Bearnaise sauce ala Julia Child

Melissa visited for a couple days this week. I decided to prepare a special meal in honor of her birthday: I’d purchase a nice organic steak and planned to pair it with artichoke hearts, a béarnaise sauce to top both.

I consulted Julia Child “The Way to Cook” and immediately had to make substitutions as I had neither “good” wine vinegar nor any dry white vermouth. Dry white vermouth? Little chance of finding any at the Yoncalla grocery. The recipe calls for a ¼ cup of each to be cooked down to 2 Tablespoons. Balsamic vinegar was the obvious answer. We gathered a few scallions from the garden, can’t get any fresher than that!

I whisked three egg yolks until thick and pale yellow then added the vinegar and 2 Tbl. cold butter, set the pan on low heat as per directions. I cook on an inferior electric range, the burners slow, slow, slow. Melissa immediately wanted to crank up the temperature but I prevailed (in hindsight I could have turned up the heat a notch). Whisk, whisk, whisk. Eventually the butter melted and the egg yolk thickened enough to see the bottom of the pan between strokes.

So far so good. After removing the pan from the heat I added 2 Tbl. cold butter, whisking in one Tbl. at a time to stop the cooking. Melissa was whining all the while, a picture of impatience, so I set her to work with the whisk. We began adding melted butter in dribbles. Whisking emulsified the ingredients into a fine, smooth sauce. We tossed in the chopped scallions. Voila, it was done.

I’d planned to photograph the meal but my camera was acting up and I didn’t plan on letting dinner get cold while I figured it out. So we ate.

The meal was magnificent, the béarnaise sauce a perfect accompaniment to both steak and artichoke. Cries of “mmmm” and “oh, this is so good” kept my dogs close by in hopes of a dropped tidbit. Yeah, like that was gonna happen…

So the attached photo is from the next day. The sauce looks more like melted butter after reheating. However it tasted just as good!








Recipe:
3 egg yolks
2 Tbl. balsamic vinegar
4 Tbl. cold butter (half now, half later)
1 stick melted butter
1 Tbl. minced shallots
1/2 tsp. dried Tarragon
1/4 tsp. each salt and freshly ground pepper



Whisk eggs yolks as described above. Add vinegar and 2 Tbl. cold butter. Set pan on low burn and (pay attention Melissa) GENTLY whisk until yolks have thickened and you can see the bottom of the pan between strokes.

Remove pan from heat. Add 1 Tbl. cold butter and whisk until dissolved. Add one more Tbl. cold butter and whisk until dissolved.

Dribble warm butter, a Tbl. at a time, into mixture, whisking all the while. When fully emulsified add spices and serve.

Your tastebuds will thank you.