Escoffier At Home

Tag: fish

  • 0049. Sauce Genevoise, Geneva Sauce

    0049. Sauce Genevoise, Geneva Sauce

     

    Escoffier recipe for making Geneva Sauce, Sauce Genevoise, at home (Escoffier, 49).

    This is a very rich and complex fish sauce. When you cook it, the house smells of salmon and red wine. Pretty yummy!

    Mise en place:
    Mise-en-place for Sauce Genevoise

     

    Sauce Genevoise

    In a large saucepan, sauté the carrots, onion and parsley in butter until tender. Add the thyme sprigs, bay leaf, peppercorns and salmon heads.

    Saute the vegetables and salmon heads

    I had my local fishmongers split and clean the salmon heads for me. (I suggest you do the same!)

    Salmon heads from the fishmonger

    Cover and let steam for 20 minutes. Uncover, drain off the butter, and add 750ml (1 bottle) of red wine.

    Add a bottle of red wine

    Simmer and reduce by half. Stir in 500g of Sauce Espagnole Maigre and gently simmer for an hour. Strain into a clean saucepan…

    Strain the Sauce Genevoise

    Add 500g fumét de poisson, an additional 500g red wine, and reduce some more! And while you’re at it, why not enjoy that remaining 250ml of leftover wine?

    Reduce the Sauce Genevoise

    Finish the sauce by whisking in 150g of cubed butter and some fish essence, anchovy paste or fish sauce to taste.

    Geneva Sauce

    Ingredients
    100g (3/4 cup) diced carrot
    80g (1/2 cup) diced onion
    20g (1/3 cup) chopped parsley
    35g (7 1/2 teaspoons) unsalted butter
    4 fresh thyme sprigs
    1 fresh bay leaf
    16 whole, black peppercorns
    1000g (2 pounds, or about 3) salmon heads, split in half and cleaned
    750ml (3 cups, or 1 bottle) red wine
    500g (2 cups) fish Espagnole sauce
    500g (2 cups, or 2/3 bottle) red wine
    500g (2 cups) fish fumét
    150g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter
    3g (1/2 teaspoon) fish essence, anchovy paste or fish sauce, to taste

    Equipment
    Salter digital scale
    Kitchen knife and cutting board
    Measuring bowls
    Large stockpot
    Wooden spoon
    Wire whisk
    Rubber spatula
    Strainer or chinois
    Medium Saucepan
    Plastic containers

  • 0139. Sauce Normande, Normandy Sauce

    0139. Sauce Normande, Normandy Sauce

     

    Escoffier recipe for making sauce normande, Normandy Sauce, at home (Escoffier 139).

    This sauce is special for serving with Sole Normande but also has a wide range of applications as a basis for other fish sauces. It is a very smooth, white, cream-based sauce with a light, but complex, taste. Perfect in recipes using whitefish, such as sole or tilapia.

    Not the easiest of recipes unless you already just happen to have some velouté de poisson, mushroom stock, mussel stock and fumét de poisson laying around…

    Mise en place for sauce normande:
    Mise en place for Normandy Sauce

     

    Sauce Normande

    In a large stockpot, whisk together fish velouté, mushroom stock, mussel stock and fish fumét. Bring to a simmer.

    In a bowl, whisk together lemon juice, egg yolks and 180g of heavy cream. Whisk this “sour” milk into the just-simmering sauce, and reduce it by one-third on low heat. This will take some time, as you’ll want to keep the heat low to avoid scorching the sauce.

    Once it has reduced, remove the sauce from the heat and strain into a clean saucepan. Finish the sauce by whisking in 114g of cubed, room temp butter and 120g of heavy cream.

    Let cool and store in a sealed plastic container.

    Normandy Sauce

    Ingredients
    660g (2 3/4 cups) fish velouté
    111g (1/2 cup) mussel stock
    130g (1/2 cup) mushroom stock
    167g (2/3 cup) fish fumét
    3g (1/2 teaspoon) lemon juice
    5 egg yolks
    180g (3/4 cup) heavy cream
    114g (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
    120g (1/2 cup) heavy cream

    Equipment
    Salter digital scale
    Kitchen knife and cutting board
    Measuring bowls
    Large stockpot
    Wooden spoon
    Wire whisk
    Rubber spatula
    Strainer or chinois
    Medium Saucepan
    Plastic containers

  • 0022. Velouté de Poisson, Fish Velouté

    0022. Velouté de Poisson, Fish Velouté

     

    Escoffier recipe for making velouté de poisson, fish velouté sauce, at home (Escoffier, 22).

    Velouté (“veh-looh-TAY”) is one of the five ‘mother sauces’ of classical French cuisine. Fish velouté, or velouté de poisson (“veh-looh-TAY day PWAH-sohn”) is used in making lighter-colored and compound sauces such as Sauce Bercy, Sauce Normandie, and others. Fish veloute is a white sauce lightly flavored with fish stock, or fumét, and thickened with a blond roux.

    Mise en place for fish velouté:
    Fish Veloute

     

    Fish Velouté

    Heat the fish fumét up in a medium saucepan, and gradually stir in the cold (or room temp) blond roux. Colder roux works best when it is mixed with a hot liquid. A couple general rules about roux: The darker the roux, the more flavorful it will be; and the lighter the roux, the less you’ll need to thicken a sauce. This is because the longer you cook your roux, the quicker the starch in the flour breaks down. A blond roux does well to both flavor and thicken a velouté de poisson, while keeping the velouté light in color.

    Veloute de Poisson

    Simmer for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid a skin forming on the surface, and voila! There you have it.

    Veloute de Poisson

    Ingredients
    1000g (4 cups) fish fumét
    155g (1 1/4 cups) blond roux

    Equipment
    Salter digital scale
    Measuring bowls
    Medium saucepan
    Wire whisk
    Rubber spatula
    Plastic containers