Recipe: Haddock Beurre Blanc

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Jul 16th 2007 @ 10:04AM

I have a some guests from out of town visiting for a few days and I wanted to prepare something special. As usual I am all about putting together a meal from fresh and local ingredients. Today it is handmade, cultured butter and fresh caught haddock which were the main ingredients around which I wanted to base the meal. When you have these two ingredients the dish that comes to mind is fish in a Beurre Blanc sauce. This is a sauce made from white wine, fresh squeezed lemon juice, sauteed shallots and then it is emulsified into a sauce by slowly whisking in butter at a very low temperature. I will serve this with a nice Tomato, Green Bean, and Baby Potato Salad with Garden Herbs.

Recipe and photos after the jump.

Here's how I prepared the fish. At the end are the directions and recipe for the Buerre Blanc sauce.

I started with the fresh, local Haddock filet's which I cut into thirds.

Then I took the Haddock and placed it with flour in a zip lock bag and gently tossed to coat the fish well.

I then browned the Haddock in olive oil.

I gently turned over the haddock to finish the other side.

Shallots partially diced- they need to be diced very fine.

Shallots simmering in wine and lemon to reduce to glace (syrup).

Chilled local cultured butter warming up to room temperature to use in make the emulsified sauce.

Butter being whisked into the sauce a few pieces at a time.

Finished sauce with all the butter whisked in and emulsified until all creamy.

Finished dish served with the Tomato, Green Bean, and Baby Potato Salad with Garden Herbs.

For the Beurre Blanc sauce I used the following recipe but doubled all the ingredients and I used the local farm made cultured butter which had an incredibly creamy taste. I also made it in a very old French style where I didn't strain out the sauce before serving. I like the bits of shallots in the sauce and also am lazy when it comes to things like that. But if you want to amp up your presentation, then definitely strain the sauce.

Beurre Blanc Sauce - recipe from The Gumbo Pages

"This is the contemporary version of the classic butter sauce, made without egg yolks.
You can go anywhere from this basic beurre blanc, with endless variations -- herbs, fruit juices or purées, soy, chiles ... your imagination is the only limit."

"Make sure you use real shallots in this recipe, not green onions or scallions (which in New Orleans are often mistakenly called shallots). You can substitute onions if necessary, but they have a sharper flavor; use sweet onions if you have to substitute."

This recipe doubles or triples well, also.

• 2 tablespoons shallots, finely minced
• 1/4 cup white wine or dry vermouth
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice or white wine vinegar
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Salt to taste
• White pepper to taste

In a non-aluminum saucepan, combine shallots with the wine. Reduce a glace (until syrupy). Add the lemon juice or vinegar and reduce a glace. Remove from heat and add one chunk of butter, stirring with a whisk to blend. Slowly add all the pieces of butter until well combined. This technique is called monter au beurre, to finish, or "mount" a sauce with butter. If you need to return the sauce to the heat to incorporate all the butter, do it over very low heat, or the sauce will break.

Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer and serve immediately, or hold in a double boiled over barely simmering water, or in a Thermos.
YIELD: about 3/4 cup

Filed Under: Spirit of Summer, Cooking Live with Slashfood, Ingredients, Drink Recipes, How To, Methods
Tags: america, Baby Potatoes, Beurre Blanc, BeurreBlanc, dinner, east coast, farm, fish, frying, Green Beans, Haddock, Haddock Beurre Blanc, HaddockBeurreBlanc, local, Tomato, vegetables, wine

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-17-2007 @1:48PM GearheadGourmet said... Its a good simple meal, and quite satisfying, I'm sure.
But that beurre blanc technique is too time consuming and runs the risk of breaking.
Here's an easier method:
Once the wine/juice is reduced to syrup, vigorously whisk in ALL of the pieces of COLD butter at once, over relatively high heat. Remove from heat as soon as the butter is incorporated. Quickly transfer it to container to be held until service.
You can whisk in a few drops of cream to keep it stable while holding...its cheating, but it works great.
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7-17-2007 @6:41PM JMForester said... GearheadGourmet- yes that will work quite well if the temp is kept real low, which is the important part anyway. There are so many ways to do a simple sauce like this. I feel the simpler the better. So folks, go ahead and play with it, it is hard to really ruin buerre blanc unless you overheat it once you start adding the butter. -JMF-
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7-18-2007 @4:18PM kellypea said... This meal sounds really tasty. I love buerre blanc and don't remember that it is especially difficult to make, regardless of the recipe I use -- the comments above are interesting. The salad is something I'll definitely try. Great combo. Thanks!

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