How to make Beurre blanc sauce

Beurre blanc sauce is in its most basic form just meted butter and some kind of liquid reduced to form a thick and creamy sauce.  It is a classic sauce and in some way I would say that most of the time, it is harder to make than some thing like hollandaise.  To day, it is popular to make this sauce with one of those cappuccino-frothing gadgets, to get a real foaming sauce but that is not what it is supposed to be like.  It is as far as I am concerned to be rich and very creamy buttery sauce with a back note of sharp tang from the vinegar.   

To make it you will need,

2 shallots, finely chopped

60ml/2fl oz white wine vinegar

60ml/2fl oz dry white wine

125g/4½oz cold unsalted butter

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

To start with you need to get your shallots and dice then as fine as you can. Now you can use onions if you want but the shallot is not as harsh as a onion. The reason why you want it diced as fine as you can is so that they cook down as quickly as possible and that all the flavours are released in to the sauce.

Get the shallots white wine and white wine vinegar in to a pan get start to cook so that most of the liquid has gone.  Now you can add some stock if you want and reduce the amount of wine and vinegar.  Now to do this properly you should use a white stock of chicken, veal, or fish.  Now having said that you can make this sauce using red wine and red wine vinegar, and a good dark stock.  It is just the same process but a very different sauce.

So what you are looking for is your liquid to be about ¾ reduced.  Then take of the heat and turn the heat down to low. The add your butter one piece at a time in to the sauce.

Now for your butter you want that to be cold, diced in to very small cubes.  You can even hold it in the freezer before you use it  and use it almost frozen . The thing is that you have to have your butter cold so it gives you time to work it in to the reduced liquid.

So taking the pan of and on the heat whisk the butter in to the sauce so that it forms a emulsified or homogenise sauce. Do not add another piece of butter until you have the first fully melted.  You take of the heat so the butter doe not burn or split and then back on the heat if it gets to cold.

What you are looking for is a sauce that is pale and has a thin custard like consistency.

Keep it warm until you are ready to use it.  You can pass it through a sieve or keep the shallots in it as they should have broken down with all the whisking.  However, what ever you do you cannot keep it or reheat it.  It is the sort of sauce that you have to make and serve.

Finally season with a little slat and white pepper and spoon over the finished dish . Or for a little extra add some herbs like, chives dill or parsley in to the sauce to give it a extra dimension.