French Classics Made Easy (66 page)

2.
Strain the stock into a small heavy-bottomed saucepan and continue reducing over medium heat until the liquid thickens to coat a spoon, about 30 minutes. The liquid will at this point be dark and shiny and will bubble slowly.

3.
Pour the hot glaze into a heatproof custard cup or bowl and refrigerate. When cold it will be firm and can be easily unmolded. Invert the cup or bowl, and with your thumb, push or pull the glaze from the edge of the cup toward the center. This will loosen the glaze and allow it to fall into your hand.

4.
Wrap the glaze well in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze it. To use, simply cut off teaspoon-size chunks, and rewrap the unused portion. A glaze will keep this way for many months.

IN ADDITION

After making a glaze, allow a small piece to melt in your mouth and notice the wonderful intense flavor that is released. You will find the glaze salty, even though no salt was added when making the stock. The salt you taste is the natural salt extracted from the bones and vegetables used in making the stock.

VARIATIONS

C
HICKEN
G
LAZE

[GLACE DE VOLAILLE]

Make Chicken Stock (
page 307
) and reduce to about 1 cup of glaze.

F
ISH
G
LAZE

[GLACE DE POISSON]

Triple the recipe for Fish Stock (
page 306
) and reduce to about ¾ cup.

G
AME
G
LAZE

[GLACE DE GIBIER]

Make Game Stock (
page 304
) and reduce to about 1 cup.

SAUCES

French cooking’s fame is in great part due to its many superb sauces. A plain piece of poached fish takes on elegance when served with a
sauce beurre blanc
; an ordinary steak becomes anything but ordinary with a béarnaise sauce, and a simple chicken is transformed into a delicate masterpiece when served with a
sauce suprême à l’estragon.

The repertoire of classic sauces available to a trained chef is so vast that a mere listing of their names baffles a beginner. Learning a few basic sauces, however, will give you the ability and freedom to produce many others.

A sauce is a flavorful liquid that has been thickened. An unthickened liquid is called a
jus
(or juice). A sauce can be created separately from the main dish—as is hollandaise sauce—or it can be an integral part of the dish.

A sauce can be thickened by simple reduction (rapid boiling to evaporate excess liquid), or it can be thickened by the addition of a starch, egg yolks, or cream. There are even some sauces, rarely made today, that use animal blood as the thickening agent.

By far the majority of classic sauces are thickened by a starch. Most of these sauces are rarely found in restaurants today because of the nouvelle cuisine movement of the early ’70s, when a small group of prominent chefs decided to eliminate starch as a thickening agent on the premise of producing simpler sauces. They opted instead for sauces thickened or enhanced with butter or cream, often relying on meat glazes.

Although doubtful that restaurant-goers miss the old-fashioned, classic starch-based sauces, there are good reasons why the home cook should not forget them. Those flour- or roux-based sauces can be successfully made with store-bought stocks, making them easier to create at home.

Although you can use store-bought stocks successfully, it is my hope that while learning the sauces in this book you will progress to homemade ones.

A brief description of the classic basic sauces follows.

B
ASIC
S
AUCES:
French Kitchen Essentials

Sauces fall into two general categories, hot and cold; within the hot sauce category, there are white sauces and brown sauces. Sauces are further divided by the way they are thickened. For a better understanding of the following definitions, it is helpful to know what a roux is. A roux is flour cooked in butter, and is the base for most classic sauces. A white roux is flour cooked in butter until the flour is pale yellow and frothy. A brown roux is cooked until the flour turns a reddish brown.

HOT WHITE SAUCES

VELOUTÉ:
White stock (veal, chicken, or fish) thickened with a white roux. Recipe on
page 315
.

ALLEMANDE/PARISIENNE:
A velouté enriched by egg yolks. See Sole Fillets with Poached Mushrooms and Shrimp Sauce (
page 95
).

SUPRÊME:
A velouté enriched by heavy cream. See Creamy Poule au Pot (
page 115
).

BÉCHAMEL:
A sauce made with a white roux and milk. Recipe on facing page.

CRÈME:
A sauce made with a reduction of a dish’s cooking liquids and heavy cream. See Steak au Poivre (
page 141
) or Chicken with Riesling (
page 119
).

HOLLANDAISE:
The classic butter sauce made from an emulsion of egg yolks and butter (
page 326
). Other sauces in the same family include Béarnaise Sauce (
page 327
),
sauce choron
(Béarnaise with Tomatoes,
page 329
), and
sauce paloise
(Béarnaise with Mint,
page 329
).

BEURRE BLANC:
This is the contemporary butter sauce made without egg yolks. Recipe on
page 329
.

HOT BROWN SAUCES

DEMI-GLACE:
The basic brown sauce made with a brown roux, a brown stock, a browned mirepoix (diced vegetables), and tomatoes.

JUS LIÉ:
A brown beef stock lightly thickened with arrowroot, potato starch, or cornstarch. Recipe on
page 318
.

TOMATE:
A tomato sauce. Recipe on
page 325
.

