The Great Breakfast Challenge
Twas the predawn of December the 22nd and all the Connoisseurs were snug in their beds undoubtedly with a couple of sugar plums dancing around their heads. A couple of hours later; however, the four Connoisseurs were awake and buzzing with activity, preparing themselves for The Great Breakfast Challenge. This Challenge had been looked forward to with great anticipation since it was decided on to meet on this morning of mornings. Four delicious dishes were planned, ranging from the savory to the sweet.
The preparation began with Connoisseur Michael mixing up the beginnings of a breakfast style bread pudding.
After some dried cherries were reconstituted and the semi-custard mixture poured over slices of bread the pudding was put in the oven and left to its fate.
Meanwhile Connoisseur Tom had whipped up some batter for buttermilk pancakes.
He began to cook each small and delicate pancake on a skillet and the apartment was soon filled with telltale sweet burn of a smell that a good pancake is known to produce.
After his pancakes had been finished and laid out the serving charger to his side Connoisseur Tom moved on to creating his Banana’s Foster sauce.
After a bit a difficulty with the flambé step
(Connoisseur Tom was working with a electric stove and a proper long stemmed lighter was not to be found) to pan was lit aflame and the sauce finished.
As the pancakes were being prepared in the stove area Connoisseur Javier was busy pressing his homemade tortillas on the other side of the kitchen.
While old Mexican women have been making their own tortillas for hundreds of years it was quite enjoyable to watch the process unfolding before one’s very eyes.
Connoisseur Javier was all the while tending a crock-pot full of bacony, delicious, and runny refried beans.
The beans had already been spiced and seasoned and were now warming away; absorbing every bit of flavor.
As Connoisseur Tom finished up with the stove it was time for Connoisseur Jon to being cooking in earnest.
He had already been working on frying up some bacon and mixing up a hollandaise sauce for his Eggs Benedict. He was soon boiling a mixture of water and vinegar in which to poach the eggs.
Each egg was poached to a perfect shape and consistency.
He set his eggs on dual strips of bacon which were lying on a lightly toasted crumpet; a more doughy version of the English muffin.
This triple layer of delight was then smothered with hollandaise sauce and topped with a garnish of chives.
It was about this time that Connoisseur Michael’s pudding had roasted itself to perfection in the oven.
After creating a sauce out of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries he was forced to wrestle with the controls of the new Black & Decker food processor
(review chastising the difficulty of assembly pending) and finally succeeded to processing his sauce to a smooth consistency.
This was drizzled atop the bread pudding and then a topping of powdered sugar was added just for sweetness and flare.
It was now that Connoisseur Javier had full reign of the stove and oven and he set about completing his steamed taco dish. He warmed some meat that he had previously prepared and went about putting together his tacos, allowing them to steam over a frying pan of boiling water.
He plated three tacos to a plate and topped them with the refried beans that had been cooking all morning long in the crock pot.
As with all the Connoisseur Challenges the most exciting part is the tasting.
Tasting began with Connoisseur Tom’s Pancakes ala Bananas Foster. The pancakes were a thing of perfection, sweet and browned with a dental quality to the texture. It was the opinion of some that the sauce held some flaws; the brown sugar had been allowed to caramelize for too long leaving a burnt taste and unpleasant crunch.
Connoisseur Jon’s Eggs Benedict was second and, as each plate was handed out, the tasters were greeted by a simply wonderful presentation. The eggs were fluffy and the hollandaise sauce light and flavorful. The choice of crumpets instead of English muffins and bacon instead of Canadian bacon was greatly appreciated as the entire stack was easily cut by the side of a fork allowing for the possibility of have crumpet, bacon, egg, and hollandaise sauce in each and every bite.
Connoisseur Michael’s Bread Pudding with Warm Berry Sauce was handed out next much to the delight of several bread pudding fans in attendance. The immediate comments were mixed, Connoisseur Jon and Tom both noted a slight tomato taste in the sauce (as they are twins; it could be a taste bud defect on their part). This was, in later discussion, chalked up by Connoisseur Jon and Michael to out-of-season berries. The bread pudding itself was a success, possessing a soft texture and home style spice. A couple of folks were seen going back for seconds.
Connoisseur Javier’s dish was the last to be served and people lined up with anticipation. The meat and beans were delicious and plates were cleaned quickly. There were a couple of calls for softer tortillas, but it was generally accepted that homemade tortillas were impressive even if a little tough. There was also a consensus that the dish could have been improved by the addition of a sauce to tie together the flavors.
It was now time for scoring and it was agreed that the dishes would have been given a score of 1, 2, 3, or 4 – 1 being the best and 4 being the furthest from best. Following in this way it was given that the lowest scorer would be the winner.
After a quick tally Connoisseur Jon was congratulated as the winner with a score of 13,
Connoisseurs Michael
and Tom tied for second with scores of 18,
and Connoisseur Javier slid into last with a score of 21. All dishes were delectable and all Connoisseurs should be proud of what was, in my not-so-humble opinion, the tastiest Connoisseur Challenge yet!