Home in time for the Hollandaise

We continued last week (sorry for the late post) with no meat, since the 9 days end today (yay!). After learning about emulsions (temporary and permanent) we needed to learn about the classic Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauces.

The largest part of a Hollandaise is butter, so the success or failure of the sauce depends not only on skillfully combining egg yolks, water, acid, and butter into a rich, creamy sauce, but also on the quality of the butter itself. Unfortunately, we could only use clarified margarine, since we cook in a meat kitchen, and Jewish law prohibits cooking meat and dairy together. Even though we used margarine, we still got the idea of the sauce. I was really excited to be making it since it's something that I've never had before. Little did I know that this was going to be quite the workout.

In general, the ratio of egg to butter is 1 yolk to every 2-3 ounces of butter. The more eggs you have, the more butter the sauce can handle.

An acid is also added to the sauce for flavor and to help the eggs hold the butter together. The acid can be either a vinegar reduction and/or lemon juice. In our case, we used both. We reduced the vinegar with peppercorns to make a strong, concentrated flavor.

And then, the real work started. I combined a few egg yolks and started whisking them in a large metal bowl by hand. Slowly, I added the vinegar reduction and (continuously whisking) brought the bowl over to a pot of boiling water. I rested the bowl on the pot of water and continued to furiously whisk the eggs and reduction. It was really tricky because you don't want your bowl to get too hot that the eggs start to cook; we don't want to have scrambled eggs on our hands. You also don't want to mixture to cool off too much, either. So it was an aerobic effort to keep my eggs at the desired temperature. On, off, whisk, on, whisk, off, on, whisk. I was so tired. My arm was killing, my wrist was aching, but I did NOT want to be the one who broke a hollandaise. Chef said he was going to make an example out of the broken sauce and show us how to fix it. But I certainly did not want mine to be the example.

Once I got the eggs thick enough (like ribbons, whatever that means), it was time to add the butter. (I'll just call it butter here even though we used margarine, because, gross). I had the measured out butter next to me and, while whisking with my right hand, I slowly streamed in the butter with my left, making sure that as soon as the butter hit the eggs, it was whisked in immediately. As I was whisking, I noticed my sauce was a little thick, so I added a few drops of boiling water just to thin it out a little. Finally, I was able to stop whisking. I tasted and added salt and a little cayenne pepper, and squeezed some fresh lemon juice in there as well. Because we were using margarine, the taste really came through, so I used more vinegar reduction than was suggested, and I squeezed a bit more lemon at the end, and I really liked the result. It was a bit less "margarine-y" than the others.

A Béarnaise sauce, while very similar to the Hollandaise, has a tarragon and vinegar reduction, and with white wine instead of lemon juice.

We also got started on a risotto, which is a rice that needs love for 25 minutes straight. We used dried shitake mushrooms, and placed them in a bowl with boiling water and consume mix (so it would remain parve).

I sauteed finely diced onions in a saute pan for a minute or two, and then added the rice. I mixed the rice until it started to toast a little, and then slowly added the consume/mushroom water (without the mushrooms). I added a cup at a time, and continued to mix the rice until the liquid was absorbed, and then I added another cup, absorbed, and repeated.

I added the mushrooms once the rice was tender, and also added a splash on truffle oil for the aroma. Seasoned with salt and pepper and turned off the heat.

Meanwhile, I had blanched some broccoli rabe, which is naturally very bitter tasting. The bitterness can be removed by adding some acid, like lemon juice, and I added some crushed red pepper flakes, too. The broccoli rabe was chopped up and reserved to be put on top of the mushroom risotto.

This is a nice vegetarian dish that I can make for all of my vegetarian friends. I do have a few. Hi girls!

Tip of the day: When whisking a Hollandaise or a Béarnaise, you're arm is going to want to fall off if you use your upper arm strength to mix. The trick is, it's all in the wrist. This goes for pretty much any whisking work you'll need to do by hand, not just for a Hollandaise. Use your wrist for all of the whisking and you'll be able to stand it for much longer.