Beurre Blanc over Brussels Sprouts

This post brought to you by the letter B.  Obviously.  Beurre Blanc is a butter-based sauce with some white wine, lemon, and shallots for flavor.  It is good on absolutely anything, but particularly veggies and fish. 

Actual pictures of the sauce after the jump... it's so fattening that even looking at it could go straight to your thighs.  Above, however, are some very healthy brussels sprouts, about to be steamed.

The sauce is also so delicious that rather than just convincing my husband that brussels sprouts are OK, it made him tear up a little bit.  

Adapted from Alton Brown's Good Eats.

Ingredients
1 -2 shallots, minced (or a bit of onion and a clove of garlic, if you don't have any shallots lying around)
1 c. white wine
2-4 T lemon juice
1-2 T cream
6 T cold butter, cubed  (Yes, I KNOW that that is more than half a stick for just 2 people.)
Salt and white pepper, to taste

Directions
1.  Combine the shallots, white wine, and lemon juice in a stainless steel, small skillet or saucepan over high heat; bring to a boil and reduce to 2 T.

2.  Whisk in the cream.  When it just starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low.  Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, first over the heat and then away from the heat.  Keep going back and forth until the butter is fully emulsified and the sauce is rich and creamy.  Season with salt and white pepper.

Spoon over brussels sprouts.

To prepare the brussels sprouts, I just steamed them; no recipe, really.  This was a first attempt at making brussels sprouts, though, and they were really good.  When I saw this in the grocery store, how could I not try it?

A two foot stalk.  It caused some consternation when my husband found it taking up an entire shelf of the fridge. 

To cook it, I just sliced off the little heads with a paring knife, cleaned, and steamed them for 10 minutes in a steamer basket.  Hm, that sounds more gruesome than it was. 

Served with a pan-fried New York strip steak and the oh-so-heavenly beurre blanc.