Smoked Tomato Choron Sauce
One of my favorite sauces in the world is Hollandaise sauce. It is one of the five French “mother sauces” and, like all of the other mother sauces, it is used as a base for many sauce variations. In this case, my Smoked Tomato Choron Sauce is a derivative of Bearnaise Sauce (a Tarragon infused Hollandaise sauce) which is based on Hollandaise sauce.
I serve this sauce with grilled fish (like the grilled salmon fillet in the photo above) in the Loire valley on our Foodie trips, but it is also great on chicken and it is amazing over beef. It is my go to sauce when I am grilling steaks at my house.
So let’s go through the components of this sauce.
Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise sauce is a versatile sauce that every cook should master. Emulsified sauces can be tricky to make, but with a few key tips, I am confident that you can master it. Click here to see my blog post on Hollandaise sauce.
Smoked Tomato Confit
Confit refers to a food that is cooked in it’s own fat. In this case, the tomatoes are smoked and cooked in their own juice. The mixture is cooked slowly and reduced to a nice thick and rich paste that can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or frozen in small batches for future use. It makes a great sauce for beef or chicken and can be added to dishes like pasta, Caprese Salads or, in the case of this recipe, it can be added to a Béarnaise sauce to elevate it to a new level.
To view my blog post and recipe for Smoked Tomato Confit, click here and I will also include a link to my video, or click the YouTube video below.
TOOL TIP:
Balloon whisks are essential tools for every kitchen. The thin stainless steel wires ensure that the product you are whisking gets properly aerated. This 11-inch Oxo whisk is perfect for small batches of whipped cream, homemade mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce.
Choron Variations
If you would like to save some time and effort, there are a few optional steps that you can take with my recipe below. To make Béarnaise sauce (which is by itself amazingly good with steak) simply follow the recipe below for Smoked Tomato Choron, and just omit the smoked tomato confit. Traditionally, a Béarnaise sauce is made with a tarragon reduction that consists of shallots, dried or fresh tarragon, white wine, tarragon or white wine vinegar and peppercorns. This reduction is added to the hollandaise base in place of the white wine, for a deeper, more in-depth flavor. For my recipe below, I simplified the process by just adding the fresh tarragon at the end, with the white wine going into the hollandaise base.
A Choron sauce is defined as a Béarnaise sauce with the addition of a tomato product, usually a tomato paste. There are many different tomato products out there that you can substitute for my Smoked Tomato Confit from fresh diced tomatoes and ketchup, to tomato based BBQ sauce and Sofrito. Whichever path you choose, you can’t go wrong with the firm foundation of an incredible Béarnaise sauce.
Smoked Tomato Choron Sauce
Course: SaucesCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Medium6
servings35
minutes10
minutesIngredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
1 Tablespoon dry white wine
1 Tablespoon smoked tomato confit (click here for recipe)
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, minced
Kosher salt and ground white pepper to taste
Directions
- Place the butter in a small saucepan and melt over low heat. Set another medium-sized saucepan on the stove over high heat with an inch of water in it, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the egg yolks and the white wine. Whisk vigorously for about 2 minutes.
- Place the bowl over the pan of hot water (it should rest on the top of the saucepan and the bottom of the bowl should not make direct contact with the water) and whisk continuously for about 2 minutes. This is a tricky step. The idea is to heat the egg yolk mixture without turning it into scrambled eggs. If the sauce appears to be thickening too quickly, then remove it from the heat for a few seconds, and whisk it off the heat. When the sauce is warm to the touch and thick, it is ready for the addition of the melted butter.
- Add the melted butter 1 Tablespoon at a time and whisk in very well before each addition. Finish the sauce with the smoked tomato confit, tarragon and season with a pinch of white pepper and salt to taste.
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