SAUCES

Mix 1 tablespoon of oil or butter with 2 tablespoons of flour and stir with a wooden spatula or spoon on a hot fire until it is the desired color and all of the flour is coated with oil. It will seem intractable at first, not wanting to mix, but keep scraping and stirring until the oil is absorbed and it will start cooking. Stir until the desired color is reached. then whisk in some stock, milk, or whatever, a little bit at a time, to prevent the flour from lumping. Stir, stir. Cook to remove any raw flour taste.

There is a whole family of sauces based upon this technique, including the “cream gravy” the great American favorite, used on things like fried pork chops or chicken fried steak. CC called it “grease gravy” because it is made by adding flour to some of the grease left from frying the meat, cooked a little, then thinned with milk. Done right, it is good. Use lots of black pepper. It cannot be made in a non-stick pan because the fond does not form. Fond is the little bits of browned meat that adhere to the pan and give the sauce its flavor.

A more refined version of the above, it is started with 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour cooked on a brisk fire for 30 seconds or so, whisking all the while. Do not let it color. Remove and let it cool a little, then add 1 pint of milk, return to the fire and continue whisking. It will thicken dramatically when it nears the boiling point, but it should not boil. It is best cooked on a slow fire for as long as possible to remove any raw flour taste.

Seasoning is up to the cook but be careful if using salted butter. White pepper and nutmeg (very little) are the usual basics. One can add a little white wine along with the milk to enrich the taste. Cook it enough to get the alcohol out.

This is 1 cup of Bechamel cooled down enough to add an egg yolk (mix a spoonful of the sauce with the egg first) and grated cheese – 2 tablespoons Swiss or 1 ½ tablespoons of Parmesan, then gently reheated to cook the egg and melt the cheese. Do not overcook or the egg will become lumpy. Stir all the while with a whisk.

Mornay sauce is mainly used to top gratins. It is lightly sprinkled with breadcrumbs and briefly broiled, just enough to give a few spots of color. If you are up to the grating, Sapsago cheese makes a really tasty Mornay sauce.

Basically the same as Béchamel, but made with a meat, poultry or fish stock rather than milk. This is also for dishes where milk would be inappropriate, such as seafood. There is a whole family of sauces that begin with a Velouté base.

When you make something like Béchamel, make plenty and freeze the excess in small containers. It will likely be lumpy when it thaws, but a little milk or cream and vigorous whisking over low heat will restore it.

This great French basic sauce is simply a brown roux thinned out with a bouillion or brown stock. It also can be elaborated, as in Sauce Espagnole, which is brown sauce with mirepoix, tomato puree and bouquet garni, cooked and put through a fine sieve, or pureed in a processor and fine-sieved. It will be found in the kitchen of every classic French restaurant, where meat glaze is usually added for rich flavor. There are endless variations on these sauces.

This is not a compendium of Grande Cuisine recipes, just some dishes that we all enjoyed and actually cooked.

It is the basic sauce in New Orleans and is used for Redfish Courtbouillion, Grillades, Chicken Creole, etc., our “red gravy”. In Acadian cooking, the roux is cooked until brown and this is the “brown tomato gravy”, derived (my guess) from the classic French sauce Espagnol. This Creole one is obviously of Spanish descent.

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup bacon fat or olive oil or vegetable oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper

• 1 cup celery, chopped - with leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground thyme, 2 or 3 bayleaves
• 3 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp. Tabasco (or to taste)
• 1 16 oz. can crushed tomatoes and liquid
• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

• 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Cook the flour in the bacon fat to make a light brown roux. Add the onion and celery. peppers, scallions, bay and thyme. Cook on a low fire. Add the garlic, tomatoes and sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 1/2 hour on a very low fire, then add the parsley, Tabasco and Worcestershire. Let it rest off the fire for at least 2 hours before rewarming and serving.

Since it freezes well, double the recipe and store some for future use. Use fresh tomatoes in season. Add lemon if using with seafood.

A sieve with very fine mesh (also called a hair sieve, a chinois or a tamis) is essential for making really good sauces as well as custard, purees, and so on. Rub the food through it with the back edge of a spoon, or better - with a silicon spatula.

