Like Butta

Ahh Monday...back to school.

Today we each went through approximately 3 pounds of butter to learn how to properly make Hollandaise, Bernaise, Beurre Blanc, Mayonnaise and Classic Sabayon. All five sauces involved a whole lot of whisking and a lot of butter. First we made Hollandaise sauce, which I have made many times before on special occasions...Mother's Day and my mom's birthday usually because my mom has an affinity for eggs benedict. But this time we made it with clarified butter and we had to cook it much slower and more carefully than I was used to doing. All the work was worth it when the hollandaise turned out perfectly smooth and rich, with a slight tang from the lemon juice. Unfortunately all that hard work had to go into the compost can when we were finished because we didn't have time to cook anything to eat it with and because we still had 4 more butter-filled sauces to make and taste.

Next we made mayonnaise while waiting for our reduction of shallots, white wine vinegar, peppercorns, tarragon and water to reduce for the Bernaise sauce. Mayonnaise is fairly simple and is actually made with vegetable oil, not butter. First we whisked an egg yolk with a dash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and a tablespoon of dijon mustard. Then we slowly incorporated vegetable oil until it resembled the consistency of mayonnaise. We finished it with another dash of red wine vinegar and within minutes we had a delicious mayonnaise, tasting nothing like the concoction they sell in the supermarket. After tasting that, I'm not sure I can ever go back to eating the jarred stuff. Next we made Bernaise which is pretty much exactly like Hollandaise, but with the addition of the shallot reduction that I mentioned earlier. It's a tangier sauce with punch from the peppercorns that goes well with steak. I think I may have to practice making these sauces again for my family this weekend...a little Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise for breakfast, a little Bernaise with steak for dinner and maybe a more artery blockage with a Sabayon for dessert? Tempting.

The last two sauces were a classic sabayon, a sweet sauce made with 3 egg yolks, sugar and marsala wine, cooked very slowly over a bain marie, or double boiler and a beurre blanc. We poured this over sliced strawberries and put it through a salamander, which is essentially like a broiler. This browned the top of the sauce and made a brown crust out of the sauce. It was delicious, although I added a bit too much wine to my sauce, making it slightly darker than it should have been. Looking at the ingredients for the beurre blanc (shallots, white wine and cold butter), I thought the sauce would end up resembling melted butter sprinkled with purple shallots. While Chef Rogers demoed the sauce before we made it, I watched as he added more and more butter, once spilling a bit over the side and exclaiming a quick, "Ooh la la," in his French accent. He suggested adding heavy cream for an even better sauce (or even harder arteries) Once we cooked it, carefully whisking in the cold butter off the heat of the stove, the sauce thickened and developed into a rich butter sauce with the reduced shallots giving it a tangy vinegar punch. By the end of the day, even though I had just tasted each of the sauces, my stomach was not agreeing with all that butter.

Today we worked also with new partners and I was lucky enough to get another partner that I work very well with...Danika. She's very on top of things while we're cooking or prepping and on top of that is just a really nice girl. I really enjoyed working with her today and look forward to working with her for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow we get some real recipes going...4 different kinds of soup! I'll be sure to blog about it tomorrow!