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Bonjour my friends, I’m Frankie and welcome to Club Foody! Since I started my website over 5 years ago, I’ve
been showing you how to make an important part of cooking which is the 5 French Mother Sauces.
So far, we’ve learned about Béchamel, Hollandaise, Espagnole and a few of their secondary sauces.
Here’s another one that belongs right under Hollandaise.
In today’s episode, I’ll show you how to make my Béarnaise Sauce!
This recipe is one you have to master especially if you enjoy filet mignon.
It’s a rich, buttery sauce that has a beautiful aroma from the tarragon. In this video,
you’ll see how easy it is to make from scratch. So my friends, let’s get cooking!
First, we’ll make an infused wine. In a medium saucepan, we’ll add shallots, dry white wine
then white wine vinegar but you can always use Champagne vinegar, a couple large sprigs of
tarragon and some mixed peppercorns. We’ll stir to combine the ingredients and bring the mixture
to a boil. When it gets there, we’ll reduce the heat and let it simmer until there’s about 3 to
4 tablespoons of liquid left in the saucepan, about 15 minutes. We’ll remove from the heat
and strain the mixture through a fine sieve sitting over a bowl. We’ll press down on the
solids to extract as much liquid as possible, discard what’s left in the sieve and set aside.
Next, in another medium saucepan, we’ll add our 4 egg yolks and there’s one who doesn’t want to
jump… c’mon buddy! Oops… there it is! All right, so we’ll start whisking until they get thick,
about a minute. While we’re doing that, we’ll slowly pour in the infused wine.
Why not pouring it in faster? - you may ask. Well let’s put it that way – egg yolks can be touchy
and to not disturb them too much, introducing the acidity slowly will blend everything perfectly.
So we’ll move the saucepan on the burner and set the heat to medium. We’ll season a little bit with
salt… not too much, okay! Now, here’s the tricky part… While whisking constantly, we’ll lift the
saucepan on and off so we don’t shock the yolks by gradually heating them up otherwise they might
turn into scrambled and this is far from what we want. Another way to do it is to simply slide the
saucepan off and on the burner – I personally prefer lifting up so whichever way you prefer.
Eventually, the custard will thicken nicely… look at this, isn’t it beautiful? So when we reach
this consistency, we’ll move the saucepan away from the heat and start adding the lukewarm,
melted butter, pouring in a few drops at first – remember not to shock the yolks! As we continue
whisking continuously, we’ll gradually add more as we progress with the sauce without messing up
until it’s all incorporated. It should take a couple minutes. When this step is done, we’ll add
some lemon juice which will brighten up the sauce. Last but not least, we’ll add some fresh chopped
tarragon and whisk it into the mixture. Of course, we’ll taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Now here’s a little trick… Filming takes time, so my sauce got slightly too thick. It’s okay,
I added about half a tablespoon of lukewarm water to thin it out. If it happens to you for whatever
reason, don’t panic and add a little bit. See, now the consistency of the sauce is perfect – not
too thin or not too thick. We’ll serve immediately otherwise, we’ll place a piece of wax paper on top
making sure it touches the surface to prevent a skin from forming - and that’s it, we’re done…
And my friends, this is our Béarnaise Sauce! This Hollandaise secondary sauce
is traditionally served with steaks but can also be used with salmon or swordfish,
on eggs as well as on the famous open-faced sandwich called Chicken
Rochambeau or even on beans, asparagus, etc. It’s another flavorful French classic sauce to master…
I hope you give it a try soon and be sure to visit clubfoody.com
for ingredient amounts, directions and more info… Until next time my friends, bon appétit!
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