Bernaise Sauce

Buff Orpington Hens lay big brown eggs.

For the last cold, dark month (well dark anyway) my chickens have laid maybe one egg a day. Yesterday I collected four full sized eggs and one little bitty one!  That means two things.  The hens are starting to respond to the increased light coming to us each day, and the little chicken hatched the first of August just laid her first egg!  Oh, and one more thing!  With all those egss and all that beef in the freezer it is time to make Bearnaise Sauce!

Bearnaise is basically Hollandise with different flavors.  Instead of lemon, egg yolks and butter Bearnaise is vinegar, egg yolks, butter, tarragon and sometimes shallot. The technique is the same as Hollandaise.  This is just the best stuff with roast beef.

Bearnaise Sauce



2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar infused with tarragon)
2 egg yolks
6 to 8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pieces.
1 tablespoon minced shallot (optional)
dash of salt and pepper
teaspoon of fresh chopped tarragon or 1/2 teaspoon dried or just a punch if you have tarragon vinegar.

Melt a little butter (1/2 tablespoon) in a small shallow, heavy bottomed pan and saute the shallot a minute or two to soften.  Add the vinegar and reduce the heat to low.  Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks.  Return the pan to low heat and begin incorporating the butter one tablespoon at a time being careful to slowly melt the butter so as not to scramble the eggs.  Continue adding butter one pat at a time melting each pat before adding another and whisking the sauce. When the sauce  thickens, cook it a minute or two longer, whisking all the time.  Serve over roast beef, or hollow a tomato or bit of green pepper or small roasted potato and use it as a container to serve the sauce on the plate.  So very, very good!