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Now that you’ve got a base on how to deglaze a pan to make a simple sauce (assuming you read yesterday’s article on the subject), you should be ready to move into another one of the Mother Sauces of France. If you need a quick refresher, there are five mother sauces that are considered to be the base of French cooking. They are as follows:
- Bechamel Sauce (find out how to make a bechamel sauce)
- Espagnole Sauce
- Veloute Sauce
- Tomato Sauce
- Hollandaise Sauce
Today, we’re going to talk about Hollandaise, which is a creamy sauce that’s made from egg yolk, melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. It’s almost always seen on a brunch menu with eggs benedict. In fact, if you ask people if they’ve ever had hollandaise sauce and what dish it was on, 9 times out of 10, it will be an eggs benedict.
But hollandaise sauce can be so much more and used for many more things than a simple brunch dish. For instance, hollandaise is paired often with broccoli and asparagus as a dipping sauce. It also works well with fried foods, potatoes and other root vegetables, meats like fish and steak.
How to Make Hollandaise
Making hollandaise sauce is simple, in terms of the ingredients and steps involved. Mastering it, however, is a little more difficult and might take a few tries to really nail it. This is because you have to really understand and perfect the technique of whipping the egg yolk and heating it just enough to make the sauce without accidentally cooking the eggs in the process.
To make hollandaise, you’ll need the following ingredients: 3 eggs, 1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup), 1 1/2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 1/2 Tablespoons of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Use a double broiler to heat 2 cups of water to simmering. If you don’t have a double broiler, you can use a heat-resistant bowl set over a saucepan. While the water is heating, melt the stick of butter in the microwave, so that you have liquid butter. Keep it covered and warm until you need to use it.
In a separate bowl, add the yolks from the three eggs into the bowl, along with 1 1/2 Tablespoons of water. whisk the two ingredients together and add to the top of the double broiler (or heat-resistant bowl). Whisk vigorously until the mixture thickens – or for about 3-4 minutes.
Immediately remove the mixture from the heat and add in 1/2 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Continue to whisk the mixture and mix the lemon juice in well. Fresh lemon juice works best for this.
Finally, whisk in the melted butter into the mixture. This will thicken the sauce more, and finish it off by adding in the salt to taste. You can also add in some black pepper to taste, if you prefer.
With hollandaise sauce, it’s important to make it when you need it, as it doesn’t sit well. So if you’re using it as a topping for brunch or over a side of asparagus, it’s a good idea to leave the sauce making for last. This way, it’ll be fresh and warm when you serve it.
Do you have a perfect recipe to go with hollandaise sauce? Share it with us in the comments!
