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Bacon, Egg & Cheese with Sauteed Asparagus, Arugula, and Hollandaise Sauce

I love a good bacon, egg & cheese sandwich in the morning, especially on top of a buttered and griddled English muffin.  
Add sauteed asparagus, fresh arugula, and a heavy spoonful of warm Hollandaise sauce to the mix, and you have arrived at this truly regal breakfast sandwich.  
The following recipe makes four breakfast sandwiches.

Ingredients

For the Hollandaise Sauce:

  • 1 oz white wine vinegar
  • ½ oz water
  • ½ shallot, (finely minced)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 6 oz clarified butter, or melted butter
  • Kosher salt, (to taste)

For the Remaining Sandwich Components:

  • 8 slices of thick-cut bacon
  • 4 Tbsp salted butter, (softened)
  • 4 English Muffins of choice, (I prefer Thomas’ Brand)
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 8 pieces of asparagus, thicker woody end sections trimmed off
  • 4 whole eggs
  • Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, (to taste)
  • 1 cup fresh arugula, (washed and dried)
  • 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 4 slices pepperjack cheese
  • A few drops of your favorite hot sauce.

Instructions 

For the Hollandaise Sauce:

  • In a small saute pan, combine the vinegar with the water and minced shallot and cook on high heat until the liquid had reduced by 50%.
  • Strain the remaining vinegar into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  • Add the egg yolks and a small pinch of salt, and whisk together vigorously for about 30 seconds.
  • Prepare a hot water bath, with a sauce or soup pot filled with simmering water that is the proper size to hold your medium-sized heatproof mixing bowl on top of it, without having the bottom of the mixing bowl touch the simmering water.
  • In a small sauce pot on the stove, add your clarified butter or regular whole butter and heat the contents until the butter is hot.
  • When the butter is hot, reduce the heat to the lowest setting.
  • After the egg yolk and vinegar have been whisked together aggressively, place the bowl over the hot water bath, and whisk continuously until the egg yolk mixture has roughly doubled in volume, or about 5 minutes.
  • *Try to avoid scrambling the eggs at this stage. They will scramble if they get too hot. If you notice your bowl getting too hot, simply remove the bowl from the hot water bath and whisk off the heat until the bowl begins to cool back down.
  • When the egg yolks have roughly doubled in volume over the hot water bath, very slowly drizzle the 6oz of hot melted butter into the egg yolk mixture while whisking continuously.
  • *Start by adding a very small stream of melted butter into the egg yolks while whisking, and wait until the hot melted butter is fully emulsified in the egg mixture before adding more.
  • When you have added the 6oz of butter and arrived at the desired Hollandaise sauce consistency, taste the mixture, and season with kosher salt.
  • If you prefer more acidity, add a squeeze of lemon juice or some more white wine vinegar here.
  • Now that your Hollandaise sauce is ready, keep the sauce in a small sauce pot, covered with plastic wrap, sitting in a bowl of hot water.
  • Alternatively, you can store the prepared Hollandaise sauce in a coffee thermos and try keeping it warm that way.
  • *Note that you don’t want the sauce to get too hot or too cold at this stage, as the emulsion will break.

For the Remaining Sandwich Components:

  • Cook the bacon in a saute pan on medium heat for about 7 minutes, or until the bacon is lightly browned and crispy.
  • Set the cooked bacon aside on paper towels to drain.
  • Butter the English Muffins and cook them in a saute pan until they are golden brown and crispy on the inside.
  • *I know a lot of people love the Nooks & Crannies that Thomas’ English Muffins are famous for. In a situation like this where I am going to butter and griddle an English Muffin, I like to separate the whole English Muffins into halves using a serrated bread knife, so I get more surface area contact between the buttered bread and the pan, and fewer nooks & crannies.
  • Set the griddled English Muffins aside for later.
  • In the same saute pan you used to cook the bacon, add 1 Tbsp olive oil and increase heat to medium-high.
  • Add the asparagus, and cook for 3 minutes.
  • Set asparagus aside for sandwich assembly later.
  • Fry the eggs in a saute pan with some butter.
  • Season eggs with kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper
  • Add a slice of cheese on top of each egg.
  • Assemble the sandwiches with some mayonnaise and Dijon mustard spread on the inside of the English Muffins.
  • Add the bacon, eggs with cheese, asparagus, and some arugula.
  • A few drops of your favorite hot sauce.
  • Cover with the warm Hollandaise sauce that you made and kept warm earlier.
  • Enjoy the sandwiches warm, with plenty of napkins.

Notes

Don’t be frustrated if your Hollandaise sauce doesn’t come out perfect the first time you try to make it.  Emulsion sauces can take some practice.  
You can also try to make your emulsion sauce by combining the whisked egg yolks and vinegar in a tall narrow container with an immersion blender, and using the immersion blender to blend the sauce while you steam in the hot butter.  It results in a quick Hollandaise.  You can also use a food processor or countertop blender.  
I was surprised to see so many different methods out there for hot-holding warm emulsion sauces for an extended period of time.  In commercial kitchens, you will often see the hollandaise stored in an insulated container in a warm place in the kitchen. I have also seen people have success when storing the sauce in a sealed heavy-duty insulated coffee thermos which sits in a hot water bath when not being used.  
These sandwiches are best eaten right after the eggs are finished cooking and the sandwich is quickly assembled.  I like when the yolks on the eggs are still very runny, but obviously you should make these however you like.