Hollandaise in a blender

Homemade hollandaise on my favorite Eggs Benedict.

Hollandaise have always been a thing used with fish. But after moving to the USA, I realized hollandaise can be used for so much more. And I became a huge fan. But there is hollandaise and then there is real hollandaise. The store bought, even the ones made from a powder like Knorr, can be used as a shortcut, but tastewise it needs an adjustment with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. But when you get the real deal, you know why this sauce is so extremely popular.

If you are making eggs Benedicts for 2-4 people, you only need half a portion.

Makes a big portion.

Ingredients:

• 250 g salted butter, clarified

• 4 egg yolks

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

• ½ lemon, the juice from

Directions:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over very low heat.  Let simmer gently until the foam rises to the top of the melted butter. Once the butter stops spluttering, and no more foam seems to be rising to the surface, remove from heat and skim off the foam with a spoon. The foam is the milk solids from the butter. Ladle the butterfat into another saucepan leaving the water and residue behind. You can also pour the butterfat through some cheesecloth. Keep the butterfat warm.
The clarified butter should be about 172℉ (77℃).

Add egg yolks, lemon juice in a blender. Blend until foaming. With the blender running add ⅓ of the butter in a slow steady stream, yes it will splatter. Once it emulsifies, turn the blender speed up to high and add the remaining butter. Season with salt and pepper and blend for another second.

Use the hollandaise for your favorite fish or on a eggs Benedict.

Enjoy!

Green Pepper Sauce

Green Pepper Sauce

This green pepper sauce is a tasty but spicy sauce that pairs well with beef. You often get this type of sauce at steakhouses, and this is one of my favorites. In Denmark I’d never made it from scratch, I would just buy the Knorr powder version. But of course the real deal is so much better, so much worth the time and effort. I like that you can make the sauce-base well in advance, you can even freeze it.

This year we had green pepper sauce for our New Year’s dinner, and as a sauce loving creature it was front and center on my plate.😂

Serves 6-10.

Ingredients:

• 1 shallot, chopped

• ⅛ root celery, diced

• 1 garlic clove

• 2 teaspoons green peppercorn in brine (Madagaskar peppercorns), chopped

• 1 teaspoon butter

• 1 teaspoon grape seed oil (or another flavorless oil)

• 50 ml Cognac

• 250 ml beef stock

• 200 ml red wine

• 1 sprig rosemary (leaves only)

• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

• 1 splash of Gastrique ( you can replace this with some sugar and a splash of vinegar)

• 100 ml heavy whipping cream

•  salt to taste

• 2 teaspoons green peppercorn in brine (Madagaskar peppercorns)

• Cornstarch - optional, mixed in cold for thickening

Gastrique (Adapted from Bobby Flay)

• 1/4 cup (80g) honey

• 1/2 cup (125ml) apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Gastrique (Adapted from Bobby Flay)

Heat the honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, until it becomes deep golden brown. Add the vinegar and continue to cook, swirling the pan a few times - do not use a spoon. Cook it for about 15 minutes, until the honey/caramel is incorporated in the vinegar, and the gastrique has thickened to the consistency of thin maple syrup. Remove from heat. Keep the gastrique in a sealed sterilized bottle in the refrigerator, it will keep for months.

Sauce:

Sauté onions, celery root, garlic and the chopped peppercorns until the onions are translucent. Remove saucepan from the heat, move the pan away from fan, actually do not have lamps or any other things above it. Pour in the cognac into the pan swirl it round, and standing at a safe distance from the pan, ignite it with a long match or lighter. Gently swirl/stir your now-flaming pan to evenly distribute the alcohol. Let cook until the flames disappear, and the alcohol vapor burns off by itself in a few seconds. Add the beef stock, red wine, rosemary, and thyme. Let the sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes. Strain the now sauce-base through a sieve set over saucepan, pressing firmly on solids, getting all the good flavors out. Reduce the sauce-base to about half, you are aiming for a concentrated base. (All this can be made in advance).

