Simple really.
We buy fish at Costco in big cheaper-by-the-pound lots and then divvy it up into 1/2lb. bags for the freezer.
Cost of fish ~$3.
1C of dry white wine. (Doesn’t need to be the pricey stuff, but at least make it something you’d drink out of a glass without spewing. Peter Vella Chardonnay out of the box we stash in the hall closet for just such uses.)
Chopped onion. I used maybe half an onion. (onion $0.39/lb in Chinatown)
Add wine and onion to saute pan and heat to boiling. Add fish. Cook until fish flakes easily with a fork. Take fish out of pan and put in a glass baking dish.
While the fish is cooking. Melt a cube [1/2C] of butter in a measuring cup in the microwave. Butter melted? Fish done and removed to baking dish? Good.
Boil down the wine and onion until reduced to about 1/3C. Add the hot wine/onion reduction to the melted butter in the measuring cup.
Separate two egg yolks.
(We used the egg whites in the scrambled eggs this morning. …)
Put two egg yolks in blender and whirl. You see where we’re going right? While the yolks are whirling, pour the wine/onion/melted-butter mix into the blender and whirl until it all thickens up. Call this a Hollandaise variant if you must.
Pour the sauce over the fish that’s in the baking dish. Sprinkle with a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese. On top of that, sprinkle a dusting of paprika.
Put under a broiler until the sauce browns lightly.
Served with rice and asparagus, which happens to be 99c/pound in Chinatown and local, not shipped in from Chile or some such place. We had about half a pound between us.
Total cost something like $4, maybe $4.50 for the two of us.
Delish. Hard on the arteries, but delish.