Hollandaise sauce is terrific with so many different fish. It is especially good with flat fish like plaice, brill and turbot. Served with a carefully poached wild salmon it is heavenly.
Ingredients
Asparagus and Seakale on toast seem incomplete without it and add a soft poached egg to the equation and it is life-enhancing.
Use free range eggs to guarantee a good flavour and colour in the cooked sauce. I normally use salted butter here, but unsalted may be used and then seasoned to your taste
- 2 egg yolks
- 110g butter ,cold and diced into 2cm pieces
- 1 dessertspoon water
- Squeeze of lemon juice
Method
- Put the yolks in a small, heavy saucepan. Add the water and whisk thoroughly. Place the pot on a low heat and add the butter a few bits at a time and whisking all the time. As soon as the bits in the pot melt add a few more bits. Gradually it will begin to look like a sauce and thicken a little. Just be careful with the heat. I f the pan is too hot it will scramble. The first couple of times you make it, keep a little cold water close by. If it shows signs of scrambling or curdling, draw off the heat and add a dessertspoon of cold water and keep whisking.
- When all of the butter has been whisked in, add a little lemon juice, about 1 dessertspoon, to taste. The sauce should now be of a light coating consistency.
- Remember the sauce is served warm, not hot. Pour the sauce into a bowl and keep warm. The shelf over your cooker, the coolest surface of an Aga, in a pan of barely warm water or even in a warm flask are all options for keeping it warm. If it gets a little skin on top before you serve it, just whisk it in and it will disappear.
