Hollandaise Sauce and New England

I am sailing up the coast of New England and a bit of Canada, what a beautiful part of the World it is here. Boston I have done on a previous trip, so now we are more going up north and after one day at sea we are in Portland, a lovely town here on the Atlantic. It is as well one of the centres of the East Coast Lobster. Sounds funny, I just wrote about the West Coast in South Africa and now we are in the East Coast of the United States.

After Portland we went on to Bar Harbour, an amazing place just right for a holiday. Arriving by ship is amazing as the rolling hills, islands and beautiful homes pass by. The gown is just so quaint, loads of shops and restaurants. Of course the main attraction is Lobster which is just perfect here. Have it just freshly boiled in sea water, yes you heard right, sea water. This is the absolutely best way to cook a lobster. It lives in the sea, so the water will enhance the flavour and not dilute or change it. But not just the lobster is great here, we had some freshly cooked clams which were so delicious and tasty, a real treat.

The last stop on our 7 day cruise is Halifax, a lovely town in Canada where there is loads to do, museums, restaurants and nature, worth to spend some time here and again, plenty of lobster is available here.

As a recipe today I have a nice Hollandaise Sauce, something that is perfect to go with a fresh lobster. I never use Hollandaise out of a packet, the fresh one is so much better and easy to prepare

Hollandaise Sauce

50 G  (2 oz) Shallots

10 Each Peppercorns

1 Each Bayleave

100 Ml (3 floz) Whitewine

6 Each Egg Yolks

600 G (1.5 lbs) Butter

1 Each Lemon

1 Pinch Cayenne

5 G (0.25 oz) Salt

Clarify the butter

Peel and chop the shallot

Reduce white wine together with shallots, peppercorns

and bay leave

Cool the reduction down

Mix the reduction with the egg yolks

Whisk the mixture in a bain marie until poached

Take the mix off and cool down slightly

while whisking all the times

Whisk in the warm clarified butter

Season to taste

Makes enough sauce for 10 pax