hollandaise sauce

thank god for the internet.

the local supermarket was selling whole Norwegian salmons at a reasonable price, and because B loves poached salmon, i bought one. a rather large one in fact, and poaching that big fish is a different story.  anyway, after i had won my battle against the big fish and the small oven, B then said, oh-so-matter-of-factly, that we must have hollandaise sauce. "oh, but you can't have poached salmon without hollandaise sauce. you know that.  you'll have to make it."

Make hollandaise sauce?! I don't even know what goes in a hollandaise sauce.  I know what it's supposed to taste like, but no idea what goes in it. egg yolks? what else?

and what do you mean you can't have poached salmon without hollandaise sauce? you've managed so far...

so thank god for the internet.  and google! what did i do before google?  i found a Reluctant Gourmet who gave the clearest instructions on what ingredients i needed and what i needed to do with those ingredients.

you need:

7oz salted butter
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon fine grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar.

the Reluctant Gourmet explains the process clearly, and I won't try and reinvent the wheel.   I followed his instructions and the results were, according to B - "fantastic. as it should be."  B the gourmet has spoken y'all...

Here are the results:

and here's what it went with: