Hollandaise

It is worth making Hollandaise yourself from time to time, if only to remember how sinful it is. My arteries are hardening as I type, but I feel very little guilt, so probably just the espresso talking.

I don’t think I can add much to the recipes given by Delia, Pomiane or Nigel, but it is useful to illustrate how it fits into the rest of the proceedings, essentially an exercise in multitasking. (Quantities for sauce make enough to serve 2, maybe 3.)

Time	Sauce	Steak	Frites
00:00	3 tbsp white wine vinegar, six black peppercorns lightly crushed, 1 tbsp finely chopped onion and a bay leaf into a small saucepan on a low heat to reduce.	Rub the steak in olive oil, roll in black pepper, and leave at room temperature.	Get the oven going. My frites need 180ºC.
00:02	Get another small saucepan, half fill with water, and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, chop up 150g unsalted butter into half inch cubes, put somewhere near the oven or stove to soften up.
00:03	Hardly any liquid in the vinegar saucepan, but give it a swirl from time to time.
00:04	Separate two eggs, and put the yolks into a glass bowl, which you’re going to put on top of the saucepan with the water in it.		Put the fries in the oven.
00:05	Once the water has boiled, reduce temp to the merest simmer.
00:06	Place glass bowl with yolks on top of simmering water, add the strained contents of the other saucepan (should only be a tbsp left) and start whisking, slowly, gently, continuously, adding the butter a few pieces at a time. If the butter melts really quickly, remove bowl from water, and keep whisking, add more butter, and only return to heat when new butter stops melting.	If you’re using a cast iron griddle to do your steak, now would be a good time to put it on a low heat to warm up.
00:10	Once all butter is incorporated, keep whisking. Test the temperature with your little finger, if you can comfortably leave your finger in the sauce it’s too cold, if there’s pain, it’s too hot.
00:12	The sauce will start to thicken. Turn the heat off, and keep whisking.
00:13	Keep whisking.	Slap the steak in the pan.
00:15	Keep whisking.	Turn the steak and salt.	Check the frites. If they’re done, pop them onto some kitchen towelling to drain.
00:17	Keep whisking.	Turn the steak again.
00:18	Keep whisking.	And again.
00:19	And serve.	And serve.	And serve.

A green salad if you must.

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