Add cream, whole peppercorns and season the sauce with salt and gastrique. If you like a slightly thicker sauce, you can thicken it with some cornstarch dispensed in cold water. Serve the sauce with a nice steak or roast.

Enjoy!

Béarnaise Sauce - Sous Vide

Béarnaise Sauce - Sous Vide

Bearnaise is one of the most famous sauces ever. And basically it is just butter, butter and a little egg yolk and acidity. But it's mostly butter. Normally bearnaise made from scratch is kinda nerve wracking. You want a warm sauce, but you do not want it to separate, which it has a tendency to do. Another thing, you want to be able to serve the sauce along side your perfectly cooked and still hot steak. So it tends to always be a stressful endeavor to get everything ready at once. This recipe, will help you tremendously. By sous vide'ing the sauce components, you can cook up your steak and sides, at the same time. So just before you slice and serve the steak, you quickly blend the sauce and season it, and everything will hit the dinner table at once. 

Disclaimer: This sauce is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. This would minimize the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized eggs in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood.  In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA,  Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on eggs. 

Serves 6-8 normal people or 4 Danes 😉.

Ingredients:

Reduction:

• 1 bunch fresh tarragon, save some leaves for finishing the sauce

• 4 small or 2 medium shallots, minced

• ½ cup (1 dl) white wine vinegar

• ½ cup (1 dl) dry white wine

• 6 whole black peppers (for the reduction)

Sauce:

• 3 egg yolks

• 300 g butter

• 3-4 tablespoons reduction

• Salt and pepper to taste

• tarragon leaves, finely chopped

Directions:

Reduction:

In a small saucepan, combine sprigs of the tarragon, shallots, vinegar pepper and wine over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat, strain the liquid and set it aside to cool. You can make larger amounts and freeze it in smaller portions in an ice cube tray.

Sauce:

Preheat water bath for 131℉ (55℃). (You can go as high as 140℉ (60℃) if you want to, keeping in mind not to exceed 149℉ (65℃) where the eggs coagulate.

Place reduction, butter and egg yolks in a heat resistant plastic bag, do not seal.
Place the bag in the water bath for 30 minutes.
Pour the heated mixture into a blender, and blend until you have a thick sauce. I use a immersion blender. Season with salt, pepper and tarragon, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

White Cream Sauce with Tarragon

White Cream Sauce with Tarragon 

This tarragon sauce is my favorite sauce to serve with baked salmon, often I serve it with rice and fennel salad. It might be a pale plate of food, but it is packed with flavors, and truly a meal worthy of a King or Queen.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 knorr fish stock cube
• ¼ cup (½ dl) white wine
• 1 cup (2½ dl) heavy whipping cream
• 1-2 teaspoons tarragon 
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, cook the onions in the oil until translucent. Add the wine, cream, tarragon and fish stock, and bring it to a boil. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and white pepper.

Serve the sauce with baked salmon or another fish.

Enjoy!

Satay Sauce

Satay sauce is so scrumptious, the peanut buttery sweet slightly curried sauce is perfect with chicken and spring rolls. Because I didn't grow on peanut butter, this sauce is the best thing you can make with peanut butter, for me it's properly the only thing.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk
• 4 teaspoons red curry paste
• 150 g unsweetened peanut butter (I used an old fashioned style crunchy peanut butter only containing peanuts)
• ¼ tablespoon Thai fish sauce (or use salt to taste)
• ¼ cup (50 g) palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 
• ½ cup water

Directions:

Put everything into a medium heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a very gentle boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Let the mixture simmer for 3-5 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to let the sauce scorch. Take the pot off the heat, let the sauce cool down to room temperature, and serve the sauce with satay or spring rolls 

This peanut sauce will keep in a container in the refrigerator for weeks. The refrigerated sauce will thicken up considerably, but just add some water, reheat it and it is ready to serve.  

Enjoy!