Hey, they found water on Mars!

Nice April Fool's joke at the office. I hope no one gets fired.

Inspired by the butter episode of the ever-marvelous Good Eats, I decided yesterday that I wanted to make something with beurre blanc ("white butter"). I skipped the salmon this time and went for the more reliable and way cheaper "Dover sole"--which, as I remember it, can be any number of species, all tasting about the same when young, and no doubt renamed to sound classier. Given that the oven took about twenty minutes and a bunch of natural gas to heat up so it could spend three minutes cooking thin filets of whitefish, I think next time I'll follow Mom's lead and cook the silly things in the microwave. But the sauce. Aaah, the sauce.

My beurre blanc held together! I'm very proud. I did it the way Alton Brown did it on TV, and it just kind of worked, so I have no idea how fragile it might actually be as you whisk in the pats of butter to make the emulsion. In common with many sauces, it tasted entirely too strong on its own, but was nigh perfect on the fish. Make sure you (a) chop the shallots *really* fine, and (b) let the reduction reduce a lot more than you think it should. I think the sauce will come together faster, with a better texture and more integrated flavor.

Woot! I can still cook stuff besides English muffins and chili-cheese nachos (ah, the joys of adulthood).