The sauce here is a béarnaise – an offshoot of hollandaise – but I use parsley as well as tarragon. I’ve given the classic method below. I enjoy doing it but there’s a foolproof way too: you can whiz the egg yolks and some of the vinegar reduction in a food processor (or use a stick blender). Heat the butter in a pan to 90C, then slowly add it to the yolks – while whizzing – until you’ve used it all and the sauce is quite thick.

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Edited by |Jus Mcmahon

Food section -  CJ journalist

World -- April,29,2023

 

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Ingredients

125g white crab meat

40g brown crabmeat

1 tbsp mayonnaise

a squeeze of lemon

2 muffins, halved

115g asparagus tips

4 eggs

 

For the béarnaise

100ml white-wine vinegar

8 white peppercorns

1 small shallot, sliced

1 bay leaf

a sprig of tarragon, plus chopped leaves from 6 sprigs

125g unsalted butter

3 egg yolks

¾ tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

 

Method

1. Mix both crabmeats with the mayonnaise. Add salt and a squeeze of lemon.
2. Next, make the reduction you will need for the béarnaise: put the vinegar, peppercorns, shallot, bay leaf, and a sprig of tarragon in a saucepan. Heat to boiling, then turn the heat down and simmer until the vinegar has reduced by 50 percent. Strain through a fine sieve and set aside.
3. Melt the butter. Put the egg yolks in a heat-proof bowl and whisk a little. Set the bowl in a roasting tin on the hob half-filled with simmering water. Some people set the egg yolks over a pan of simmering water, but with the tin, it’s easier to control the heat by moving the roasting tin or the bowl.
4. Add two teaspoons of vinegar reduction to the yolks and whisk over the heat until this mixture thickens. Now gradually pour in the melted butter, whisking all the time. Don’t add it too quickly and don’t let the eggs scramble. Move

the bowl around the different heat patches in the water in the roasting tin as needed. Add a splash of water if it looks as though the mixture might split.

5. When you have used nearly all the butter, add some more of the vinegar reduction, then gradually add the rest of the butter. You are looking for a béarnaise that is balanced – seasoned and neither too bland nor too acidic. You might want a little salt too. You are unlikely to need all of the reduction. Keep tasting.
6. Stir in the chopped herbs and take the sauce off the heat. Cover the surface with cling film and set it somewhere warm while you do everything else. It should stay warm for 15 minutes.
7. Toast the muffins. Steam the asparagus until just tender. At the same time, poach the eggs in a frying pan of gently simmering water (the water should be 5cm deep). Gently slide each egg from a teacup into the water and cook for 3-4 minutes. Lift them onto a double layer of kitchen paper.
8. Spread each muffin half with béarnaise, season the asparagus and put it on top, then add the crab, the eggs – two for each serving – and more béarnaise.

 

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