Maltaise sauce – blood orange hollandaise

Step 1

Place the butter in a jug and heat in the microwave until melted

Step 2

Set a large heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water)

Step 3

Whisk the egg yolks with a tablespoon of the blood orange juice it has thickened, and forms ribbons when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. This will take 3–4 minutes depending on the temperature of the bowl. Keep an eye on the water, if it gets too hot the eggs will scramble

Step 4

Whilst continuously whisking, slowly drizzle in the melted butter – the white milk solids will have split from the clarified butter and will sit at the bottom of the jug. Keep on drizzling and whisking until you are just left with the solids at the bottom (don’t pour these in)

Step 5

At this stage the sauce should be quite thick – squeeze in the rest of the blood orange juice bit by bit until you have the desired consistency and flavour. Stir through the orange zest at the end

Step 6

Taste and season with salt. If the blood orange you’ve used is a sweet one, add some lemon juice for sharpness

Step 7

Serve warm, the sauce will form a skin quickly and is likely to split if re-heated