I need béarnaise sauce, the instant kind in a little red packet just add butter and water. It tastes so good on a nice pork loin roast and a side of steamed asparagus. Up and down the soup aisle, the baking aisle, the all-kinds-of-sauce aisle and out of desperation, the detergent aisle. I need laundry detergent too. No béarnaise. I can make it from scratch but it is the principle of the matter, why should I have to! I am here expecting to buy my little red packet and the store should have it. Back to the baking aisle. A woman notices I’m searching, obviously in vain. She asks me what I am looking for.
“Béarnaise sauce,” I say.
“The kind in a little red packet?” she asks.
“Yes!”
“My store always has it,” she states so matter-of-factly, a frayed bit of anger at the edge of her voice. “They don’t have anything here.” She stands in front of empty shelves where the sugar should be, where a note says something about being sorry but due to the hurricane, supplies are short. A shipment will arrive soon.
This woman needs sugar. She looks at empty shelves as if somehow, someone will bring what she needs, right now! She looks put out.
“Yes, Houston shut down for a day or two because of the near miss of the hurricane. They must get their sugar from there,” I say, days and miles away from the matter of the fact.
“I live in Houston,” she says. Her face is sour. Her unmet sugar need makes her angry.
“They have lots of natural kind, big brown grains, better for you anyway,” I say but she’s already stormed off not quite as empty handed as she thinks, I’m sure her shelves at home are all full and in fine order.
I suppose she could have been one of those sets of red waning taillights on the news. Over a million people, all needing to escape a killer storm, all at the same time, all on the same too thin road, all day and night, all for a near miss. Maybe she was disappointed. The people up the coast got everything they didn’t need, everything that she was promised. She will need to drive all the way back to Houston to get sugar.
I think I’ll make the béarnaise sauce from scratch. I have everything I need.
psgates
Béarnaise Sauce
1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1/4 cup dry white wine 1 tablespoon minced shallots 1 tablespoon dried tarragon Salt and pepper 3 egg yolks 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted in saucepan 2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
In a small saucepan combine vinegar, wine, shallots, and dried tarragon and simmer over moderate heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons of liquid. Cool and strain through a fine sieve. In the top of double boiler or a heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they become thick and sticky. Whisk in the reduced vinegar mixture and pepper.
Place the pan or bowl over a saucepan of simmering, not boiling, water. Whisk until mixture is warm, about 2 minutes. (If mixture appears to become lumpy, dip pan immediately in a bowl of ice water to cool, whisk until smooth and then continue recipe.) The yolk mixture has thickened enough when you can see the bottom of the pan between strokes and mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whip.
While whisking the yolk mixture gradually pour in the melted butter, a tablespoon or so at a time whisking thoroughly to incorporate before adding more butter. As the mixture begins to thicken and become creamy, the butter can be added more rapidly. Do not add the milk solids at the bottom of the melted butter.
Season the sauce to taste with chopped tarragon, salt and pepper. To keep the sauce warm, set the pan or bowl in lukewarm water or in a thermos.
