Hollandaise sauce is a delicious buttery, lemony sauce made of an emulsion of hot butter and egg yolks.  I first experienced this sauce on top of an asparagus crab meat omelet and it was love at first bite.

After two failures, I finally figured out two easy ways to make this sauce.  

Fun note: I started singing Madonna’s “Holiday” but exchanged the word to “hollandaise”.  Give it a shot.  It was silly, but fun! “Hollandaise! Celebrate!/If I made some Hollandise (oh yeah, oh yeah!)/Took some time to celebrate./Just one day out of life/It would be so nice!”

The Basics

• 3 egg yolks – Don’t throw away egg whites and broken eggs! Use them to make an omelet!
• A dash of hot sauce
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of Dijon or regular yellow mustard – You can also substitute this with a few shakes of dry ground mustard.
• 1/2 cup of hot melted unsalted butter – That’s 1 whole stick.  Make sure the butter is bubbling hot or it won’t cook the egg properly

The Rundown

Blender method:  Add all the ingredients except the butter in a blender.  While blending, slowly pour in a thin stream of butter.  The sauce sauce immediately thicken.  Stop blending and serve in a small dish.

Whisking method:  Quickly whisk all ingredients except the butter.  While whisking, slowly add the butter and the sauce should thicken.  Serve in a small dish.

Additional Notes

In my experiments, I had an issue with the butter not being hot enough to cook the eggs.  So I put the almost ruined sauce in the microwave for 10 seconds.  Whisk the mixture.

If it’s still not cooked, microwave for 10 second intervals and whisk again.  It took two intervals for my sauce to get a smooth creamy consistency.

The Basics

• Chicken tenderloins – You can get other cuts of chicken like the thighs or breasts, but I just think the tenderloins are made for this sort of thing.
• Flour/cracker crumbs/bread crumbs/matzo meal – Anything you have on hand will do; about 2 cups or so
• Salt or season salt – To taste
• Garlic powder – To taste
• 2 or 3 beaten eggs
• Milk – about a 1-2 cups
• Cooking oil – about 2 – 3 cups
• Mustard – Yellow mustard or Dijon; about 2 tbsp
• Honey – 2 tbsp

The Rundown

Soak chicken in milk for at least 15 minutes  to overnight.

In a pie plate, combine flour/crumbs, salt and garlic powder.  Scramble eggs in a large bowl.

Generously coat chicken.  Shake off excess dry mix.

Coat floured chicken in egg wash.

Re-coat chicken in flour.  Repeat until all chicken has been floured.

Heat cooking oil in a deep pot until it reaches between 325-350 degrees.  Take it off the burner if it gets too hot to let it cool.

Slowly add a few pieces of chickens in oil. Don’t drop chicken in the oil or it will splash out.  Cook on each side until golden brown.  I would flip it every 5 minutes or so.  Keep an eye out on the temperature and regulate it as best you can.

When completely brown, let cool on top of a wire rack with a paper towel.  Keep cooking the rest of the chicken.

View of the finished product! =)

Mix mustard and honey in a small bowl.  Adjust to the sweetness and tangy-ness you prefer.  Enjoy!

Steamed blue crabs are plentiful in Hampton Roads — thanks to the Chesapeake Bay.   Eating steamed crabs with a bowl of rice and vinegar garlic dipping sauce is the typical Filipino meal.  The sauce is very simple to make and adds a very nice zest, instead of just using Old Bay.

The Basics

• Garlic cloves – peeled and minced; I really like garlic so I use about 3-4 cloves
• White vinegar – 1/4 cup
• Salt and pepper

The Rundown

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  Let marinate for about 5 minutes before eating.
2. You use the sauce with crab mustard and meat.

After a KILLER boot-camp workout, I was craving protein.  I don’t usually eat steak, but this turned out pretty good.  I’m also including the recipe for the au jus (pronounced “ah-shew”) sauce.

The Basics

The Steak

• Steak of your choice – I think a bone-less ribeye
• Butter – 1 tbsp
• Spices – I used kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder

Au jus

• Pan drippings
• Beef broth
• Spices – Kosher salt, pepper
• Cornstarch
• Water

The Rundown – Steak

1. Steak should be room temperature.  Allow it t o sit out for about an hour to regulate temperature.
2. Season steak. I used mostly salt and pepper with a little bit of garlic powder
3. Heat non-stick frying pan to medium heat.  Melt butter.
4. Add steak and turn to medium high heat.
5. Cook for about 6 minutes on each side.
6. Lower cooking time a minute until steak is cooked to your preference.  It will also depend on how thick your steak is.

