Is it really easy to poach an egg?

Well, is it really easy to poach an egg?  For me I find hard-boiling is easier, but then this was my first attempt at actually poaching an egg.

I have only had eggs Benedict a handful of times either at my Aunt's or out at a restaurant.  It's just something I don't normally cook or eat.  But I have a bounty of Meyer lemons from my tree and a recipe for Meyer Lemon Hollandaise sauce.   Finally this year I decided to give it a try.  The recipe was from William-Sonoma's  Essentials of Breakfast and Brunch. (and I really do love this cookbook).

I followed the recipe and I was not happy with the technique used to make the hollandaise or poaching the eggs.  I've seen different techniques used on the Food Network and there has to be an easier way then this recipe.  I did love the taste and flavor of the Meyer lemon hollandaise, I would follow the list of ingredients again.  What I didn't like was that if you stop whisking for a second you will have a lumpy, separated hollandaise sauce.  Which is not what I want.

The double-boiler method for making the hollandaise was not easy and required too much hand whisking for me.

Now for poaching the eggs, I have seen chefs crack the eggs directly into the water, but this recipe was different here as well.  First crack the eggs into a separate container then place slightly into the water, finally slid gently into the water.  Cook.  I ended up finding that the egg whites separated farther from the egg yolk that they should of.  I will have to try some other techniques and see what works for me.  This is the biggest part of cooking (besides reading a recipe and measuring).  I experiment with techniques and find what works best for me and there really isn't one technique most of the time.

Finally after cooking I was ready to assemble and eat.  I already baked the bacon in the oven and toasted the English muffins.  I highly recommend homemade or fresh from a local bakery.  The English muffins I splurged on were from a bakery in Napa and they were the best ever.  I can never eat store packaged, processed English muffins again. (and why would I anyways).

Here's the final result before the hollandaise.  These were delicious!  Next time I will try actual Canadian bacon.