Buttermilk and Serrano Hollandaise

I fell in love with hollandaise sauce a long time ago.  The buttery, silky sauce makes my mouth feel wealthy.  Indeed, any sauce with that much butter in it would.  It’s the primary reason I order Eggs Benedict nearly every time I go out to breakfast.  But I am picky about my hollandaise.  I like my sauce to be flavorful – I want to taste it.  I don’t want a tablespoon of weak hollandaise drizzled on top of a plain eggs benedict, only to be drowned in the taste of a really flavorful meat.  And sometimes, with a weak hollandaise, the whole benedict is exposed as a flavor fraud, with no discernible flavors at all.  I want boldness.  I want a sauce that will stand up to spicy.  A complementary finishing touch that brings everything together.

Clearly, if you ate hollandaise sauce everyday, you’d be in big, fat trouble.  Literally.  But I’ve just discovered a way to make it a little less gluttonous.  Buttermilk.  Buttermilk has terrific flavor – it’s tangy and it’s lowfat.  Most recipes for hollandaise that I’ve seen call for a cup of butter.  In this recipe, I replaced half the butter with buttermilk.  I wanted this to be a little spicy, too, with what I was making, so I grated some serrano pepper into the sauce.  The tang and the spice and the silkiness are beautiful.  I don’t want to say it has half the fat, because I don’t know, but it does have half the butter of most hollandaise sauces.  And I can honestly say that it isn’t any less delicious.

This morning, in my quest for a delicious brunch, I cooked some ground turkey, salt, pepper, toasted cumin seeds, onions, serrano peppers, a couple of tablespoons of refried beans and some water and simmered it for about 20 minutes until the turkey was tender.  I toasted some bread, spread the turkey mixture on it, poached an egg and crowned it with hollandaise.

It was all the flavor I could ever want.  It wasn’t really eggs benedict.  It wasn’t really hash.  It was sort of a mash-up of all my favorite things.

Buttermilk and Serrano Hollandaise

I remember watching a cooking show and hearing the host say that making hollandaise was very, very tricky. And maybe it can be.  But this recipe is not difficult.  You don’t need a double boiler, or a blender.  You just need a whisk or a spoon and a saucepan.  And a little patience.  And the great thing about homemade hollandaise, is you can flavor it the way you want it.  Add a little more lime juice.  Change it to lemon.  Add fresh herbs.  Make it your own.

3 egg yolks

1/3 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. butter, melted

1/2 tsp. grated serrano pepper

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. lime juice

In a saucepan away from the stove, whisk egg yolks and buttermilk until combined.  Put the saucepan over low heat on the stove, whisking continually.  Gradually increase the heat to medium, whisking continually, until the mixture begins to let off steam.  Slowly stream in the butter, whisking continually.  Continue to whisk over medium heat until mixture becomes thickened.   This whole process should take about 10 minutes or so.  Once it is thickened, remove from heat and stir in the salt, the serrano pepper and the lime juice.

Makes about a cup and a half of sauce.

Words, recipe and photos © Elizabeth Fuss