Hollandaise Sauce
for about 1 1/2 cups
3 egg yolks
big pinch of salt
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB water
2 TB cold unsalted butter
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and hot
more salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk in a stainless steel saucepan for a minute or two until they thicken lightly and turn lemon-colored. Whisk in a pinch of salt, lemon juice and water. Add 1 TB cold butter. Set over moderately low heat and whisk continuously at moderate speed, removing from heat now and then to make sure the yolks aren't cooking too fast. When they cling to the wires of the whisk and you can see the bottom of the pan between strokes, remove from heat and stir in the second TB of cold butter until incorporated.
Start beating in the melted butter by little driblets at first (use a 1/2 tsp measure to help control the addition), until a good 1/2 cup of the sauce has thickened, then add it a little more quickly as the sauce thickens into a heavy cream. Taste and correct seasoning.
To assemble Eggs Benedict:
~Toast English Muffin. Brush with melted butter.
~Warm slices of ham or Canadian bacon, place on muffin halves.
~Poach eggs in LOTS of water, which you should add a TB or two of white wine vinegar
~After eggs sets, remove with slotted spoon, allow water to drain, place on ham slices.
~Spoon over the rich, delicious sauce!
Poaching the ivory and sunshine orbs.
Assembled Eggs Benedict.
The carnage...sweet sweet carnage!Julia's Troubleshooting Tips:
If you have added the butter too fast for the egg yolks to digest it, or if you've kept the sauce over heat for too long, it can thin out or seperate. To bring it back to its creamy state, whisk briefly to blend, and dip a TB full of the sauce into a bowl. Whisk in a TB of lemon juice and whisk vigorously until creamy. Then whisk in very little driblets of the turned sauce at first, not adding more until the previous addition has creamed and the sauce begins to reconstitute.
It's easier to hold a sauce that doesn't have it's full holding of butter. Set near a warm place and prior to serving whisk in additional warm butter.
If the sauce is too thick, thin by whisking in a TB of warm water or lemon juice.
3 comments:
Is it bad that I want this again and again?
It's funny...I just had this for the first time just two weeks ago...I had never had this before and wasn't sure what to expect...the restaurant version was not bad, but this...this was heaven. Spooning the sauce onto the eggs felt as if I were spooning air on the eggs. So light and rich, with a slight tang. I read one recipe that you can add some cayenne to the Hollandaise...I might try that next time...maybe that will be tomorrow???
Very rich, but so delicious.
The pictures didn't quite catch the color of the sauce - it's a cross between yellow and beige. It's very light in texture, but not so much in the belly... :)
And asparagus never had a better friend.
I find that using cold butter will allow the butter to incorporate slowly into the yolks. I love eggs benedict. We often do eggs florentine with spinach.
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