Bear Paw Meanderings

It is May. Easter is past us and we all are ready for a long and quiet spring with enough moisture to keep everything growing but not five feet of snow which can happen especially around Memorial Day.

I was amazed because as I looked over spring recipes for Easter and the like, I did not see a single recipe anywhere for Hollandaise Sauce.

Hollandaise is one of the Mother Sauces and is perfect for spring due to its bright yellow color. It is especially good on asparagus but equally good on roasted vegetables too like roasted potatoes and carrots.

Making a true Hollandaise is not difficult. Do make the sauce from scratch instead of making one of the “mock” sauces which do not taste the same as the real Mother Sauce.

You will need a double boiler to make this sauce. That means getting a small kettle with water in it and placing a glass oven proof bowl on the top of that kettle of water but making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the glass bowl. Get the water boiling and add the following in the following order.

You will need four egg yokes

½ cup butter cut into thirds and at room temperature

The juice of one lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Sugar if desired

Once the water is boiling, put in the glass bowl the four egg yolks and 1/3 of the butter. Whisk until the sauce thickens up. That should take about three or four minutes of vigorous whisking. Then add 1/3 more of the butter and ½ of the lemon juice and whisk that until thickened. Add the rest of the butter, the other half lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Thicken that as well. If too thick add a tablespoon of the boiling water and the sauce will thin a bit.

Now your Hollandaise is complete. Taste the sauce. If you are like me, it needs some sweetening so I add a little sugar until I get a sweet lemon taste and that is plenty good. The sauce can be served then or put in a glass container and set on the stove and served later at just a tad above room temperature.

Best advice I can give you is not to fool around with the sauce. When it gets to a good consistency, leave it alone until serving.

You will be proud of your efforts to make this complex Mother Sauce!

This recipe originally came from an old “Better Homes and Garden Cook Book”.

Bon Appétit!