Easy Bérnaise or Hollandaise sauce recipe

It’s Sunday morning in Margaret River. You’re on holiday, and you need something hearty to fill up on before a rigorous wine tasting schedule. This is no time for fruit salad and yoghurt. You need our awesome hollandaise on perfectly poached Margaret River free range eggs.

Hollandaise has a reputation for being a bit tricky – you tread a fine line between a perfect emulsion and scrambled eggs.

But follow our easy recipe and you’re laughing. You too can relive the Margaret River experience with our delicious hollandaise recipe from Willow Grill restaurant.

Oh, and fancy a luscious Bérnaise sauce on your steak? Simple – add fresh tarragon to your hollandaise in the final step.

Buon appetit!
Justin Hickman
Chef, GM – Quality Inn Margaret River

Ingredients

• 100ml White Wine Vinegar
• 1 tspn Peppercorns
• ½ tspn Tarragon
• 2 Bay Leaf
• 6 x Egg Yolks
• 300g Butter

Instructions

Béarnaise = add Tarragon

• Add the vinegar, peppercorns, tarragon & bay leaf and let it simmer until it reduces by half. Then leave it to one side to cool and infuse. It doesn’t have to boil wildly while reducing, just simmer so it has time to also infuse on the stove. We make this in the kitchen and the reduction takes up to 3 hours on the back ring while we’re prepping other stuff for the day.
• Separate your eggs and place the yolks in a food processor.
• Strain your cooled vinegar reduction through a sieve and discard the seasoning ingredients.
• Place your butter in a plastic or glass jug, cover with cling film and place in the microwave on high for about 2-3 minutes. While this is happening, place 1 Tspn of your cooled reduction in the food processor with the yolks and switch it on.
• In the time it takes for your butter to melt in the microwave, your yolks should be pale and at least doubling in size. Leave the food processor running and make sure your butter is bubbling before removing it from the microwave.
• Leave the butter to stand so it separates and the milk solids fall to the bottom of the jug. You only want hot clarified butter.
• Slowly drizzle the clarified butter into the spinning food processor (the hole in the cover on top) and watch how the emulsified yolks take in the butter and make a creamy hollandaise. Continue until you get to the milk solids.
• Season to taste in the processor. If your hollandaise is too thick for your purpose, like eggs benedict, add a little warm (not hot) water to it and whisk it through.

For Béarnaise, add fresh tarragon to the completed hollandaise before taking it out the processor.

Serve with a quality newspaper.

What’s new in Margaret River?

Well, plenty! Amelia Park Restaurant, there’s a new chef at Vasse Felix, whale watching season has started and Cabin Fever festival kicks off this weekend… read all about what’s new in Margies on our blog.

Planning a Winter Getaway?

Book our Margaret River 2 Day Winter Warmer

Looking for delicious places to dine?

Check out our blog 16 awesome things to eat in Margaret River. Buon appetit!