Hollandaise sauce

Mrs. Dude has a new gig and a new boss. Turns out he's a bit of a foodie, with home-raised chickens and bees. Our first big win? Fresh eggs. The shells are a lovely light green, and the yolks are sturdy. Separating them, I couldn't have easily broken them.



What to do with these lovely things? We started with a hollandaise sauce. I used the recipe from The New Making of a Cook, with only a few small modifications.

⅓ cup plus 2 tbsp water
3 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
½ tsp salt
white pepper
3 large egg yolks
½ lb unsalted butter, melted

Mix the lemon juice and ⅓ cup of water, salt and pepper. Heat over high and reduce to 2 tbsp. Remove from heat and let cool.

Whisk in egg yolks, then put over medium heat. Whisk over medium heat until it makes a nice foamy mess. Continue whisking, and slowly add in the melted butter. The trick to making a beautiful emulsion is to add the butter slowly. You really can't go too slowly. Occasionally, you can add a few drops of water from your remaining 2 tbsp of water. But keep whisking, and keep adding the butter. Slowly.



If you do it properly, you'll end with a nice, featureless yellow sauce. When everything is added, season to taste, and hold over low heat. Under no circumstances should you accidentally turn up the heat because you wanted to heat a different element. Really, don't crank it up, you might break the sauce and have to start over. And that would be sad. I'm just sayin.



Serve over eggs, or asparagus, or any delicious place. Yum.


By Bbq Dude