Learn sauce variations to create zesty dishes
It doesn’t matter if you’ve known me for years or met me yesterday, there are two realizations about me that you’ll come away with … I’m too loyal of a Green Bay Packers’ fan (yes, this is one of those seasons I’m beyond embarrassed), and not only do I enjoy eating delicious food, I love cooking and creating comfort food with my personal spin.
When I was a senior in high school, I was fortunate to travel back east and go to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. While there, I was lucky to see Julia Child’s kitchen. She was one of the greatest. She started as a home cook and brought French cooking to the average American family’s kitchen. One of my favorite books is “Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously” written by Julia Powell and then turned into an amazing movie. I, for one, don’t have the patience for cooking that many French dishes, but I have learned a lot from Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”
Even though I’ve never categorized myself as a fancy chef, I always have the basic five French mother sauces stored in my back pocket because they come in handy when creating recipes. And let’s be honest, the French taught us all to love butter — how can one go wrong when butter is used in the base of a sauce?
Here’s a quick breakdown of the five main, mostly quick-and-easy to make mother sauces that will complement everything from veggies, poultry, red meat to seafood.
• Béchamel: This is a simple, quick white sauce that starts with a white roux (equal parts of flour and butter). From there, whisk in warm milk to create a smooth, creamy sauce. This sauce is my favorite because it’s so versatile — put it on the bottom of a baking dish and layer lasagna noodles, ricotta and mozzarella cheese and meat or tomato sauce and enjoy a rich, delicious baked lasagna, or add loads of different cheeses, along with some mustard powder and favorite spices or hot sauce to the basic béchamel to create the perfect sauce and add to cooked elbow pasta so homemade mac-n-cheese is enjoyed by everyone at the dinner table.
• Velouté: This is another white sauce, but rather than adding warm milk or cream like in a béchamel, a white stock or broth is added such as vegetable, chicken or fish broth. This is a perfect sauce to use as a base to
make a gravy for pot pies, biscuits and gravy, or a creamy mushroom sauce to top steaks and pork … the options are endless!
• Tomato sauce: This is probably the most popular of the mother sauces because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love pasta? And these days, there are veggie pastas made from yams or zucchini, and it’s also popular to take fresh veggies and spiral them, creating fresh veggie “pasta.” A simple tomato sauce complements all pasta shapes and fresh veggie spirals. Yes, it’s convenient to just pop open the jar of spaghetti sauce, but if one has less than half an hour, a fresh sauce is easy and healthier. Super simple would be tomatoes, garlic and basil. Personally, I start with a mirepoix (onions, celery and carrots), garlic, dry spices like basil, oregano and marjoram, salt and pepper, a tiny bit of white sugar and of course … the pièce de résistance … tomatoes, either fresh or canned. A chunky tomato sauce is perfect for any pasta dish with a fresh chiffonade (thin ribbons) of fresh basil added in the end, or the sauce can be blended smooth and smothered on pizza crust then build a perfect pizza — this isn’t the “Frenchway,”
per se, but it’s still a delicious route.
• Espagnole: This is the most time-consuming of the mother sauces because it takes the longest and it’s rarely used on its own, but rather as a starter for the common demi-glacé or a red wine sauce to top steaks. If you have the time, this sauce is totally worth the labor in the kitchen. It starts with butter and mirepoix with flour slowly added and cooked down to create a brown roux. Then a beef stock is added and simmered until about half the liquid has cooked down. A sachet (fresh herbs and spices bundled and tied in a cheesecloth) is always used. This basic brown sauce can be added to red wine to create a sauce or add more stock and herbs to make a demi-glacé and it can even be used to make an au jus.
• Hollandaise: Finally, but certainly not least, it’s the infamous smooth, buttery, rich sauce that tops a perfectly poached egg on eggs Benedict or steamed veggies like asparagus or rainbow carrots. Professionally, I’ve never had a sauce break more on my watch than this one, but I’ve learned from my mistakes. Think of this as a warm mayo with acid and a touch of heat. Use clarified
butter and just the egg yolks. The trick is to not get the egg too hot or your perfect French sauce will turn into scrambled eggs. Slowly, ladle semiwarm clarified butter over egg yolks and constantly whisk — seriously, if the whisking stops, scrambled eggs appear — and add fresh lemon juice in the middle of the process to stop the eggs from fully cooking. The goal is to have a thick, smooth consistency. Add paprika, hot sauce, salt and white pepper to balance the finished sauce. To change the hollandaise into a béarnaise, simply switch the lemon juice for a small amount of white vinegar and instead of hot sauce, add fresh tarragon.
These may seem intimidating, but my favorite aspect of cooking is we all have different palettes so no one will be the exact same as someone else’s. Maybe our different views and techniques are why food brings us all together.
Live zestier!