Back to Basics

Fridays are dedicated to the beginner cook.

Hollandaise Sauce

A few years ago I took a cooking class at http://www.urbanchefhouston.com. Great class and instructor! One of the things we learned from Chara was how to make an authentic Hollandaise sauce. I always thought it was difficult, but guess what? It’s EASY!

I lost her recipe, but I think it was close to this (I do it this way and it turns out well):

Ingredients
2 sticks of butter (throw in freezer for a few minutes)
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice
8 egg yolks
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Take butter out of the freezer and dice into small cubes. Set aside.
2. Take a small pot and add the yolks, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Whisk well.
3. Take a larger pot and fill half-way with water. Bring water to a nice, rolling boil.
4. Hold the smaller pot (with the yolks, etc) over the boiling water. You’ve created a double boiler.
5. Whisk in 2 cubes of butter at a time. Don’t add any butter before the previous cubes have melted.
6. Continue to whisk until all cubes are melted.
7. Serve immediately.

If your sauce breaks, dump it…don’t try to save it. If you sense it’s about to break, move it a little further away from the boiling water. Hollandaise sauce traditionally goes with Eggs Benedict (shown above) and over vegetables such as asparagus.

Please note that Hollandaise sauce, also known as Fat Man’s Gravy, is extremely harmful to your health. Jamming sticks of butter into your arteries is never a good thing…well, almost never. Please don’t make this stuff more than twice a year.