Julia Child's Buerre Blanc

Buerre Blanc is one of the five French 'mother sauces' and before you guess it, yes it has like a heart-stopping amount of butter. Simply translated, it means 'white butter'...sauce. You serve it on fish. Tonight I served it on baked salmon, but usually a white meaty fish like a seabass will work great. Julia Child described her initial 'religious experience' with food that turned her into a bona fied French chef was having sole meunière (filet of sole, deboned) with buerre blanc at a restaurant in Rouen. As a mother sauce, you would think it's very dainty, french and for lack of a better term, frou frou. But it's actually very simple and affordable and can spice up any thing. I had a veggie friend over for dinner tonight so while I poured it on my fish, I poured it on her roasted eggplant and she loved it (pats oneself on back). Julia Child somehow through her charm and wit finagled a very confidential recipe from one of the top masterchefs in France for her signature buerre blanc, but don't be intimidated, it's super easy, super delicious, and super fattening!
You'll need the following:

1/2 cup of minced shallots (cutting these is worse than cutting onions, wear goggles, trust me)
1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
1/2 cup of dry white wine (I personally like a Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, but definitely not something that is too sweet or fruit forward, usually a Sauvignon Blanc will do, but you know me. I like my Chardonnay)
1/4 tablespoon of salt (again, try to get sea salt or some kind of coarse salt, no fancy pink salt necessary)
1/4 tablespoon of fresh white ground pepper (here's where you can cheat, white pepper is hard to find and expensive, go ahead with the black pepper just make sure it's fresh ground)
and FINALLY...
1 1/2 cups of BUTTER!!!!! (That's three sticks people)

The cooking is so easy it will shock you that this is a super fancy masterchef specialty. Brown the minced shallots, add in the vinegar, wine, salt and pepper and put on a VERY LOW heat to reduce it to a mixture that's about two tablespoons. (Forgot to add, please use unsalted butter, you're using salt in the recipe already). After you have the reduction. Put in the butter that you have cut up into pieces while it's cold (DO NOT USE ROOM TEMPERATURE BUTTER) Here's where it gets a little labor intensive. With a gentle whisk, mix in the butter piece by piece, and you should have about 15 pieces, but at the end of it all you'll have this beautiful yellow frothy, velvety, creamy, heavenly, gift from the gods that you'll want to drink with a straw but don't because you'll end up at the cardiologist's office. The acids in the wine and vinegar work on the milk solids of the butter, it's basically delicious chemistry. Pour over anything, your naked body if that's your thing. But it will elevate anything you add it to. That's a promise. Enjoy, and you're welcome!