Eggs Benedict with Homemade Hollandaise sauce

I made brunch today.  Eggs Benny & Tater Tots.  Sounded perfect.  I haven't made this dish for years now.  I used to make it quite often, like 20 years ago.  I started by doing as much as I could so I could be organized.  I preheated the oven then put the tater tots in.  I chopped a little curly parsley, fine.

This would be the garnish.  I used cooked ham steaks and cut out circles the size of the English muffins.

Speaking of those, I put them in the toaster so they were ready to go.  Lastly, I put some ketchup into a little cup for the tots.

I have this super easy recipe that I learned for making perfect homemade Hollandaise.  The simplicity  really belongs to the hand blender and the mixing cup that comes with it.  So quick with no fuss.

Place an egg yolk, juice of half of lemon or whatever you like, kosher salt and a dash of cayenne pepper into the cup.  I used a little strainer to catch the seeds.

Melt a stick of butter (I use unsalted).  I did that in the microwave.

I like to get help here though it can be done by one and my son was in the shower so I did it alone.   When everything emulsifies and comes together, it's done.  It wasn't as thick as it normally is, and I realized it was broken.  I tried to fix it with a couple of teaspoons of boiling water but no go.  I didn't have time to re-do it at this point.  It still tasted good, nice and lemony.  This isn't something you can keep, so you have to use it pretty much right away.  However, what I do if I'm not ready is let the cup (covered) sit in small pan of warm water just below a simmer.  Stir again when ready to serve.

Poached eggs always scare me.  As I hadn't made them in so long, I referred to a recipe by Alton Brown.  I got a small non-stick fry pan out and put some water, vinegar and salt in and brought to a simmer.  I cracked my eggs into individual ramekins (I used 3, just in case something happened to one of them).

This recipe method worked well and I had perfectly poached eggs.  I drained them on paper towels first before putting them on the ham so they wouldn't be all watery.

I started to plate, putting the toasted muffin and ham on the plate.

Broken sauce and all, my son said he loved his breakfast and finished the plate clean.  Below is a picture of when I made these a couple of years ago, when the sauce was done correctly (Tarragon hollandaise sauce and bacon for the meat that time).

I wasn't even worried about the sauce, just the eggs and my fears worked in reverse.  Oh well, next time...