I’m not much of a cook.

Like most people in the city, I enjoy good food and eat out at restaurants more often than I should. But let’s face it: we have some of the best chefs in the world in our backyard, home-cooked food just doesn’t cut it.

With all this restaurant-going, the bills add up. It’s about time I learned how to cook properly, and I’m bringing you all on this ride along with me.

Each week, I’ll borrow a restaurant-style recipe from an acclaimed chef in New York City and conjure up my own version of his or her creation. It won’t be perfect — and I’ll venture to guess sometimes the results will be disastrous — but I’ll be chronicling it here for you all the same.

Here’s how it went this week…

Potato Waffle Benedict
Makes 2-3 servings

Potato Waffle:

• 2 Idaho potatoes (grated)
• 2 Tablespoons Spanish onion (grated)
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• pinch salt & pepper
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions

1. Coarsely grate potato and onion and add all ingredients to a food prep (robot coupe).
2. Add batter to waffle iron and cook until golden brown. Make sure you spray the waffle iron first with a non-stick spray.

Creamed Spinach/ Caramelized Onion Sauce:

• 2 cups cream
• 2 cup blanched spinach
• 1/2 cup caramalized onions
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• Salt & pepper (use salt sparingly because of the natural saltiness of the parmesan)

Directions

1. In large frying pan, over medium heat add two cups of cream and reduce by half then add the rest of the ingredients, stirring until well mixed.
2. Place two poached eggs on top of waffle then liberally drizzle sauce over eggs.

I failed at this one miserably, but I made the best of it, and the result was actually pretty tasty. First of all, I don’t own a waffle iron, so I decided to make pancakes instead …with a frying pan.  Not surprisingly, I don’t have a “robot coupe” either so I settled with a blender. The mixture was too dry so I cheated and added some milk.

It worked beautifully. I ended up with a fat, plump pancake with slightly crispy edges.

The sauce presented a greater challenge. After two hours, I had run out of time and wasn’t able to caramelize the onions. I also didn’t have enough eggs so I skipped the poached egg section.

I decided to pour all of the ingredients for the sauce in a skillet and waited ten minutes. Horrible idea.

Potato…pancakes?

All-in-all, the pancakes were actually delicious, however the sauce just tasted like a cheesy spinach blob. It worked — but next time, I might just stick to syrup … or maybe take-out.