steamed broccoli with beurre blanc

servings
4-6

method

Beurre blanc is one of the first things I was asked to make in a commercial kitchen. It’s a French sauce that is surprisingly delicate, and it goes well with any green veg, like asparagus, broccoli or mangetouts. There are many ways of making it, so I thought I’d show you the two that I find most convenient.

Put your wine, shallot, herbs and peppercorns into a small pot and bring to the boil, then simmer slowly for 3 or 4 minutes or until reduced by half and remove from the heat. The first way to make your beurre blanc is to pour the flavored wine through a sieve into a metal bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of water on a very low heat, whisk, and add the cubes of butter one at a time, whisking them in until all the butter has been used. The sauce will emulsify and look like a very loose custard. Use the beurre blanc immediately or keep whisking it over your pan of water. If you leave it too long, the sauce may split.

The second way, and this is my favourite, is to pour some boiling water into a Thermos flask to preheat and clean it. Pour the water away and then sieve the flavored wine into the thermos, adding all of the butter. Put the lid on tightly, place a tea towel over the lid and shake the thermos around for a few minutes. Open it very carefully (in case of any hot steam escaping) and you should have a nice beurre blanc sauce. The best thing about this method is that you can keep it in the flask and it will keep warm until you’re ready to serve the food.

Steam or boil your broccoli florets until they’re soft but not overdone and mushy. Correct the seasoning of the beurre blanc and pour it over the steaming broccoli. For dinner parties it’s quite nice to send out your plain steamed broccoli first, then if you’ve used a Thermos, take it out and pour it over – everyone will think you’re mad. Happy days!

• from Cook With Jamie

ingredients

• 200ml/7fl oz good white wine, preferably Chablis
• 1 shallot or ½ a red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• a few fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves and a little fresh tarragon (if you’ve got any)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 black peppercorns
• 2 heads of broccoli, broken into florets
• 170g/6oz cold unsalted butter, diced
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

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1. by DanielHarragon on Wed 10 Feb 2010 @ 10:42

Like this idea it's great because allot of people get sick of having plain broccilie so any new idea is great wether it's butter salt and pepper or a nice sauce on top! nice

2. by Sleepless in KL on Fri 19 Jun 2009 @ 11:13

Is it possible to replace the wine with stock or something else?

3. by top chef on Tue 05 May 2009 @ 14:53

Hey Jamie, nice one, couldn't fit the broccoli in my flask - do you need an extra big job? Wehey nice one Jamie.

4. by KEZIUS on Mon 27 Apr 2009 @ 11:48

good bea utiful

5. by Ben on Mon 12 Jan 2009 @ 23:25

Very nice. I had neither thermos or metal bowl so just did this in a pan on the very lowest setting on my stove and it worked fine. It also sat on the lowest heat right through the meal without separating.

I would recommend reducing the wine further than half the original volume though. My first effort came out much thinner than shown in the picture.

@Elly I think if the liquid is heated too much, the butter will break down and go very oily.

6. by Elly on Tue 06 Jan 2009 @ 16:29

Hi. Why is it important not to boil the sauce when adding the soft butter?

7. by fayeW5 on Tue 10 Jun 2008 @ 19:35

going to try this...

soinds yummy ...

8. by alp alp on Sun 01 Jun 2008 @ 01:18

ah I m so sorry on the right there is list of what we should use...
sorry my mistake....
sorrryyy....

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