5 days, 5 sauces: Day 1, Hollandaise

 

Hollandaise Sauce on Asparagus. A great way to make vegetable taste even better!!!

I decided to take a little project/experiment upon myself for this week. I’m going back to basics and revisiting the 5 mother sauces (Hollandaise, Veloute, Tomato, Espagnole, and Bechamel). The names might seem challenging but there easy and accessible to make, plus they're delicious in their own unique way. I want everyone to know that you can make these sauces and incorporate them in easy and simple to make dishes.

The ingredients

Cooking up the asparagus on the griddle

Adding the Hollandaise Sauce, what a difference!!!

Hollandaise is made by combining egg yolk, cream, and acidity (lemon juice or vinegar), which is then cooked over simmering water. It’s the base for other sauces, such as mousseline. It can be served with fish and steamed vegetables or the very popular Eggs Benedict. On Monday night I jazzed things up and made a hollandaise sauce with dill and poured it over grilled asparagus! Delicious and simple, the creamy yellow hollandaise with green dill specks on top of the asparagus looked great. I made the recipe easy for you to follow and make. Try it on top of your favorite fish and instead of dill add chopped chives. If you don’t like asparagus try steamed carrots or broccoli. Be creative, because you need an imagination in the kitchen! One sauce down, four to go!

Keep on Cooking!!

Here's the recipe but you can also find it in the recipe section of JeremyCooks:

Hollandaise Sauce
Yields 2 cups

Hollandaise is one of the five mother sauces and is a rich smooth sauce. It is made by combining egg yolk, cream, and acidity which is then cooked over simmering water. Hollandaise can be combined with whip cream and/or veloute to make a glacage, which is used to coat a dish which is then lightly browned under a salamander or broiler just before served.

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1-tablespoon cream
1 cup (1/2 pound) melted butter, cooled to room temperature
1 tablespoon lemon juice or white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne pepper

Preparation:
Place a small thick ceramic bowl in a heavy-bottmed pan  or use a heavyweight double boiler. Off the heat, add the egg yolks and cream to the double boiler and stir with a wire whisk until blended-the mixture should not be beaten but stirred, vigorously and continually. Place the bowl over hot simmering water ( the heavy bottem pan should contain 1/12 inches of water, the water should not touch the bowl). Stir the eggs constantly. once the eggs have thickened to a consistency of very heavy cream, add the cooled, melted butter with one hand, and stirring vigorously with the other. Make sure to pour the butter very slowly so that the each addition is incorporated into the egg mixture evenly, before more is added. Once all the butter is added, add the lemon juice or vinegar one drop at a time, and immediately remove from the heat. Add salt and cayenne.

If your sauce breaks (curdles), don’t worry. Just transfer your broken sauce to another bowl and clean out the one you have been using. Restart by adding a fresh yolk into the pot. start over again using the broken sauce as if it were the butter.