A grill fried entrecôte served with a simplified Béarnaise sauce.
The sauce is based on all natural ingredients and takes about the same time to make as those that comes out of a bag.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.
Well, I am a meat person. However much I like good quality food in general and will immensely enjoy a well-prepared fish dish, given a choice, I would go for the beef anytime.
There is nothing that makes a steak more enjoyable than a number of nice side dishes and maybe a spread of good sauces to go with it.
This time I just wanted to see if it was possible to simplify the pretty tedious preparations that go into making a real Béarnaise sauce. The French chefs would say, sure you can simplify a Béarnaise, but “zen it ees not a zous Béarnaise”. Ok, so much for the help from zat side. But admittedly of course, the French are right.
The basis of this sauce is a couple of egg yolks, which you stir and then mix with butter. What you add after that pretty much decides what sauce you end up with, some examples are mayonnaise (mustard), aioli (garlic), hollandaise (lemon) or Béarnaise (white pepper, shallots and herbs). You can refer to your cookbooks for the proper recipes.
Anyway I was just curious about how this would work out and this is what I did:
First you will need two pans. In the first one; melt 50-75 grams of butter so it become liquid enough for pouring. Keep the temperature on the low side.
In the second pan; add two egg yolks and 1 tbsp of water. Whip slowly over low heat until it stiffens. Add the butter slowly. Stir until all has joined.
Add a few drops of vinegar, white pepper, salt, 1 tbsp chopped parsley and 1 tbsp chopped tarragon, all to flavour.
Keep the egg whites for another day.
Done. Goes perfectly with any beef. Barbecued or fried.
Bernaise sauce, simplified.