The Kitchen · nine recipes worth the bean

The Kitchen · № 04

Vanilla beurre blanc

Senderens' idea, lifted out of the lobster and put to work on everything else.

Makes
250 ml
Serves
4
Time
20 min
After
Senderens, 1981

Where this comes from

In 1981, at L'Archestrate in Paris, Alain Senderens served roasted lobster with a vanilla-scented beurre blanc. It is the dish that legitimised vanilla as a savoury seasoning, and its influence runs through Alain Passard, Michel Guérard, David Bouley and Wolfgang Puck, each of whom went on to build a vanilla dish of their own.

What follows is a classic beurre blanc. The idea of putting a vanilla pod into it is his. This is our version of his idea, not his recipe.

After Alain Senderens, L'Archestrate, Paris, 1981

Ingredients

  • 2 shallots, very finely diced
  • 100 ml dry white wine
  • 50 ml white wine vinegar
  • 1 Ox & Orchid vanilla pod
  • 2 tbsp double cream (optional; it forgives you)
  • 200 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • Fine salt

Method

  1. Split the pod and scrape the seeds. Put the shallots, wine, vinegar, pod and seeds into a small heavy pan.

  2. Reduce over medium heat until it is almost dry: about two tablespoons of syrupy liquid left, the shallots glossy. The sauce is made here. Everything after this is assembly.

  3. If you are using the cream, add it now and bring it to a brief simmer. It stabilises the emulsion and widens your margin for error.

  4. Drop the heat as low as it will go. Whisk in the cold butter two or three cubes at a time, adding more only once the last has disappeared. The pan should be hot enough to melt butter and never hot enough to simmer. If it steams, pull it off the heat.

  5. Fish out the pod. Season with salt. Strain it if you want it glass-smooth; leave the shallots in if you want it rustic. Keep the seeds either way.

  6. Serve at once, over roast lobster, scallops, turbot, or the modern move, roast chicken. It will not wait and it will not reheat.

The grader’s note

Beurre blanc breaks for one reason: heat. A butter emulsion holds in a narrow band and a simmer splits it. Keep the pan barely warm and keep your nerve. If it does break, take it off, whisk in an ice cube or a spoonful of cold cream, and it usually comes back. As for the vanilla: it is not there to be tasted. It is there so the diner asks what is in it and cannot tell you.

Made with

Grade A Indonesian planifolia.

Every recipe here is written for a real bean: graded, signed, and sold by weight.

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