Made with fresh tomatoes (peeled, seeded and chopped), French shallots, a little thyme, tarragon and garlic, all cooked in butter and thinned with stock, it can be super delicious. A light hand is required and the sauce should be quickly cooked. This is all you get for a recipe. Oregano may be substituted for the tarragon.

It sort of evolved in our cooking and can be used with light things, like sauteed fish or chicken breast, etc. A thin sauce, not the heavy, acidic “red gravy” of Italian restaurants, it can be thickened as desired by the use of arrowroot, roux, buerre maniè, etc. It is particularly good with home made noodles, rolled paper-thin, dried and cooked. Be sure to have a good Parmesan with it - shaved.

When making a tomato sauce, or others with an onion base, cook the minced onion and celery until softened, then add green pepper (if using), garlic, thyme and bayleaf. Next add the tomato and let it cook, then add liquids, etc. and simmer it all to meld. This is just the order of cooking, not a recipe. Tomato should be peeled, seeded and chopped.

This is another misnamed local favorite, used on oysters, escargots, steaks or with pasta. It is basically just minced garlic quickly cooked in butter and olive oil - do not allow the garlic to brown. A more raffiné method is to cook chopped garlic in the oils to infuse the flavor, then strain out the garlic when it begins to color. Add a generous amount of finely chopped parsley and serve immediately. It is the classic Aglio e Olio of Italy and Provence.

We preferred the version that barely cooks the garlic, so that it has a peppery quality. A little bit of tarragon added gives it a richer flavor - like escargot butter.

Keep dried tarragon in the freezer and it will last almost forever - and keep its flavor.

It is, strictly speaking, not really a sauce but more of an ingredient. It is a kind of concentrated mushroom flavor, and is added to sauces or used for garnish or stuffing. (see the recipe for Filet of Fish, Rolled and Baked for an example). It can be made with mushrooms that are just about to spoil, and with any variety. The processor can be used for mincing- almost a puree.

Wash, dry and finely mince 1 lb. of mushrooms. Mince ½ cup of French shallots, scallions or leeks. Melt 1 stick of unsalted butter and add the vegetables and ½ cup of white wine. Cook down on a very low fire until all water is evaporated and there is a thick mixture of butter and solids. Obviously this will need frequent stirring. It will take half an hour or so. Do not salt until you are ready to use it. It will freeze well, since it contains little if any water.

One may add dried mushrooms to Duxelles for a really rich mushroom flavor: wash well and soak for at least ½ hr., in warm water. Lift out the mushrooms (always grit in the water) rinse and mince them, or puree in the blender. Set them simmering in the butter and wine while you prepare the other ingredients, since they take a long cooking to soften.

Which came first, the Greek avgo lemono or this?

We struggled with the classic recipe until Mme. Child gave her blessing to that made in a blender and published the recipe. The following is adapted from The French Chef.

Since the only cooking of the egg yolk is done by the hot butter, it is necessary that the yolks and lemon juice be warm. The eggs (in their shells) can be warmed in hot tap water, renewing the hot water when needed. Separate the yolks and whites after warming.

Place three egg yolks in the blender with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon of salt and a pinch of white pepper. Cover and blend for about 30 seconds on high speed. Keeping the speed, add one stick of unsalted butter, melted and very hot. Pour the butter in drops, giving the yolks time to absorb the butter and thicken, then pour a little faster after about 2/3 of the butter is absorbed.

It can be reheated over barely simmering water in a double boiler, very gently and quickly. Hover over it and stir because it will curdle if the egg cooks too much. Better to have it cool or lukewarm than ruined.

Egg whites freeze very well and can be used for meringue or anything else after being defrosted slowly.

Never buy the bottled “Hollandaise Sauce”. Just read the ingredients list. Real Hollandaise is a rich, delicate sauce and its only vice is that it can become addictive.

In a small saucepan mix:

• ¼ cup wine vinegar
• ¼ cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon of minced shallots or scallions
• ½ teaspoon dried tarragon and a pinch of white pepper.

Boil to reduce to 2 tablespoons. Strain and use instead of the lemon and seasonings in Hollandaise. Taste the finished product before adding salt.

This is dynamite on pan-broiled steak, fish, poached eggs, etc.

