If you can't take the heat......

----Tonight was pretty intense & it's only going to get worse....so get used to it. If you can't handle it & you don't want to do the work or the cleaning then you can leave.---- In so many words, that was the parting message from the Chef tonight. (And I'm glad she said it.) Just about everyone left the class annoyed or mad at someone or themselves. I was pleased with my results but was reaching my limit of patience with a handful of classmates.

It was a lot of work & a whole lot of cleaning, but if you paid attention, stayed organized & took seriously what you were doing, it was not hard. We worked in teams of 2 & had to produce 4 variations of 2 of the mother sauces then turn those 4 into 4 small sauces. I know that was confusing but hopefully I can explain it in simple terms.

The 5 mother sauces are Bechamel (White Sauce), Espagnole (Brown Sauce), Tomato, Hollandaise & Veloute. Tonight we made Bechamel & Veloute. We made three types of Veloute - Chicken, White Veal & Fish.

Bechamel = Milk + White Roux (roux is equal parts clarified butter & flour combined & cooked to a creamy peanut butter consistency & then used to thicken liquid - cooking it shorter or longer determines the color from White, Blonde to Brown or even darker in New Orleans - Brick)

Chicken Veloute = Chicken Stock + Blond Roux

White Veal Veloute = White Veal Stock + Blond Roux

Fish Veloute = Fish Fumet (Mirepoix & Fish bones sweated in wine & then water added to make into a stock) + Blond Roux

Once we made the 3 veloutes & the bechamel then those were turned into 4 small sauces:

Mornay = Bechamel + Gruyere & Parmesan (like Alfredo but better)

Supreme = Chicken Veloute + tempered cream + lemon + s&p, finished with a little butter (Creamy chicken sauce with a hint of lemon)

White Wine Sauce = Fish Veloute + 1/2 reduced wine + tempered cream + lemon + s&p, finish with a little butter (Creamy fish flavor with a hint of wine & lemon)

Allemande Sauce = White Veal Veloute + tempered liaison (egg yolks whisked with cream) + lemon + s&p (veal/beef flavor, creamy with a hint of lemon)

My partner & I did pretty well. We were please with all of the results & when chef tasted them she thought the flavor profiles were prominent. The key was tasting it throughout the process & then deciding should this simmer longer, does it need seasoning, more thickener, etc. We also got a private lesson about salting. We were conservative with the salt & she explained very well that you should always salt near the end, let it incorporate, taste again & then salt again, if nec. Keep salting & tasting as long as the salt is bringing out more of the sauce flavors. As soon as you think the salt is about to go over the edge & start to make it taste salty, don't salt again. Push the flavors all the way to the edge & then stop salting.

All of these sauces were easy to make & very worth the effort. There are only a few ingredients in each sauce because the focus is to bring out the primary flavors of the stock. Heating, reducing & thickening with the roux concentrates those flavors. If you want to try any of these sauces don't be intimidated. I will try to get recipes posted by the weekend. If there's anything specific you want to know, please let me know.

-CLG