Holy amazing breakfast decision. I’ve wanted to try making potato “nests” for a while and had a few leftover potatoes and eggs from this weeks CSA bag, so it was a good time to experiment. I decided to try making an eggs benedict type thing but put it inside the potato nest. It was so good, I wanted to knock on my neighbors door and make them take a bite, but thought that might be creepy seeing we’ve never met. I could have eaten a thousand of them, but I probably would have died of cardiac arrest, so I only had two. As for the hollandaise, it really isn’t that difficult to make, you just have to take your time to do it right so that it doesn’t “break” and have to get tossed in the trash. It was hard to take photos of myself making the hollandaise because you really need to whisk it at 100 mph, but I tried to explain it as best as I could below!

Ingredients: makes 4

Potato Nests:
2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Hollandaise:
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and grate the potatoes, then place in a paper towel and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible. Toss in a bowl with the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix well. Next, spray 4 muffin tins with non-stick spray and divide the potato evenly among them, pushing the potato to cover the bottom and sides of each muffin cup. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, make the hollandaise. Add about two cups of water to a pot and bring to a simmer, keep on low. Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside. In a metal mixing bowl, add the egg yolk and lemon juice, whisking vigorously until it thickens and almost doubles in size. Next, place the metal bowl on top of the pot and turn off the heat. Immediately start whisking very fast, slowly pouring in a tablespoon or so of the melted butter. Don’t stop vigorously whisking the entire time! Add a little more butter and repeat until all the butter is added. Make sure to do just a little butter at a time. Set aside and add a little salt, pepper, and cayenne. To preserve before using, I always add some saran wrap to the hollandaise to keep it from getting a film.

When the potato nests have cooked the 15 minutes, remove from the oven and add the pancetta (you could also use spinach for a vegetarian option) then crack the egg into the nest as well. Place back in the oven and cook for another 12-15 minutes depending on how runny you like your eggs. I took mine out somewhere in the middle. Just gently poke the egg with your finger to check the temp of the yolk. Plate and top with a gallon of some hollandaise!