Friday, January 29, 2010

The Saucier's Apprentice - Heaven In A Bowl - A French Favorite


It's been a long week at work, good, but long and tonight I am going to treat myself (a Lewis Brother’s tradition,mind you) to a pot of homemade Berrnaise sauce and eat it straight with lots of crusty French bread and of course, a 6 to 1 Gin martini!
I don’t want to hear any oh’s! Out there, it’s my stomach and it has been treated to this tradition for over 60 years.
Béarnaise sauce is a hot emulsified butter sauce made of Clarified butter, egg yolks, and a tarragon, shallot, chervil, peppercorn and wine vinegar reduction.
"A Béarnaise sauce is simply an egg yolk, a shallot, a little tarragon vinegar. but It takes years of practice for the result to be perfect," wrote the restaurateur Fernand Point (1897-1955) in Ma Gastronomie. Béarnaise is a traditional sauce for steak or straight out of the bowl!
The sauce was likely first created by the chef Collinet, the inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées) and served at the 1836 opening of "Le Pavillon Henri IV", a restaurant at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, not far from Paris. Evidence for this is reinforced by the fact that the restaurant was named for King Henry IV, a gourmet himself, who was born in the former province of Béarn.The sauce has appeared on US restaurant menus since 1882,

1 comment:

Charlene W. said...

That looks wonderful!! I'm going to have to try making that. Thanks for the idea.