SerpApi.Org
Eggs Benedict is an American invention, and the classic recipe consists of an English muffin topped with a slice of Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce — a classic French preparation of egg yolks whisked with plenty of butter and lemon juice until it forms a thick emulsion. It got its start in New York City around the 1800s and is credited to two establishments: Delmonico's Restaurant and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which was just called the Waldorf back then. It has since become a brunch staple in the USA and has a bunch of regional and chef-driven variations, like replacing cured pork with crab cakes or crab salad in Maryland, where the crustacean is an emblematic local delicacy. Even international cuisines can influence riffs on the original recipe, including Norwegian gastronomy.
One simple thing you can do to give your eggs Benny a Norwegian-style twist is to replace the Canadian bacon with smoked salmon. Norway may not be as well-known for its food as other European countries, or even other Nordic countries, like Sweden and Denmark, but the international culinary community is starting to pay more attention to it. One of the country's most famous products is its salmon, which has been consumed by locals since the time of the Vikings and has numerous preparations, including fermenting, curing, and smoking it. Starting from the middle of the 1900s, the quality of this fish drew many sports fishermen to the Scandinavian nation, and as such its reputation spread far and wide to the point that the fish almost became synonymous with Norway. If smoked salmon isn't your thing, you can also opt for a grilled or poached fillet or steak.
Read more: 13 Satisfying Ways To Cook Eggs For Dinner
Norway has many more ingredients that can transform an ordinary Eggs Benedict into something fjord-worthy
But there's a lot more to Norwegian food than salmon, and the country is actually best-known for its cod, which has even become a staple ingredient in Portuguese, Caribbean, and West African cuisines and was once a popular luxury breakfast food. Instead of salmon, you could use a grilled or poached cod fillet, salted cod or opt for lutefisk, a lye-cured cod with a gelatinous texture. Pickled herring is also a popular Norwegian food whose sharp flavor cuts through the richness of the eggs and hollandaise. You can actually use any cold-water Atlantic seafood in your eggs Benny and make brunch feel like you're in a cabin, staring out onto a fjord.
If you don't like seafood, Norway is also known for its game, including moose, reindeer, and venison. Venison is widely available in the United States, including at Whole Foods Market. Moose and reindeer, on the other hand, may be trickier to find fresh or frozen outside of where these animals thrive, but cured products are widely available online. You can also opt for elk, which is related to reindeer and has become increasingly available domestically. And if you want to use something you can find almost anywhere, consider hotdogs, a Norwegian national obsession.
You can also play around with the hollandaise sauce to give it a more Scandi personality. Dill is a popular herb throughout the region, and its name even has Norwegian origins. Just a sprinkle of it over your Benedict will transport it to the North Sea (and the Norwegian Sea, too). But to really turn your Benedict into a Benedikt, try replacing the English muffin with lefse, a traditional flatbread.
Want more food knowledge? Sign up to our free newsletter where we're helping thousands of foodies, like you, become culinary masters, one email at a time. You can also add us as a preferred search source or follow us on Google.
Read the original article on Food Republic.