COLD SAUCES

MAYONNAISE:
An emulsion of egg yolks and oil (
page 331
). Other sauces in the mayonnaise family include Aioli (
page 332
) and Green Mayonnaise (
page 334
).

VINAIGRETTE:
A sauce with a base of vinegar and oil. Recipe on
page 336
.

BECHAMEL

[SAUCE BÉCHAMEL]

Béchamel sauce is the classic white “cream” sauce, made from milk and a white roux. Although it has been replaced in most restaurants today by a sauce made completely of heavy cream, it still has a number of important uses. A béchamel is used whenever you want a creamy sauce without using cream. It may be mixed with puréed vegetables for richness without many added calories. Add cheese and transform it into a Mornay Sauce (
page 314
) for a gratin or to coat vegetables or crêpes. When made correctly, it is smooth and creamy; poorly made, it will be thick and pasty.

Simple variations of the sauce can be made by adding tomato paste, mustard, or curry powder to taste.

MAKES 2 CUPS TO SERVE 8

2½ tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1.
In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring frequently, until the roux is pale yellow and frothy, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the milk and stir well with a whisk until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, 2 to 3 minutes.

2.
Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and season with the salt and pepper. Whisk vigorously for about 10 seconds. Simmer gently, whisking the sauce well from time to time, until the sauce is a little thicker than heavy cream, 2 to 3 minutes. Skim off any butter that rises to the surface. (The sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated for several days or frozen for later use. Cover the surface with plastic wrap. Before using, bring to a boil and check the consistency and seasoning. If the sauce is too thick, add a little milk or water to thin it.)

MORNAY SAUCE

[SAUCE MORNAY]

A mornay is a cheese-flavored béchamel that can be used with poached eggs, crêpes, vegetables, and meat. In France, the cheese used for the sauce is usually Gruyère, or a combination of Gruyère and Parmesan. Any Swiss-style cheese can be used; if you use other than a Swiss-style cheese, such as Camembert, the sauce takes on the name of the cheese. Classically, a Mornay is made with an addition of 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter just before serving. I find this added richness unnecessary and have eliminated it with today’s eating habits in mind. When browning the sauce as in a gratin, I always sprinkle additional cheese on top.

MAKES 2 CUPS TO SERVE 8

2½ tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

⅛ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 ounces Swiss-style cheese, such as Gruyère or Emmentaler, grated (about ⅔ cup) or 1 ounce each Gruyère and Parmesan cheese, grated

1.
In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring frequently, until the roux is pale yellow and frothy, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the milk and stir well with a whisk until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, 2 to 3 minutes. (This is a béchamel sauce.)

2.
Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and season with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Whisk vigorously for about 10 seconds. Simmer gently, whisking the sauce well from time to time, until the sauce is the consistency of heavy cream, 2 to 3 minutes. Skim off any butter that may rise to the surface.

3.
Stir in the cheese and bring to a boil while whisking. At this point the sauce should be slightly thicker than heavy cream and is ready to use. (The sauce can be made in advance and refrigerated for several days or frozen for later use. Cover the surface with plastic wrap. To reheat, bring to a boil and check the consistency and seasoning before using. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little milk or water.)

VELOUTE

[SAUCE VELOUTÉ]

A velouté is a velvety smooth sauce that is made with a white roux and a white stock (veal, chicken, fish, or vegetable). It is one of the finest sauces to come from the classic French kitchen. In this sauce, perhaps more than any other, the quality of the stock is very important. Although veloutés can be made with canned stock, those made with fresh stock are far preferable, and for this reason I have used veloutés in this book only when a stock is made as a part of the recipe; for example, Creamy Veal Stew with Morels (
page 154
).

Classically, veloutés are slowly simmered for an hour or more, with additional stock added as needed to achieve a beautifully smooth consistency. During this time the sauce is skimmed frequently to remove the butter and impurities that rise to the surface. While the sauce cooks, the flavor develops and intensifies.

Normally I shorten the process and simply reduce some of the stock rapidly to make a glaze, then add it to the sauce. With careful skimming, and vigorous whisking, a beautifully smooth and flavorful sauce can be made quite rapidly. Just keep in mind that the more you whisk, the smoother and shinier your sauce becomes.

MAKES 2 CUPS TO SERVE 8

V
ARIABLE
V
ELOUTES

When making a velouté, look around your kitchen for any liquids to use in preparing the stock for your sauce. As an example, besides the fish stock used in a recipe such as Sole Fillets with Poached Mushrooms and Shrimp Sauce (
page 95
), you may have liquid created while steaming oysters and mussels. You may also have flavorful liquid from poaching fresh mushrooms, or from soaking dried ones. There may be some tomato liquid collected while seeding tomatoes. Taste these liquids to determine which will complement your final dish. If they are strong or salty, just add a little. If they are mild, reduce to strengthen, and taste again before adding them to your sauce. Spices like saffron and curry, and herbs like tarragon and chives can be added for color and flavor shortly before serving. Use all these potential flavorings as an artist uses the many colors of his palette.

3 cups Chicken Stock (
page 307
), Fish Stock (
page 306
), or Vegetable Stock (
page 308
)

2½ tablespoons butter