White Butter Makes Everything Butter

Beurre Blanc

You know when you cook fish at home and it's just SO fishy? Then you go out and order fish and they say it's cooked with "lemon butter" and when they bring it out there's this creamy sauce layered thinly on the fish, and it tastes like HEAVEN? Music plays in your head, a smile appears on your face, your eyes develop that romantic fuzzyness that makes your partner extra gorgeous? That, ladies and gentlemen is Beurre Blanc.

What I did was a very simple supper, fish fried in olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper, and steamed broccoli. Couldn't be more boring or bland, right? But the addition of the magic (definitely black magic) sauce, just changed it completely! It tasted like something I would order at a restaurant, and rave about afterwards!

Fish has always been problematic for me. We didn't cook much fish when I was growing up so I've been a little lost about diversifying my cooking techniques and sauces. Beurre Blanc has been a huge breakthrough.. Just HUGE!!

Thank you Julia Child, for teaching me how to cook something this good for my fiance.

Beurre Blanc
From Mastering The Art of French Cooking

1 tblsp chopped shallot
60 ml white wine vinegar
60 ml white wine
salt and pepper
350 g butter, chilled and chopped into about 25 cubes.

1) Put the wine, vinegar and shallot into a small saucepan with generous salt and pepper pinches.

2) Boil until only about a tablespoon of liquid remains.
3) Take pot off the heat and turn heat source down to low.

4) Add two cubes of butter and whisk in vigorously.
5) When they start getting soft and melting, add another cube, and put pot back onto a low heat.
6) Keep whisking until the butter starts melting and adding extra cubes. The mixture should be thick and creamy.

7) You can add more than the butter specified (I added a bit more), but preferably not less, as that might make the vinegar taste too strong.
8) Drizzle onto fish and broccoli and enjoy!

I cheated a bit here.. I couldn't get shallots so I used onion chopped very finely. Also, I could only get white spirit vinegar which isn't very high quality, but even so the sauce was completely, life-changingly fantastic!!