Eggs Florentine

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, for poaching
• 3 egg yolks
• 150 g butter, melted and warm
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 300 g spinach
• a grating of nutmeg
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 English muffins or thick slices of bread, toasted
• a pinch of cayenne

Method

1. Set up for the hollandaise

   Have the melted butter warm but not hot, and a bowl that sits over a pan of barely simmering water without touching it. Hot butter scrambles the yolks; that is the only real risk in the whole dish.

2. Make the hollandaise

   Whisk the yolks with the lemon juice and a splash of water over the gentle heat until thick and ribboning, then dribble the butter in slowly, whisking constantly. If it thickens too far, a teaspoon of warm water brings it back.

   8 min

3. Wilt and squeeze the spinach

   Wilt the spinach in a hot pan, then squeeze it dry and season it with salt and nutmeg. Wet spinach under a poached egg turns the toast to sponge.

4. Poach the eggs

   Add the vinegar to a wide pan of water at a bare tremble, swirl, and slide the eggs in from a cup. Fresh eggs hold together; older whites spread into rags whatever you do.

   3 min

5. Build

   Toast, spinach, drained egg, then a spoonful of hollandaise and a dust of cayenne. Blot the eggs on kitchen paper first or the water thins the sauce on the plate.