broccoli with Hollandaise

Hollandaise is eggzakly like mayonnaise, and I mean zakly ... 'cept differ'nt. Melted butter instead of oil, heated instead of raw. It's totally fun to do with a whisk. Put all the stuff in a bowl except for the melted butter. Until today, I thought you had to add the butter while heating the mixture, but that is not the case.

If you melt the butter in a microwave, it's already fairly warm. This gives you a jump start on heating the mixture in a double boiler. Go ahead and whisk the egg, mustard, lime juice, s/p and cayenne in this case, together. Drizzle butter painfully slowly at first then reasonably slowly to finish, then lift it over the double boiler, whisking throughout. The mixture will magically thicken further at precisely 140℉/60℃, and proceed to thicken further to attractive glop a few degrees beyond. It is so fun! It makes you feel like an alchemist right there!

One note of caution: lift the bowl off the double boiler at the first sign of trouble. That is, while whisking, and never stop whisking, the egg that rides up the sides in a thin film tends to cook faster than the bulk. Whisk that into the mixture as rapidly as reasonably possible, turning the bowl continuously. Remove from heat if necessary to get back on track. If you do that, then making extraordinarily rich sauce is a snap.

Teach your kids! They'll love you for it.

Served on my amazing 100% whole wheat bread, this vegetable dish is a feast fit for royalty. Wait, screw royalty. It's a meal fit even for a precinct chief!