Sunday, May 06, 2007

Chicken and aspargus surprise

The surprise was that I hadn't intended to have chicken for Sunday lunch again today but had inadvertently defrosted it overnight so the decision was made by a happy accident. I did my trick with the temperature probe again as I do find it comforting to know that poultry really has reached the optimum temperature. This time I thought I'd accompany the chicken with my remaining asparagus spears and as I adore asparagus with hollandaise, an almost instant hollandaise. For the first time I thought I deploy my Bamix in the hollandaise making and it was a good call because it was amazingly quick and more importantly, tasted delicious.
There is a recipe that comes with the Bamix but I like the little kick from some good white wine vinegar in my hollandaise so I adapted this recipe and made it my own.

Almost instant hollandaise
55g butter
1 egg yolk
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp white wine vinegar

- melt butter in a small pan and set aside
- in a saucepan, blend egg yolk, lemon juice and white wine vinegar with the Bamix 'B' blade
- place pan on heat and bring almost to boiling point stirring continuously
- start to pour in butter whilst still stirring
- once all butter is incorporated and well mixed, remove from heat and enjoy

I whipped up the hollandaise in the resting time after the chicken was removed from the oven so it was really quick, possibly because I only made a small amount (approx 1/4 of the original recipe). I used my magic whisk to stir the sauce to ensure quick emulsifying and the melted butter incorporated really well. It was considerably more efficient than using a food processor as I can never be doing with all that washing up unless I really have to, and I prefer the control of making sauces directly on the hob anyway. Also, when I have used my Magimix to make a hollandaise in the past it can get cold too quick so it is definitely the Bamix way for me.
The best surprise of all was that it all tasted really, really good!

3 comments:

Deborah Dowd said...

I have asparagus in my fridge and I love hollandaise but usualy resort to Knorr mix- your version looks doable for me even between work and helping with homework!

Anonymous said...

I like this hollandaise recipe better than the one in the Bamix cookbook, by far. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

What the heck (being nice) is the "B" blade? Why would you not use the correct terminology so there is no question on which blade to use. So which is it: Whisk, Multi-purpose, or Beater blade?