Mother Sauces: Espagnole (Brown Sauce)

This sauce is so wonderful! It has such a deep, rich flavor thanks to the variety of ingredients that go in it. This is the 3rd installment of the 5 Mother Sauces blog. This sauce compliments beef fantastically and freezes well to use later on.


This recipe yields 1 gallon.


You will need:


Ingredients


Mirepoix, med. dice**             2 lbs. 
Clarified Butter                        8 fl. oz. 
Flour                                         8 oz. 
Brown Stock**                         5 qts. (20 cups.)
Tomato Puree                           8 oz. 
Sachet**
           1 Bay Leaf  
           Dried Thyme                 1/2 tsp. 
  Crushed Peppercorns             1/4 tsp. 
            Parsley Stems                 8


Salt and Pepper                           TT


Directions


1.) In a large stock pot, heat the clarified butter over medium-high heat. Add in the mirepoix and caramelize on all sides. 
2.) Add in the flour and make a brown roux.** Whisk often so flour will not burn. 
3.) Once you've made a brown roux, pour in the brown stock and tomato puree. Whisk again to break up lumps. Bring to a boil uncovered and reduce to a simmer. 
4.) Add in the sachet, and simmer for approx. 1&1/2 hours. This will allow the sauce to thicken. Skim the surface if any impurities form at the top. 
5.) After the allotted time, strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth if you have it. Adjust the seasonings as you like it with salt and pepper and use immediately. Or cool and freeze for later use. 






***Cook's Notes:
1.) Mirepoix: (Meer-uh-pwah) This is a mixture of 50 % onions, 25%  carrots and 25% celery. This recipe called for 2 lbs of it so you would use 1 lb. onions, 1/2 lb. of carrots and 1/2 lb. of celery. This is used as the base to a lot of great soups, sauces including the wonderful bolognese. Typically they are discarded because all of their flavor will have been incorporated into what ever they are used in. 


2.) Brown Stock: Brown stock is made from roasting beef bones, vegetables and tomato puree and then simmered for hours. Save yourself some time by buying low sodium beef broth or brown stock from a health food store. 


3.) Sachet (Saa-shay) This little bundle of joy is what gives many stocks and sauces deep flavor. The spices are wrapped in cheese cloth (using 2 coffee filters works great too) and tied off with butchers twine. I almost always use 1 clove of smashed garlic because I LOVE garlic haha. 


I really hope you enjoy this recipe. Please feel free to scale down this recipe to the size you want. I prefer to blog these recipes in large amounts because they freeze really well. Plus you can thaw it out at a moments notice and people will think you spent all day making it!