Hollandaise sauce

Here served with asparagus (al dente, cooked for 9 mins) and fillets of flatfish)

Step 1: melt 125g butter in a saucepan and skim any white solids from the surface. Keep the butter warm. 

Step 2: put 3 egg yolks, 1½ tbsp white wine, 1 tbsp tarragon vinegar, a pinch of salt and in a metal or glass bowl that will fit over a small pan with barely simmering hot water.
Whisk for a few mins,  whisk continuously until pale and thick, about 3-5 mins.

Step 3: kill  the heat and slowly whisk in the melted butter, bit by bit until it’s all incorporated and you have a creamy hollandaise. 

(If it gets too thick, add a splash of water.)

Step 4: season with a squeeze of lemon juice and a little cayenne pepper. Keep warm until needed.

Tip from John Ash: No matter how skilled you are in the kitchen, emulsion sauces like hollandaise sometimes “break,” or separate. If this happens, you can try to correct it by whisking in a teaspoon or two of boiling water, a drop at a time. If that doesn’t work, put another egg yolk in a bowl and very slowly whisk in the broken sauce. Usually, the sauce will come back together with one of these methods.

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