Hollandaise Isn't Hard

I told you I was going to show you a fabulous way to use those leftover egg yolks.  So, I don’t know how many horror stories I’ve heard about hollandaise disaster.  The truth is it’s pretty easy to make, as long as you follow a few simple rules, which I am going to teach you. 

What you’ll need:

4 egg yolks
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons water
½ cup (1 stick) butter
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Place your egg yolks, lemon juice, and water in a bowl.

Whisk it until it gets foamy and light in color. 

Next, you need to melt your butter.  I like to do it in a measuring cup for easy pouring. 

Just microwave it until it’s just melted.  It’s ok if there are still some unmelted bits.   Set it aside and let’s go back to the eggs. 

Rule #1:  Make sure the mixture never gets too hot.  Place the mixing bowl over some barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.  Keep a towel handy so that you can move the bowl off of the heat if it starts to get too warm. 

Rule #2:  Don’t stop whisking.  You want the mixture to become very light yellow and fall in ribbons.  It will probably take about 3 - 5 minutes of fast whisking to get to that point.  When you do, begin drizzling in the melted butter. 

Rule #3:  Add the butter very, very slowly.  Then continue with rule #2.  Whisk, whisk, whisk.  When you’ve reached hollandaise-ville, it will be silky and thick. 

Now is a good time to add your salt and pepper.  I also like herbs in mine.  Fresh parsley, dill, or chives would be fabulous.  I didn’t happen to have anything fresh, so I sprinkled in a little pinch of dried dill. 

If at any point your mixture starts to look slightly curdled or the butter starts to separate, that means your sauce has gotten too hot and is breaking.  Don’t panic.  Immediately remove the bowl from the pan, throw in a couple of ice cubes, and whisk like crazy.  Hollandaise sauce is a fabulous addition to vegetables or fish, but my favorite use is for breakfast.  It’s fabulous on any omelet, but I think the ultimate, all time best dish ever created for breakfast, is eggs benedict.  Granted, I don’t make it the way tradition dictates.  I use ham rather than Canadian bacon, and I scramble the eggs because I’m not big on poached.  However you make it, you’ll be glad you did. 

Seriously, is there anything better?  I could eat that for any meal of the day. 

What’s your favorite thing to eat for a special breakfast?

Comments

[Seeley deBorn]

I fucking love hollandaise. I order eggs benny whenever I go out for breakfast and I always order extra hollandaise.

If you want to make a slightly lighter version you can replace some, or even all, of the butter with buttermilk or some kind of broth (chicken or veggie). Buttermilk gives it a lovely tangy flavour and it's a much more robust sauce that way, very not likely to curdle.

Oh, and I have no idea why Americans keep calling ham "canadian bacon" :P