Some of the most fabulous foods we all love take far too long to create from scratch. I've always tried to find ways to instantly create great food with the minimum of fess, mess and time - so I can enjoy them when I want to and not after I've pre-planned it and worked for hours!

Being able to simply come in from work and whip up a quick meal from scratch, using the fewest ingredients possible, yet still being tasty and giving me a feeling of satisfaction is part of living the dream isn't it!

If you work full-time, you can't go shopping for 12 exotic ingredients, then do 2 hours preparation work and have a kitchen that looks like a bomb's hit it. Not everything can be made ahead and frozen then used. Sometimes it's just nice to have some impressive quick wins!

I learnt this from a friend of mine who was working in a seaside hotel kitchen one summer a few years back. She used to use the kitchen leftovers and whip up some great quick sauces which we'd then take to the beach for an afternoon picnic/BarBQ.

The beauty of this instant Hollandaise Sauce recipe is that ingredients are literally kept to a minimum.  Hollandaise sauce is very simple, but to make it by the full, traditional method it takes a long time, with too many chances of it not coming out perfectly. 

• 10 grams butter
• 35 ml white wine vinegar
• 3 eggs, yolks only
• 35 ml water
• ¼ teaspoon of ground white pepper
• ½ a small fresh lemon
  

You'll need a liquidiser for this recipe.  This instant Hollandaise sauce is brought together in the liquidiser, then poured out.

• Place the butter and vinegar into a wide pan and bring to the boil.
• Place all 4 egg yolks, water, pepper into a liquidiser
• Mix them all together for about 15-20 seconds, this should be all the time they need to blend together
• Once the butter and vinegar have been boiling for 2-3 minutes, quickly pour the mixture into a heatproof jug (this is because you will be pouring the mix out in a minute and it's safer from a jug)
  
• Turn the liquidiser on again and slowly pour the hot butter/vinegar mixture into the egg yolk mixture. It is ESSENTIAL that you do this slowly. As the egg mix is combining with the boiling butter, it's already cooking and thickening.
• Immediately pour the Hollandaise sauce back into the warm pan - which is OFF the heat entirely. The pan will still be hot and over the next 4-5 minutes the Hollandaise will continue to thicken. Stir the Hollandaise a few times while it's thickening.
• Just check the tast of your Hollandaise, adding further seasoning if you need - and squeeze in the juice of the ½ lemon.

You will now need to keep the Hollandaise sauce warm until you're ready to use it. If you've timed your Hollandaise perfectly with your other dishes, then it's ready to go, but if your timing is out then you can simply pour the Hollandaise sauce into a food flask, where it will keep warm for up to 3-4 hours.  I have a wide mouthed flask for this as it's easy to pour the sauce in and to get it out again.

My favourite ways to serve Hollandaise sauce are

• Poured over some freshly cooked asparagus.
• Poured over a muffin and egg as Eggs Benedict. In fact, it's thought that McDonalds Egg McMuffin was created from the concept of Eggs Benedict!
• Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict.
  

If you are a food purist and want the full-blown Hollandaise Sauce recipe, then check out the links list.

Photos by:

Wikimedia Commons: Salmon Eggs Benedict
Hollandaise Sauce: jonny.hunter