On 2004-11-30, Fred > wrote:
> very lumpy mess, with clarified butter separated from the lumps. Any
> ideas what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

Nexis pretty much nailed it. But, you fail to give us anything to grab
onto. What is the seafood? How is it cooked? Is it poached, baked,
broiled, fried? Judging by the oil ingredient, I suspect pan fried. Anyway,
you want to take the essence and/or juices of the cooked seafood, i.e.
poaching liquid, pan scrappings, etc, add some wine to it to get the pan
scrappings loosened up. After you get the scrappings moving and grooving,
add some aromatics/herbs like garlic, shallots, tarragon, etc, and add to
the sauce. Now, turn up the heat a bit and let the whole thing reduce to a
thin syrupy consistency. When you reached the desired consistency, take it
off the burner and toss a couple/three pats of cold butter into the pan and
agitate the pan till the butter is melted. Adjust S&P. Serve immediately.


This is about as thick as you'd want to serve on seafood. Anything thicker
is sludge and only useful in casseroles.

nb