Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, a real French indulgence

Level: Intermediate
Total Time: 45min
Serves: 4

There are few dishes that give me a stronger sensation of spring than Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. What a pleasure when the first asparagus appear on the market stalls! The high season for this vegetable is April to June so make sure you take advantage of it while it is still available.

Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce is a perfect starter, but you can also easily transform it into a lunch dish by adding a poached egg and some fried bacon. In both cases, a freshly baked baguette is a must-have. Scraping up the rest of the hollandaise sauce with a crusty, freshly baked baguette is just heavenly…. This version of the hollandaise sauce is made using the same method as for a bearnaise, which means that you whisk egg yolks into a reduction of shallot/wine/herbs over low heat until it is creamy and thick. In the end, you pour in clarified butter little, by little until you get an airy hot mayonnaise texture. Top it off with a good squeeze of lemon and you’re done. This recipe requires a bit of technique and some arm strength to whisk for around 10 minutes, but the result is definitely worth it. Bon Appetit!

THE TIPS TO SUCCEED

1: The clarified butter needs to be warm, but not boiling. If the butter is too hot or too cold the sauce may separate.

2: If you need to prepare this sauce a little while before serving, then pour it into a thermos to keep it warm. The thermos can be preheated with hot water before you pour in the sauce.

Let’s get started

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 500 g Asparagus
• 4 Egg yolks
• 1 Big shallot onion (or 2 small)
• 150 ml White wine (dry)
• 250 g Butter
• Fresh Thyme and Bay leaf
• Crushed Pepper
• Parmesan
• Salt

How to do it?

The asparagus

Rinse the asparagus in cold water.

Break of the bottom of the stilk. Feel your way up from the bottom until the stilk breaks off easily. That way you are able to remove the less tender part of the asparagus.

If the skin is very thick you can peel it off (but that is rarely needed).

Place the asparagus in boiling salted water for 5-7 minutes. Check them regularly as they should still have some resistance, or be a little bit “al dente”.

The Hollandaise sauce

Cut the shallot onion in small pieces.

Add shallots, white wine, thyme, bay leaf and pepper into a sauce pan.

Let the mixture simmer slowly until almost dry (approx 2 tbs of juice should be left). The longer it takes to reduce the mixture, the more taste will be left in the reduction.

Filter the mixture to keep only the juice.

Clarify the butter, by first melting it without stirring. Remove the “milk” that appears on the top with a spoon, and slowly pour the butter into a small saucepan leaving the white solid part of the butter behind. Keep this butter warm (but not boiling).

Add the egg yolks into the wine/shallot reduction and whisk vigorously over medium/low heat. The mixture should become thick and airy and you can stop when you start to see the bottom of the saucepan when you whisk. It is important that the heat is not too high while doing this as the eggs may coagulate. Touch the sides of your saucepan regularly to check that it is warm, but not hot. Add salt at this stage (approx 1/2 tsp)

Remove the pan from the heat and place it on a kitchen cloth (to keep it stable). Keep whisking vigorously while very slowly adding the clarified butter. Start by adding a few drops of butter at a time and gradually whisk in more and more. Taste if you need more salt, but as salt dissolves slowly in fat so you will need to whisk well to blend it in at this stage.

Add a good squeeze of lemon in the end. The sauce is supposed to be thick but if you find it too thick you can add a little bit of water.

How to serve Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce?

Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce is as good as a starter as for lunch. Serve it with a french baguette and enjoy! It is best to serve this sauce as soon as it is ready. It does not reheat well and cannot, in any case, be boiled as it will separate. You can keep it waiting for a short while in a tempered water bath or pour it in a thermos.