What kind of cook are you? Would you say you are fearless and experimental, or do you stick with familiar recipes and repeat things you know will work out well? I think I’m a mixture of both; I enjoy trying new things and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, and yet my repertoire extends at a steady pace and more often than not, I tend to stick with what I know best. Julia Child once said; “This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” This is pretty sound advice, but since time is something many of us strive to save as far as possible, being experimental in the kitchen is often a luxury. This week’s challenge for me was to road-test a brand new product by Lurpak, from their new Lurpak Cook’s Range of ingredients. Luckily, my recipe turned out well and I conquered my fear of tricky, French sauces with my Herby Hollandaise!
The Lurpak ‘Food Adventures’ campaign marks the launch of the new Lurpak Cook’s Range of ingredients, designed to inspire home cooks to try something new. The Lurpak product range has been extended to include a Cooking Liquid, a Cooking Mist, Clarified Butter and a Lurpak Baking – a product that can be used straight from the fridge. At home, we’re on a mission to eat more fish and to incorporate even more veggies into our diet and the #FoodAdventures challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe, incorporating plenty of fresh ingredients.
Within my #FoodAdventures hamper I found a bottle of Cook’s Range Cooking Liquid, some fresh herbs, including bay leaf and dill, and fresh garlic. Lurpak’s Cooking Liquid is a “liquid blend of Lurpak butter and vegetable oil” and it is recommended for pan-frying meat, fish and vegetables, as well as for roasting, greasing tins and baking. I added to my hamper by buying some some fresh halibut and prawns at the fishmonger’s and plenty of vegetables. I challenged myself to try making a Hollandaise sauce for the very first time – using the Cooking Liquid in place of butter to see what would happen.
The Cooking Liquid itself seems to be pretty versatile and I found that a little in the pan went a long way. When cooking, I generally tend to use a splash of oil together with a small amount of butter, which helps to stop the butter from burning. The Cooking Liquid is really just an ‘easy-to-grab’ blend of butter and Rapeseed oil. As soon as it goes into a hot pan, it melts down into a clear liquid and you can cook with it immediately.
First of all, I started on my Herby Hollandaise sauce. To make this, you need a ‘bain marie’ or a heatproof bowl over a pan of very gently simmering water. All you need to do is simply whisk two egg yolks with a splash of white wine vinegar, over a gentle heat, with a pinch of salt and pepper. The gentle heat should start to cook and thicken the yolks without scrambling them! Ordinarily, for two egg yolks, you’d need to whisk in around 125g of butter. I managed to use only 60 ml of the Cooking Liquid and a splash of ice cold water to achieve a silky, smooth, lump-free Hollandaise sauce. I added in some fresh herbs in just before serving the sauce, to keep the fresh herbs looking vibrant.
On the bottle of Lurpak Cooking Liquid it states that for 100g butter/margarine you should use 100ml Lurpak Cooking Liquid. I found I didn’t need quite as much as 125ml in place of 125g butter in my sauce to achieve a good flavour and consistency.
I also added a teaspoon of the Lurpak Cooking Liquid to my vegetables and used it to cook and coat the fish in the pan – adding a little crushed garlic toward the end.
The dish couldn’t have been much easier to make – I was particularly pleased with the Herby Hollandaise and the Cooking Liquid seems to have given the dish an overall good flavour, without the sense of having used too much greasy butter.
On Sunday, I also splashed a little bit of the Cooking Liquid over some par-boiled potatoes, before roasting them in a nice hot oven for 40 minutes – they turned out to be perfectly fluffy on the inside and crisp and golden on the outside – so again, a big thumb’s up!
I’m now looking forward to trying the rest of the new Lurpak Cook’s Range – particularly the Clarified Butter for homemade curries and Lurpak Baking straight from the fridge for cakes as I seem to always forget to bring my baking ingredients to room temperature!
Lurpak are launching and promoting their new Cook’s Range throughout April in the UK, so you’re bound to come across the new range very soon. If you’re on any social media channels, you can follow the campaign and find more ideas by using the hashtag #FoodAdventures
Halibut with Herby Hollandaise
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2
A light supper or dinner-party recipe with pan-fried Halibut, prawns and a Herby Hollandaise cooked using Lurpak Cooking Liquid
Ingredients
- For the Herby Hollandaise -
- 2 fresh egg yolks
- A splash of white wine vinegar
- A pinch of salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 tablespoons iced water
- 60ml Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid (in place of 125g butter)
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 3 teaspoons fresh herbs, chopped, e.g dill, chives, parsley
- For the fish/vegetables -
- 2 halibut steaks (or use cod or haddock)
- 4 large king prawns (skewered)
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tablespoons Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid
- 1 bay leaf
- Mixed vegetables to serve, e.g carrots, broccoli, green beans
- 1 teaspoon Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid
Instructions
- To make the herby Hollandaise sauce, place a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water to make a bain marie. Put the egg yolks, vinegar, salt and pepper into the bowl and whisk the yolks over a gentle heat until the mixture thickens. Add 1-2 tablespoons iced water to loosen, the butter/Lurpak Cooking Liquid and the lemon juice.Take off the heat and whisk together to form a sauce. Set to one side.
- Half-fill a medium-sized pan with water and bring to the boil, adding one teaspoon of butter/Lurpak Cooking Liquid. Add the fresh vegetables making sure they are just covered with water, then simmer, uncovered for ten minutes, making sure the vegetables do not dry out.
- Whilst the vegetables are cooking, heat a large frying pan until hot and then add two tablespoons butter Lurpak Cooking Liquid. Place the halibut in the pan, skin-side down and cook for two minutes. Add the prawns to the pan and cook for a further two minutes. Season with sea salt and pepper. Carefully flip the halibut and the prawns over and continue cooking on the other side for a further few minutes, adding the bay leaf to the pan for extra flavour. Take the pan off the heat and brush the halibut and prawns with a teaspoon of butter/Cooking Liquid mixed with the crush garlic. Check and drain the vegetables.
- Just before serving the fish, gently re-heat the Hollandaise sauce, adding the chopped fresh herbs. Serve the fish alongside the cooked vegetables and sauce.
With many thanks to Lurpak for inviting me to test the Cooking Liquid and come up with a recipe post. I received a product sample of Lurpak Cook’s Range Cooking Liquid, a few ingredients and was paid to develop this recipe. All opinions expressed are my own.