serves 4 for brunch

Assembling the recipe:

Take your eggs out of the refrigerator to get warm, it will make poaching them easier.

Poach the eggs by taking a large non-stick frying pan, very lightly oil the inside of the pan and wipe it out with paper towel. Then fill it with warm water to a depth of at least 5cm (2inches).

Add to the water 5msk. (5tbls.) of white wine vinegar and stir it in. This helps the eggs to coagulate in to a mass when you put them into the water.

Bring the water up to almost a boil, you should see little bubbles forming on the bottom of the pan and it should look like it would boil if your left it alone for a minute or two longer. During the whole process the water should not boil.

Turn down the heat to medium and begin putting in the eggs one at a time.

Holding the egg directly over the hot water (about 1cm. or 1/4 of an inch) start by breaking each egg and let it slip very gently into to hot water. Continue the process until all the eggs are in the poaching liquid. Don't try and move the eggs around or touch them for the first minute or two. Let the white get enough firmness to push them without tearing them. If an egg should stick to the bottom of the pan you will very easily be able to use a flat metal spatula to slip under it to loosen it from the bottom.

Another method is to break the egg into a large spoon and then using the spoon let it slide into the hot water.

Another method still is to have 1 large pan almost at the boil and another deeper pot filled with water almost ready to boil. In the deep pot stir the water to create a vortex, break the egg holding it close to the water and directly above the vortex and let it gently slip into the center of the vortex. The spinning motion will force all the egg white to compress around the egg yolk presenting you will a perfect little package.

As the water begins to loose its spin you need to give the egg a minute to firm up and then with a slotted spoon transfer it to the second pan of hot water to finish cooking. The only problem with this method is that you need to concentrate on the eggs in the second pan and remember which went in first so that they don't over cook.

Depending on how hot the water is a poached egg should take about 5 to 6 minutes. The perfect poached egg has a firm white and a slightly thickened yolk that will still run when you cut into it.

If like in restaurants you want to cook these ahead and heat them up later that is fine. When they are ready remove them to a large bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking immediately. Held like this in very cold water you can cook them in the morning and serve them later in the day without a problem.

To assemble the dish fork cut your muffins as suggested in the English Muffin recipe. They don't get as crispy if you use a knife. Toast them under the grill in your oven.

You can also warm up the bacon at the same time.

Then on the plate you are going to serve them on take some softened butter and lightly butter both halves of a muffin, place 2 pieces of bacon on them.

With a slotted spoon remove each egg from the hot water and press it gently with paper towel to dry as much water off of it as you can and place it on one half of the muffin. Cover with the Hollandaise sauce and serve with french fries.

If you don't have the time or can not buy English Muffins where you live you will have to make them as there is no suitable replacement for them. Sorry! That's not just my opinion! So make them the day before, they take 3 hours in total but really involves about 45 minutes of labor.

Really fresh eggs poach and hold their shape better, so check the date on the packet of eggs. Old eggs will just go flat and separate when put into the water no matter how much vinegar it has in it.

The poached eggs can be made several hours in advance and held in very cold water.

The Hollandaise sauce can be made an hour before as can the bacon be grilled lightly under your oven grill which only takes about 5 minutes.

The only thing that shouldn't be done in advance it toasting the muffins but you can of course get them all cut and ready to go.

So at the last minute it all becomes a matter of assembling all the parts which is not too difficult.

French fries are the classic accompaniment to Eggs Benedict. My partner loves french fries so guess what I got for last Christmas. That's right - a deep fat fryer! Use frozen shoe string cut potatoes, its easier and set at 190°C (350°F) they only take 2 minutes.