Julia Child's lemon beurre blanc

One night while B in Toronto for work, he texted me that he had a really great meal for dinner - salmon with a citrus beurre blanc sauce. The next message that flashed across my iPhone screen? "I think we can make this at home."

That's how we classify food we get at restaurants: either "We will happily leave this to the professionals" or "We could totally make this at home!" Clearly, citrus beurre blanc fell into the latter category.

We made this at about 4:00 one Saturday afternoon to catch the natural light for photos. I had nearly finished taking pics when our dear friend Erin texted saying her husband, Travis, had made a ton of food, and would we like to come over for dinner? Turns out we would. So we packed up our fish and our sauce, along with a Costco-sized bag of cut broccoli, and took this dinner show on the road. Side note: last-minute casual potluck dinner parties are the best (or maybe it's just us and our friends).

After tasting the citrus beurre blanc, Travis continued dipping whatever he could find into the container of this sauce - fish, his homemade bread, a spoon. As he pointed out, "You have to love a sauce that solidifies at room temperature." We wound up leaving the container of leftover beurre blanc with him. He had mentioned something about taking a bath in it the next morning, but we didn't ask for details, hahaha.

When he made this, B reduced the quantities of the ingredients listed below to make an appropriate amount for two people, although apparently we should have made much, much more. It really is that good. You can drizzle it over fish or chicken, or it would even make a great topping for vegetables. Regardless, you should totally give it a try. Creamy and decadent, but with a bright citrus burst, it really is addicting. You've been warned.

xoxo,
E & B

---

Julia Child’s lemon beurre blanc

This rich butter sauce is great over fish.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized chunks

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pinch white pepper (we used black pepper)

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Have butter cut and ready.

In a medium saucepan, bring wine and vinegar to a boil. Add shallots, salt, and pepper. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. (There should be about 1 1/2 tablespoons of liquid left. If you reduced it too far, add 1 tablespoon of water to remoisten.)

Remove pan from heat. Whisk two pieces of butter into the reduction.

Set pan over low heat and continue whisking butter into sauce a chunk at a time, allowing each piece to melt before adding more. Remember to maintain low heat and never let the sauce come to a boil once the butter is added, or the sauce will separate.

Remove sauce from heat and whisk in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasoning, then strain through a fine sieve into a bowl.

Serve with fish, poultry or vegetables.

Bon appétit!

Recipe from Food52.