spinach. Top each with half of the remaining sauce, sprinkle with pepper.

Smoked Salmon Egg Florentine to start the day

Have I raved enough about my crave for breakfast yet? I get particularly excited on days when I don't have to leave home early. Well, late enough to have breakfast at home anyway. And this is one of those beautiful days.
I have made this egg Florentine many times before. It even got me a "I'm impressed" from my elder sister whose affection for me is so deep you can never tell from her face. It's also one of Adrian's favorite morning egg dishes. Although I doubt he recognized this one. It's simply because I finally used proper measurement for the white sauce instead of playing with the amount as I did. And, I added Smoked Salmon.
I don't eat much fish. Restaurant fish always come with funny taste. I'm very doubtful of their freshness. Having said that, I do enjoy sashimi. And I have to thank Adrian for introducing me to the store bought smoked salmon. They smell marvelous! I also did another dish with smoked salmon before.

Smoked Salmon Egg Florentine
I used apple cider vinegar for poaching the eggs. I did it with balsamic vinegar before. Although it worked but it browned the eggs. White vinegar would do if you don't use apple cider vinegar.

Ingredients:
Serve 2
4 eggs
A bag of spinach leaves, about 150gram
1 tomato, sliced
4 smoked salmon fillets (or more)
Milk, 150mL
1 Tablespoon flour
25 gram Cheddar cheese, grated
Shave Romano Cheese (Optional)

1. Add a splash of vinegar to a pan of water. Break one egg to a small bowl. When the water simmers, gently tip the egg in the pan. Scoop the egg out with a slotted spoon when ready. Rest on paper towel to drain off excess water. Repeat with the other eggs.
2. Preheat oven to 180C.
   
3. Cook spinach leaves with just the water clinging to it until just wilted. Remove from heat to a colander. Drain off excess water. Add a tablespoon of butter and pinch of salt and pepper.
   
4. Arrange spinach into to baking dish. Top each plate with 2 tomato slices and then 2 smoked salmon fillets. Cover the dishes with foil and let it bake for 20 minutes until the fish become flaky.
5. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, boil together milk, flour and butter. Stirring constantly until the mixture thicken. Add 1/2 the cheese and let melt. Remove from heat.
6. Distribute milk mixture evenly over the two dishes. Add the remaining Cheddar cheese to top. I added some shaved Romano too.
7. Shove the dish to the top layer of oven and let broil til golden brown.