This is helpful for people like me who love topping foods with sauces like bearnaise and hollandaise, but want to do it with less effort. I have a friend who works in a restaurant and I once described my diet to him. He mentioned making what's called a Beurre Monté (which I think is literally translated from French as "melted butter" but I could be wrong).
You start off with a liquid base that you want to bind the butter with. This can be lemon juice, white wine, red wine, vinegar, hell you could even use water if you want. I typically use lemon juice more than anything because I'm constantly eating fish and chicken, but occasionally I'll use red wine for steak nights.
Since I usually only make a serving at a time, I'll just put maybe a tablespoon or two of the base and put it in a saucepan. Have your cold butter set aside, and cut it into a bunch of small pieces. Supposedly frozen butter will make an even thicker sauce but I haven't tried it yet.
Get your base nice and hot, to the point where it's almost boiling. You obviously don't want to scorch the lemon juice, but the wines can be reduced for a bit longer. Next, take the pan off the burner, and turn the heat way way down, to the lowest setting. Immediately add the first piece of butter into the pan and stir it around using a circular swiveling motion until it forms a uniform sauce with the base. You can use a whisk if you want, but I don't.
Keep adding butter one piece at a time, making sure the sauce doesn't break. If the butter separates, then it means it's too hot. Remember that you want the pan to be BARELY hot enough for the butter to melt. The only time to put it back on the burner is if the butter isn't even melting at all. Keep the butter moving constantly, don't let it sit for a second! This is the part that requires a tiny bit of patience, but it's so worth it. Once the sauce appears to be uniform and has reached a certain viscosity, you can add larger pieces of butter at a time.
After you've used enough butter and you're satisfied with the amount of sauce you have, cut the heat and grab your spices. Add some salt if you were using unsalted butter. If I'm making a lemon butter sauce, I'll usually either stir in some tarragon, rosemary, or basil, (if I'm eating chicken) or dill (if I'm eating fish). If I'm making a red wine sauce for steak/lambchops/porkchops, I'll add black pepper. The possibilities are endless!
By the way, this goes good over any veggies you made with your protein as well. I often make roasted broccoli with my chicken and I'll put the lemon sauce on it and then grate some parmesan cheese on top of it too. Oh man...my mouth is watering just thinking about it right now.
And there you have it! Super easy, only needs 2 or 3 ingredients, and takes about 5 minutes to do. You'll be surprised how good it is. I remember the first time my friend showed me how to do it and I was like "Wait, that's just butter? That's what melted butter can look like?" and he said "Yeah that's really it. Pretty amazing, huh?"
Sorry if the explanation was a bit lengthy, but I just wanted to make sure you guys learned enough for you to nail it every time. "Teach a man to fish" and all that.
Happy keto'ing everybody, I hope you guys love this stuff as much as I do! Also, feel free to share with me any ideas you may have for it.
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