Hollandaise Sauce

THIS CLASSIC hollandaise sauce, an emulsion of egg yolks and butter flavored with lemon, is a perfect match for fish. The sauce is also used with poached eggs and with vegetables. For eggs I omit the lemon juice completely, and I use only a touch of lemon when serving with vegetables. I like to vary the sauce by adding chopped fresh chives when available.

The sauce is most often made in a double boiler. This technique is tedious and the resulting sauce is quite heavy. When made with