Here is the internal cooking temperatures :

• Very Rare Steak – 120°
• Rare Steak – 125°
• Medium-Rare Steak – 130° – 135°
• Medium Steak – 140° – 145°
• Medium-Well Steak – 150° – 155°
• Well-Done Steak – 160°

7.  Take steak off 5 degrees before the done-ness you prefer, because steak will continue to cook as it rests.
8.  Let the steak rest on a plate, covered loosely with aluminum foil or put in microwave.

The Rundown – Au jus

1. Pour steak drippings in a small saucepan.  Heat to medium heat until rapidly bubbling.
2. Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup beef broth.
3. Add about 1/4 tsp pepper and a pinch of salt.
4. In a small bowl, put about 4 tbsp. of cold water and a teaspoon of corn starch.  Mix well.
5. Slowly incorporate corn starch mixture in broth.
6. Au jus should be slightly thick.
7. Put on the side of steak for dipping.

Besides sidestepping Asian guilt, there are benefits of making your own stock using left overs: 1) saving money, 2) controlling the flavors, 3) monitoring the amount of salt.

The Basics

• Uncooked shrimp heads and shells; about 3-4 handful (I think that translates to about 2 lbs of shelled shrimp) – If you don’t have the heads, that’s fine, but the stock is going to be less intense.
• Veggies – I used an onion, couple cloves of garlic, celery, and half of a lemon
• Spices – Fresh thyme, 2 bay leaves
• Water

The Rundown

1. Prep the veggies.  Roughly chop the onion and celery.  Wash the lemon and slice into big pieces.  They can be big chunks because you won’t be eating them.
2. Put veggies and shrimp heads and shells in a medium size pot.
3. Add enough water to fully cover all ingredients.  Be careful not to add too much water or the stock will be diluted.
4. Add a couple pinches of salt.  Add bay leaves.
5. Tie the the stems of the thyme together with cooking twine, if you have some.  And let’s try to avoid a Bridget Jones situation: do not use blue yarn!  Add thyme to the pot.
6. Cook on medium heat until simmering — not a rapid boil.
7. Put cover on and cook for about 30-45 minutes.
8. Put a strainer/colander in a large boil.
9. Carefully pour stock into the strainer.  You should be able to carefully lift the strainer up to remove all the veggies, shells, etc.
10. You can use immediately, or wait for the stock to cool to room temp.  Once cooled, you can freeze it for about 1-2 weeks.

Additional Notes

• I think the best way to freeze it is to put the broth into Zip-lock sandwich bags.  Make sure they don’t leak!  Lay them flat in Tupperware so they are stacked like pancakes.  This way when you freeze it, you will have serving size amounts that are ready to go!

The Basics

• Olive oil
• Sauce base – large can of diced tomatoes if you like chunky sauce. You can also get a jar of plain marinara if you want something smoother.
• Veggies; chopped – I used a medium onion, a stalk of celery, 3 cloves of garlic, a handful of mushrooms, and a bell pepper
• Sausage without the casing – I like using sweet or mild Italian sausage
• Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• Sugar
• Red wine – They always say to only use wine you would drink, so don’t buy “cooking wine”. I used a Cabernet Sauvignon, but I also like cooking with a Shiraz.

The Rundown

1. In a medium saucepan, heat about 2 tbps of olive oil over medium heat.
2. Saute onions until caramelized. You may want to lower the heat to avoid burning.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat.
4. Add the sausage to the vegetables. Cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Mix the sauce base in with the vegetables.
6. Add about 3 or 4 tbsp. of red wine (about 1 or 2 glugs of the bottle).
7. Add a few pinches of salt and pepper, about 1 or 2 tsp of Italian seasoning, and about 1-2 tbsp. of sugar.
8. Simmer for 30 minutes under low-medium heat.
9. Taste the sauce and add a little more seasoning, salt, pepper or sugar until it suits your taste. Careful — it will be hot!
10. Serve on pasta!

Additional Notes

• Sauce can be stored in the fridge for about 2 days or frozen for about a month. I put extra sauce in sandwich baggies so they are ready to go for quick & easy individual servings.