• ½ cup of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of capers
• 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan or similar cheese
• 1 medium scallion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cup of fresh basil leaves (loosely packed)
• 5 or 6 pecan halves or the original pine nuts
• 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley.

Roughly chop the ingredients and place in a blender or processer, along with half the oil. Puree until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons of water and enough of the remaining oil to make the desired consistency. Taste for salt.

To puree garlic, first mince it, then add a pinch of salt and mash it with the side of the knife by smearing it onto the board several times.

This is the simple and elegant king of all the meat sauces for pasta. It is really sybaritic with paper-thin, homemade pappardelle (noodles about 1“ wide). Garnish with Parmesan cheese shaved with a vegetable peeler. It is also the daddy of slow cooking, because it takes at least 3 hours to properly cook; but I think that you will agree that it is worth it. It is umami central, and nothing like the restaurant “Spaghetti Bolognese” with its thick tomato gravy. In Bologna it is never offered with spaghetti - always with fettucini or other flat pastas. The stuff in jars at the supermarket is beneath contempt.

• vegetable oil and butter for cooking
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup chopped celery
• 2/3 cup chopped carrot
• 3/4 lb. ground beef chuck
• 1/4 lb. ground pork
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup whole milk
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, or use a good quality canned tomato.

Use a heavy bottomed pot, no cover needed. Cook the onion in 1 tablespoon of oil and 3 tablespoons of butter over a medium fire until the onion is translucent. Add the celery and carrot, cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring often.

Add the ground meats, 1/4 teaspoon salt and some black pepper. Cook, stirring and breaking up the meat to the smallest pieces possible, until it all looks gray and cooked.

Add the milk and a small pinch of nutmeg. Cook, stirring, until the milk is absorbed. Add the wine and cook until evaporated, then add the tomatoes and bring to a slow boil. Turn down to a very slow simmer, with a bubble surfacing now and then.

Continue cooking, uncovered, for 3 hours - stirring now and then and adding a little water if it seems in danger of scorching. Toward the end of cooking, you might want to add about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste - make a space and cook the pasta to caramelize it. At the end of cooking it should be almost dry, just solids and oils. There should be about 2 generous cups, enough for 1 1/2 lbs. pasta, 6 lavish servings.

It is a rich sauce and only a couple of tablespoons of it per serving are needed. If needed, thin it out with a very little hot pasta water.

This sauce is terrific in a lasagne with fresh spinach, a light, creamy Bechamel sauce and real ricotta bufala, with lots of layers of thin, thin home made pasta. All subtle and delicate.

See under Remoulade Sauce in Seafood.

This recipe is from Bon Appetit magazine, but of course I had to tinker with it a little bit. It is absolutely delicious, loaded with umami from the anchovies and tomatoes. In my house I can't prepare it in advance or save leftovers because people will just eat the sauce with a spoon when my back is turned. So I guess you have to make it right before dinner.

For a supper in honor of Italian Tricolor Day (January 7), serve three kinds of pasta, one with red pesto, one with green pesto, and one with butter and cheese.

Ingredients

• Anchovies, 1 small can (Original recipe calls for just 6 anchovies, but why not use them all?)
• 2 Fresno red chili peppers, split and seeded
• Garlic, 4 cloves, smashed
• Lemon Juice, 3 tablespoons (or the juice of half a lemon)
• Olive Oil, 3/4 cup (Bon Appetit specifies extra-virgin olive oil, but with all the garlic and anchovies I think any flavor subtleties will be lost, so you may as well use the cheap stuff.)
• Parmesan Cheese, grated, 3 ounces or 1/2 cup
• Pecans, 1/2 cup (Original recipe calls for walnuts.)
• Salt, 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes, 1/4 cup (Bon Appetit uses 3 tablespoons of double-concentrated tomato paste.)

Directions

Pour the olive oil into a saucepan, then sauté the anchovies, garlic, and nuts until the garlic begins to turn golden. Chop the tomatoes and add, cook a little longer but do not let the garlic get scorched.

Put all the contents of the pan, including the oil, into a blender or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients (chiles, lemon, cheese, and salt) and puree until it forms a thick paste.

Serve with spaghetti or fettucini, mixing the sauce thoroughly with the pasta. Also works well on pizza.