As i've said, i've worked in the Resturaunt business for about 4 years. I did it because i like to eat good food and the easiest way to get good food is to make it yourself. I knew nothing really when i started, but i picked it up pretty easy and acomplished my goal of making dishes i enjoy.
I have a few recipes i want to share but to do that i want to start with the basics.
The five mother sauces:
1. Bechamel or basic white sauce
2. Veloute or stock based white sauces (chicken, fish, veal)
3. Espagnole or brown sauce
4. Tomato
5. Butter sauces (e.g. Hollandaise sauce)
there are a couple other suaces which while basic aren't concidered a mother sauce. These are:
1)mayonnaise
2)vinaigrette
I will first discuss the Bechamel sauce here since it will be the base sauce for my Chicken Grand Marnier (which like it sounds is chicken in a Grand Marnier sauce).
For a Bechamel you will use heavy cream as the base liquid and thicken it with a roux.
Roux is made by clarifying butter (real butter, not that margerine junk) and mixing in flour. A blonde roux is made by melting the butter in the microwave and mixing in the flour. this gives a light yellow color. useing the stove top and a sautee pan will give a slighly brownish color and better flavor. use about 1/4 stick of butter and enough flour mixed in so that the roux is a about the consistancy of playdough. it can be sealed and refrigerated to use later as well.
To make the white sauce, you want to place 2 pints of heavy cream into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. when boiling heavy cream you have to keep and eye on it. when you look away for just a second it will foam up and boil over. when the cream starts to boil it will rise out of the pot, just pull it of the heat and stir. reduce teh heat and alow it to simmer. whisk in the roux in small teaspoon size chunks, you don't want the roux to ball up. To check the consisnatcy of the sauce tip a spoon in and pull it out, the sauce should coat the spoon yet flow smoothly. You want to allow the sauce to get a rolling boil... what this means is you place half of the sauce pan on teh heat with half off, the part over the cold air will sink the part over the heat will rise, so you get a nice convection roll.
add white pepper and kosher salt to taste and set aside, you can store this sauce for later use.
Yamcer
"You know, while I understand the importance of seeing the (personal) validity in other's arguments, it's impossible for me to believe fully that others are correct. If their argument was correct, I'd change mine." - My GF
