Blender Hollandaise

True, citrus is not local to my area (next spring, I want to experiment with using my backyard rhubarb as a lemon substitute), but I just can't resist the little bit of sunshine it brings to my kitchen at this time of short days. Also, I think back to the stories my Gran told me about her favorite christmas present as a kid - an orange. The fruit was so rare and special that she'd dole out individual sections over the course of days, lingering over each sweet cell.

It seems that at some point every year, I become fixated with hollandaise sauce. It's like hand to glove with eggs. It is bright and rich spooned over veggies, and a delicious accompaniment to fish and seafood. And remember, the butter and egg yolks in hollandaise help your body to better absorb key nutrients in vegetables and seafood (see my post Embrace the Boogeyman: Learn to Render Lard). I fully intend to whip up a batch to eat with our traditional holiday meal of crab legs.

Maybe you've heard that making hollandaise is a bit tricky, that you need to carefully whisk and monitor the heat in order to ensure you don't end up with a greasy gloppy mess. Trust me, making hollandaise sauce needn't make your knees tremble. The trick is to make it in the blender. Since I started using this method years ago, not a single batch has failed.

Blender Hollandaise Sauce

8 Tbsp. butter

3 egg yolks

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

generous pinch of salt

Melt butter over low heat. Meanwhile, add egg yolks, lemon juice (ok, I admit that I never measure the lemon juice, I always just use the juice of one lemon), and salt to blender. When the butter just starts to bubble, turn on blender and slowly add it in a thin stream. Stop blending as soon as the butter is added. Thin with a spoonful of water if necessary. That's it. Easy isn't it?

To make bernaise sauce, substitute white wine or rice vinegar for the lemon juice, and add finely chopped shallots and fresh tarragon. Bernaise is unbeatable with steak.

I'm sharing this recipe with Real Food Deals at Premeditated Leftovers.