A Buerre Blanc Break

I have moved from the final grading phase to the final papers that need to be written phase.  And then I will move to the sermon writing phase and back to the final grading phase--this time, for the online classes that I teach.  But today will be the day I get the rough drafts complete for the two papers that are due tomorrow.

Yesterday I took some time out from paper writing and helped cook lunch.  I bought some rainbow trout on Monday, and we wanted to do something different than the stuffed trout that we often do.  So we decided on a buerre blanc sauce.  I want to record the recipe, while I'm still remembering it.  It was phenomenally easy and even better, it was quick.  It is not low on calories, however, or saturated fat.  And because it is so delicious, I ate a lot of it.  But it was the main source of calories for the meal, so I feel less bad about it.  I wouldn't want to make this sauce on a day of heavy meals.

Ingredients:

9 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, divided
3 tablespoons shallots, finely chopped
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or lemon juice
1/3 cup heavy cream

a few grinds of salt and pepper

chopped fresh herbs are delicious too--I used sage

we also used the zest of half a lemon

Here's what we did:

We browned the shallots in 1 T. of butter and then added the wine and the lemon juice and let them reduce a bit.  We added the cream and the rest of the butter in chunks, whisking after each chunk.

The classic French approach calls for straining the sauce, but we didn't, and it was delicious.  And I do realize that the classic French approach doesn't use cream.