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:
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.
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