French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [70]
SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
Here we get to a vexed question. Purists claim that the one and only true hollandaise sauce should consist of nothing but butter, egg yolks and lemon juice. The truth is that the basic hollandaise is apt to be insipid and many cooks have discovered that the addition of a preliminary reduction of white wine or vinegar, as in a béarnaise, makes a better flavoured sauce. This was the alternative method suggested by Prosper Montagné, and by Madame Saint-Ange in her Livre de Cuissne.
In a small pan put 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar (I prefer to use white wine if I happen to have a bottle open) and 2 tablespoons of cold water. Reduce it by boiling to one scant tablespoon. Add half a tablespoon of cold water. Have ready beaten in a bowl the yolks of 3 large eggs and, on a warmed plate, between 6 and 7 oz. of the finest unsalted butter, divided into 6 or 7 portions.
Into the top half of a double saucepan or into a china or glass bowl which will equally fit into the bottom half of the double saucepan which contains the hot water, put the cooled reduction of vinegar or wine. Add the yolks. Stir thoroughly. Set the whole apparatus over the heat. Add one portion of butter. Stir until it starts to thicken before adding the next portion, and so on until all is used up. Do not allow the water underneath the saucepan to boil and, if you see that the sauce is thickening too quickly, add a few drops of cold water. The finished sauce should coat the back of the spoon. Season with salt and a few drops of lemon juice.
If all precautions fail and the sauce disintegrates, put another egg yolk into a clean bowl. To this add your failed sauce a little at a time, replace it over the hot water and proceed with greater circumspection this time until it has once more thickened. I should add, perhaps, that this only works if the sauce has separated. If the eggs have got so hot that they have granulated, what you have is scrambled eggs.
A sauce hollandaise is served with asparagus, artichoke hearts, broccoli, poached salmon, sole and all white fish, chicken, and poached or mollet eggs.
These quantities will serve four to six people.
SAUCE MOUSSELINE
This is sauce hollandaise with, for the above amount, about 2 tablespoons of whipped cream folded in at the very last moment before serving. Allowing for the cream, a little extra seasoning may be necessary for the sauce.
SAUCE NIVERNAISE
WHITE WINE, BUTTER AND GARLIC SAUCE
A quarter-bottle of dry white wine, 2 or 3 shallots, herbs, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, 2 oz. butter, the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs, salt, pepper.
First prepare a snail butter with 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and 1 or 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic mashed up with 2 oz. of butter. Season with a little salt, lemon juice and pepper.
Now put the white wine into a pan with the shallots, another clove of garlic, a faggot of herbs and a little ground black pepper. Reduce by rapid boiling to half its original quantity. Strain, put into the top half of a double saucepan over hot, but not boiling, water. Stir in the beaten yolks of eggs. When thick, add the snail butter, about a quarter at a time. Whisk until amalgamated.
For anyone who likes garlic in strong doses this sauce can be served with a number of dishes—roast mutton, grilled chops, steak, grilled or poached fish (but not delicate fish like trout), eggs, raw vegetables such as celery, fennel and cauliflower, or with boiled or grilled chicken.
SAUCE MAYONNAISE
In 1956, French cooks celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the creation of mayonnaise. The legend that the sauce was invented by the cook of the Duc de Richelieu in 1756, while the French under his command were besieging the English at Port Mahon in Minorca, is probably no more reliable than other legends of the kind, usually thought up by imaginative cookery historians at a later date. There are indeed