Mother sauces

When I decided to have the Diva class on sauces I had no idea of people's preconceived notions of what the class would be like. I knew that what I would be teaching would be technically as good as it gets outside of a culinary school.

But when the Diva's (and one Divo) came to the class-I realized they got something completely different from what they were expecting.

I did not teach a class which showed how to make a specific sauce. Instead-I went the "teach a man to fish" route and taught the basics of sauces.

It is my plan to educate so that you can create. The sauce theory is no different.

Here's how it works. There are five mother sauces:

Bechamel

Espangole

Veloute

Hollandaise

Vinaigrette

From these most sauces emanate. We made all but the Espangnole which takes a day to make so limited time did not permit this sauce. Espangnole is the basis for all brown sauces (Bordalaise, any steak sauce, etc).

We did a bourbon Creme Anglaise to show a custard based sweet sauce-which is somewhat like a Bechamel-but without the cheese and flour. But I digress...

The class proceedure:

We started with the Creme Anglaise which was used to top a Panetonne bread pudding I had already made.

Then we moved on to a Bechemal which we embellished with Gruyere and Jarlsberg cheese. Bechamel's are roux based so we first learned how to make a simple roux to which we added milk and cheese. Then we made scrumptious scallop potatoes-for which I will give the "how to" in the next post.

Having made a standard roux for the bechamel, a roux with celery and leeks and cilantro showed how you can vary a roux. Instead of using milk for a Bechamel, we used chicken stock to make a Veloute. The Veloute sauced a lovely piece of thick pan roasted cod.

Next was an onion vinaigrette which we used to top an avocado and roasted beet salad.

And lastly we made the Hollandaise which finished some pan seared asparagus.

Then we ate. Yum.