This iteration of the classic French sauce was made with swordfish in mind, but will work for most seafood, and light poultry as well. It can be used as a lower cholesterol substitute for Hollandaise sauce also. The sauce is pretty simple. The trickiest part is mounting the sauce with butter and not breaking the sauce. This is easily avoided by simply paying attention and pulling the pan from the heat while adding (mounting) the butter, returning it to the heat if the pan cools too much.
INGREDIENTS:
Zest from 1 each-lime, small to medium lemon, small tangerine or orange-ensure there is no pith, and you want a total of 1½ tablespoons of zest, with a 2:2:1 ratio of lime, lemon, orange, chopped finely
2 tablespoons citrus juice- use 1 tablespoon lemon and then either 1 of orange or ½ tablespoon each of orange and lemon- all lime juice will be too intense
3-4 ounces white wine,-preferably Monterey County as it has a citrusy/tropical profile usually-such as a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc
1 small shallot, minced
Salt and pepper to taste (white pepper is good here, both for flavor and appearance)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pea-sized bits and keep very cold + a bit more for the shallots*
METHOD:
Bring some water to a boil, then pour it over the zest, then drain in a fine-meshed sieve. Allow to cool.
Heat a small (3-4 cups if you have it) heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. When the pan is hot, add the extra “bit” of butter-around a short tablespoon- to the hot pan. As soon as it is melted and stops foaming add the shallots and stir. Add a little salt and pepper to the pan. Sauté until the shallots are tender and translucent, but do not allow to brown. Add the citrus juice and cook down by 80%. Add the wine and reduce it by 50%. Adjust the heat to low, and add 4-5 bits of butter at a time to the pan. Whisk vigorously or swirl the pan until the butter melts into the sauce and becomes emulsified. Continue doing this until all the butter is used. Be sure to stir or swirl vigorously. If the sauce appears to be thinning and there is butter liquefying around the edges, pull the pan from the heat and add more butter immediately, whisking hard to reincorporate the butter that has “broken”. Continue until all the butter is used and the sauce thickened and smooth. If needed, place it over a water bath (a larger pan with a small amount of gently simmering water), but do not let the pan bottom come in contact with the hot water. The sauce is ready to use.
Chef’s Notes: *Use the best butter you can. This sauce is, after all, about the butter. European-style, European, or artisanal butters are great because they have very little water in them so your sauce will have a nice creamy consistency. (One way to tell if there is a lot of moisture in the butter is how much it steams, or doesn’t, when you put it into a hot pan. If all you have is salted butter, go easy on salting the shallots. Once you have done this a few times you can experiment with different flavors and seasonings. Use red wine and green peppercorns for meat or meaty fish such as tuna. Try it with different wines and herbs and spices. Also, once you become comfortable with the method, it is easier to do smaller batches. You can even do this in the pan in which your protein was cooked, scraping the bottom to incorporate the fond (the cooked on tasty bits that loosen and dissolve when liquid is added to the pan). If you need to adjust the flavors of the sauce, you can do that after it is made, but add liquid in small amounts so the sauce doesn’t thin too much or break. If the idea of the sauce with the citrus zest in it bothers you, strain the sauce through a fine-meshed strainer before adding the couple batches of butter, then return the sauce to the pan and finish the sauce.
Yield: Around 1¼ cups
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
