Hollandaise Sauce

Perhaps this isn’t exactly a basic recipe, but it’s a lovely one to have in your repertoire. Typically, it’s served with fresh fish such as salmon, but it also goes superbly with fresh asparagus, which is anyway such a luxury, that it deserves the best of treatment. It’s also very popular poured over poached eggs on toast.

If you’re unacquainted with this sauce, the best way to describe it’s like hot mayonnaise, but somehow, even richer. I haven’t tried making a vegan version of this.

 

Serves 2

 

1½ tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp water

1 egg

50 g (2 oz)/4 tbsp butter

 

Method:

• Boil water in a small saucepan and then take it off the stove.
• Find a bowl that will sit comfortably over the pan, but not so deeply as to displace the hot water.
• Put the lemon juice, water, salt and pepper in the bowl.
• Beat in the egg, with a wire whisk and then add a quarter of the butter. Continue whisking until the butter has melted. By now the sauce should be starting to thicken.
• Add the rest of the butter a quarter at a time, whisking all the time.
• Taste. Add a little more lemon juice if you like.
• The sauce should be served immediately, but it will keep warm if you leave the bowl over the hot water.

If you find that the water has cooled down too quickly, you can put it back over a very low flame on a flame tamer. The water must not boil because it will then effectively scramble the egg, which will ruin the sauce.