Hollandaise sauce
Our simple and easy-to-follow hollandaise recipe makes the perfect hollandaise sauce, every time. This simple but refined sauce can elevate a simple piece of cooked fish for the smartest dining, allow dull steamed vegetables to take centre stage or jazz up a grilled steak. The classic way to enjoy is to serve over eggs for breakfast or with grilled fish for dinner.
Hollandaise is an emulsion of lightly cooked eggs and butter, and it’s often this delicate marriage that causes cooks to come unstuck. Both ingredients can split or curdle if over-heated, so the trick is to keep the cooking heat as gentle as a baby’s bath. Cook the hollandaise in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, and take the bowl and pan off the heat while whisking in the last few knobs of butter.
Purists and braver souls will tell you that you can successfully make a hollandaise in a pan set directly over the heat. You can, but why make things harder? This method is foolproof.
To use up the leftover egg whites, why not make these super easy soft amaretti biscuits.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 6 black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 blade (whole) mace
- 2 egg yolks
- 110g diced unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Good squeeze of lemon juice, to taste
Method
- Put the vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaf and mace into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Strain the reduced mixture into a heatproof glass bowl.
- Add the egg yolks to the strained reduction with 1 small cube of the butter and a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk until slightly thickened. Remove the bowl from the heat if you have to leave it for any reason.
- Return the bowl to the pan of simmering water and whisk in the remaining butter, a few cubes at a time, until it’s all incorporated and you have a good thick sauce. If you think it’s too hot, take the pan and bowl off the heat and continue. Whisk in a good squeeze of lemon juice.
Béarnaise sauce
To make the classic Béarnaise sauce for grilled meats and fish, follow the method for the hollandaise sauce, cooking 1/2 chopped shallot with the reduction. Stir a handful of chopped fresh tarragon into the finished sauce.
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