If there’s one thing everyone looks forward to at the end of spring semester here in Ithaca/Cornell, it’s Slope Day. Every year, there will be a huge open air concert on the slope and everyone celebrates the end of another academic year. It’s a day of debauchery, decadence and alcohol. The first year I was here, Ben Folds headlined the concert. TI came last year, but since I was not into rap, I really couldn’t give a damn. This year is Gym Class Heroes, which I must say was pretty good.
Gym Class Heroes in action and happy people
Brunch at 909 before the concert. I debuted my homemade bacon-flavored vodka, as inspired by Cowboy Caleb. I thought it would be liquid gold, but it wasn’t a hit. Goes nicely with coke though.
Poached eggs, asparagus and homemade hollandaise sauce. Hollandaise sauce is such a pain to make and so incredibly unhealthy, given that it’s butter-based. But a hollandaise-based sauce is the way to go, since there are so many things you can do with it. There was also quiche (Thomas Keller’s recipe) and pistachio encrusted french toast (Wolfgang Puck’s recipe), so all in all, it was a good brunch.
How to make hollandaise sauce:
1) Reduce a mixture of vineger and black pepper. Get rid of the big specks.
2) Beat 4 egg yolks with the vineger reduction over simmering water until the mixture thickens. DO NOT SCRAMBLE THE EGGS!
3) Melt 120g of butter and gradually incorporate it into the eggs. Whisk continuously.
4) Add lemon juice to lighten the flavor if you want. You should aim for a lemony-yellow color and butter should be the predominant taste.
The bad thing about hollandaise sauce is that you can’t keep it for long. Put it in the fridge and the butter will coagulate. Heating the sauce will only scramble the eggs, giving the sauce a bad grainy texture. So after the sauce is made, keep it in a warm place and use it within the next 2 hours before it goes bad. Don’t forget, the sauce has semi-raw eggs in it, but the acidity from the vineger/lemon juice should keep bacteria growth at bay at least for a while.
