Buerre Blanc and a hacked Sauce Béarnaise

Okay, I'm not going to begin my treatment of the mother sauces quite yet. The last few days, besides being busy with schoolwork and my research, and haven't had time to collect my thoughts on roux. My cooking has been occupied with trying variations on sauce béarnaise until finally hitting upon something I would be proud to serve to people. It's a bit elaborate.

First prepare the flavor infusion. Equal parts white wine and white wine vinegar, shallots and tarragon should be reduced by a third or so. This can be done on a different day--the infusion keeps well in the refrigerator.

To make the sauce, I like to begin with a buerre blanc. Shallots, equal parts white wine and white wine vinegar (a half cup or so of each). Reduce until there is almost no liquid left (and during the reduction, cut a few sticks of butter into one-inch chunks). Add a few tablespoons of heavy cream. The begin adding the butter, one chunk at a time. It's not super-delicate, but be careful not to heat it so much without stirring that the butter clarifies.

Now, this sauce can be served as is, over fish or eggs or vegetables or anything else that goes well with butter. But for a bit extra trouble, it can be turned into the sauce béarnaise.

Let the buerre blanc cool. Add just a little of the cold wine/vinegar/shallot/tarragon infusion to egg yolks--about a teaspoon and a half or so for three egg yolks. Make a sabayon (see my earlier post on hollandaise). Now whisk in the buerre blanc. Some might like to clarify the butter first, but I prefer it unclarified--more body, more flavor, more creamy goodness.

Flavor can be adjusted with the infusion and with pure butter (but be careful--it's easy for the flavor of unclarified butter to overwhelm the shallotty goodess).

The highs have been in the 70sF, and the lows in the 40sF. This is so awful. We even had frost advisories a few days ago. I suppose it is nearing the end of September, and this is probably considered normal around here. I think I've pinpointed my frustration with this climate--I feel like summer never really happened. I only put on shorts once, and regretted it all day. One other day I wished I had worn shorts, but that was because I was in a poorly venilated building (with no AC, not that there was any point this summer where I felt the need for AC). My only experience of summer was the two weeks I spent in Austin this June. Perhaps next year I'll visit for two weeks in August so the constant spring/autumn actually feels refreshing instead of infuriating and depressing.