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! 

Mother Sauces: Veloute

This blog will be covering the second sauce in the 5 Mother Sauces, known as a Veloute (Veh-loo-tay). This sauce is very similar to the bechamel but instead of using milk, you use chicken/veal/fish stock. Oh and no piquet lol. Veloute's are great in pasta dishes, makes a fabulous sauce for chicken pot pie, and can be added to soup. Here's how to make it:


WARNING:  This recipe yields 1 gallon. Feel free to reduce to your liking. 


Ingredients


Clarified Butter          8 fl. oz. 
Flour                           8 oz. 
Chicken stock             5 qts. (4 cups in quart, so use 20 cups)
Salt                              TT
White Pepper              TT




1.) In a large stock pot, add in the chicken/veal/fish stock. Turn heat on to medium-medium high and get the stock hot. 


2.) In another pot heat the clarified butter over medium-high heat. Once it's hot add in the flour. Whisk constantly. Make a white roux.


3.) Gradually add the hot stock to the roux while whisking constantly preventing any lumps. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Whisk often to reduce the sauce from burning.


4.) At this point, season to your taste. I would suggest you under season it because the sauce will thicken and reduce over time. 


5.) Strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth. Use immediately or chill in a bowl over ice water. Place plastic wrap on the sauces surface to prevent a skin forming. 




I realize that this sauce is a rather large quantity but it's just easier for me. I am reading these recipes from my cooking book I used in school. I will do a blog later on, on how to increase and decrease recipes to the amount you need. 


P.S: Since Veloute is so similar to bechamel, I didn't think a picture was necessary. They are really quite similar in color. 


Thank You!

Mother Sauce: Bechamel

This blog is going to be about "Mother Sauces". Mother sauces bring that touch of elegance to a dish that makes us crave eating away from home. Not only are these sauces great at their most basic form, but they can be transformed into numerous others! They inspire us foodies to be creative with their uses, yet are there to keep the classic meals alive. I won't bore you with their origin or who created them, you can look that up on your own time lol. Although their origins are worth looking up because some recipes came about from a total accident. :D



This blog will come in 5 parts so I can cover every Mother Sauce. If you take the time to make these yourself at home, your dishes will come out fantastic! People will know that you took the time to make your meal from scratch and they will thank you for it. I feel like in today's society nobody takes time to do anything home made any more. I hope this blog inspires you to just..... slow down! Let's begin!


I am going to start with the Bechamel Sauce (Beh-shuh-mehl)





Ingredients


Whole Milk           16 oz. 
Flour                      2 TBSP
Clarified Butter      2 TBSP
Salt                         TT (to taste)
White Pepper         TT  
Nutmeg                  TT
1/2 small Onion Piquet **** (See cooks note at the bottom of the blog)




Directions:


1.) Pour the milk into a large heavy bottomed pot. Gently add in the onion piquet and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.


2.) In another pot add in the clarified butter. Turn on the heat to medium-high and heat butter through. Once the butter is hot, whisk in the flour. Whisk constantly until this mixture becomes pasty in appearance and nutty smelling. Don't cook too long, you want it to stay pale. This mixture is called a "Blond Roux". 


3.) After the milk and piquet have simmered for 10 minutes remove the piquet. Gradually add the hot milk to the roux while whisking constantly. Try to get rid of any lumps. 


4.) Once you have incorporated all of the milk into the blond roux, simmer until thickened, whisk often. 


5.) Add in the salt, white pepper and nutmeg to your taste. Nutmeg is very powerful and you just want a hint of it in there. 


7.) Strain the sauce through a fine mesh seive or cheesecloth if you have it. Use immediately or cool in a large bowl over ice water. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. 




This sauce is fantastic as is. You can add it to the top of a lasagna to give it that silky touch, and is the most common base for mac and cheese sauce! 


I found this image on google, but it comes from  http://healthyrecipes.wikia.com/wiki/B%C3%A9chamel_sauce


****Cook's Note: An onion piquet/pique is a halved onion studded with cloves and a bay leaf. 

I found this image on google but it comes from http://cornellgourmet.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/piquet/


Enjoy this sauce!