Eggs Benedict for breakfast

A Sunday lie in followed by eggs Benedict.  What a way to start the day!  A real team effort this one.  I put the bacon in a low oven to cook slowly and get nice and crisp.  The Woo sorted out her delicious Hollandaise sauce and toasted the muffins.  I buttered the muffins, sorted out the poached eggs and bunged it on a couple of plates.

A great way to set us up for a bit of supper shopping and a dog walk in Peckham Hurst Woods.  Only my second visit here but a revisited childhood for The Woo as the Coppins family were very much what it says on the tin - chestnut coppicers.

We walked for a good couple of hours in some lovely sunshine in the gorgeous woodland.  So very English with the coppiced chestnut woods leading into some amazing pine trees.  We even found an avenue of what looked like some sort of Redwood.  The bark was very red, soft and springy.  I'll do a bit of googling and get back to you on that one.

The last time we walked the dogs here was after a bout of heavy rain back in the winter and it was muddy and miserable but today was absolutely amazing.  Freya and Bobby did manage to find the only dirty puddle, probably in the whole of Kent on a day like today, though!

On our supper shopping trip we picked up an amazing looking fore rib of beef with the bone in which we decided would be great for the barbie.  The only trouble was, by the time we got round to feeling hungry after the late breakfast, it was threatening rain.  Indoor barbecue time then!  

I boned the rib of beef and put the meaty bone in a small roasting dish in the oven with a lug of olive oil, salt and pepper and a couple of cloves of elephant garlic.  This will be cooked on a low heat for a couple of hours as a late evening snack.

I cut the boned rib in half to make two great looking steaks.  These were flash fried on a smoking hot ridged pan for about 45 seconds each side and then left to rest for a few minutes.  The Woo and I love our beef really, really, really rare but you might want to cook it a little longer.  We even had a thin slice raw to check the quality prior to cooking and it was yummy!  Might try this cut as a tartare next time!  The steaks were served up with baby new potatoes dressed in a mushroom and tomato sauce with lots of chilli and garlic in it.  A lug of leftover Hollandaise from breakfast with some whole grain mustard stirred in and half a sliced avocado on the side completed the dish.  A supper fit for my queen!