Pearls, Curls & French Cuisine – Chapter 2: Asperges à la Sauce Hollandaise

Dearest reader,

The very first day mom and I discovered that we were in a posession of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child we immediately had to give it a try by boiling asparagus according to Julia.

So we put on our pearls,

tied back our curls and

opened page 377 on asperges.

Asperges au Naturel

The Julia Child's boiled asparagus recipe is, according to her, the French way to prepare asparagus by peeling any extra skin off and slowly boiling it in salt water. Apparently, the end result should be a slightly soft, fresh green vegetable that is never limp. In fact, in France, a plate of asparagus is actually one whole dish often served with a suitable sauce and white wine. I don't know about you, but that is music to my ears or, perhaps more fittingly, saliva to my tongue!

Sauce Hollandaise

So meanwhile our asparagus was boiling we read on the recipe and saw a list of sauces Julia recommeds with the dish, one of them being hollandaise – a buttery, egg yolk sauce with a hint of pepper and lemon juice on page 72. However, on that particular day we didn't have the ingredients required to make the sauce and, therefore, we decided to try it next Sunday on mother's day.

A week later with another batch of asparagus on its way I weighted out the ingredients – egg yolk, butter, lemon juice, salt & peper – which mom whipped up into the delicate yellow sauce the world knows as hollandaise. And when I say whipped up (or fouetter in French), we definetly used Julia's easy Hollandaise recipe that, according to her, even a six year old can make with a blender or an electric stand mixer. And thankfully, it truly was that easy!

The Result

Not that we hadn't had asparagus before – because our household adores it – but, I certainly had never had it with Hollandaise since I generally find sauces unpleasant. However, this one was so incrediably delicious, delightful and utterly wonderful! And the fact that we prepared it with Julia Child's cookbook made it extremently romantical. Needless to say, I will never eat asparagus again without missing a sprinkle of hollandaise! What a lovely word indeed, hollandaise! I cannot help but imagining myself ordering Hollandaise at a cafe in Paris: Je prends hollandaise s'il vous plaît.

Moreover, can you believe it has only been our second recipe and my world has already been rocked! Until next time!

Yours Truly,

Siiri

P.S. if you liked this post, tap the heart below so I know to make more like this!

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Have you ever made asparagus with Hollandaise before or had this dish while traveling in France?

What other souces would you go for?

What should I make next?