Spring is here in the form of a creamy "green as freshly cut grass" sauce. Of course it tastes way better than grass, but its beauty and color may actually be brighter than my exuberance for the warmth of spring to finally arrive each year....
Chive Cream Sauce
30 g minced chives
160 ml heavy whipping cream
2 T butter
1 T olive oil
1/3 c minced onions (one full handful)
dash of freshly grated nutmeg
In a heavy bottomed pan with a good fitting lid, add 1 T butter, the T olive oil and the minced onions. You want to cook these on LOW with a lid, checking every 2-5 minutes and always letting the water from the lid drip back into the pan. You want them to cook so very slowly and turn a light golden brown. This creates a sweetness that is very important to the balance of the sauce. This took me about 10-15 minutes. Be careful not to burn them!
While those are cooking, in a blender add the chives (very finely chopped or they do not purée properly) and 100 ml of cream. You want to blend this starting slowly and building up to high. If you immediately got to high it will turn into whipped cream quite quickly. You need to really brea down the chives into the cream to get the full flavor of the herb in the sauce. Once it is both whipped and well puréed, you can stop.
Once the onions are a light golden brown, add the chive cream to the pan and begin to cook it on a medium heat. You want to stir it the whole time. This stage helps get rid of the water from inside of the chives which will make you sauce separate if not done correctly. You want to cook this for about 3-5 minutes stirring regularly until the sauce is thickened and you see less moisture in the pan. I want to be clear here, you do still want to see cream in the pan, just not so many little, tiny bubbles of water inside of the cream. Once that is done, add the rest of the cream and stir for another couple of minutes until it all comes together and warms up. It may need to reduce just another minute or so, but then add the nutmeg and season it with salt and pepper. I added the last T of butter at the end just to bring it all together.
Tip: if for some reason your sauce separates, you can add 1 T cold water to 1-2 t corn starch and mix it in well. Once the sauce is boiling it will thicken it back up and your sauce is saved!
FYI: It also goes exquisitely well with fish...
