Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [12]
PARSLEY SAUCE To the béchamel, add up to 150 ml (5 fl oz) double cream and reduce slightly. Finish with about 60 g (2 oz) chopped fresh parsley, a few drops of lemon juice and a knob of butter. This is a good sauce, if rich and made with plenty of parsley.
SAUCE SOUBISE The Hôtel Soubise in the Marais district of Paris, that once belonged to the great Soubise family, now houses the French archives. It is a building of elegance, beautiful statues and colonnade but not an onion dome in sight.
The sauce was invented by Marin, chef to Charles de Rohan, Marquis de Soubise, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It has a particularly delicate flavour. Chop a large onion. Put it into a pan and cover it with boiling water. Cook for 3 minutes, then drain and return it to the pan with a tablespoon of butter. Cover the pan and stew the onion, without colouring it, until soft. Pour in 300 ml (10 fl oz) béchamel sauce and simmer for 15 minutes. Sieve or blend to make a smooth sauce. Stir in 4 or 5 tablespoons of double cream – the better the cream, the better the flavour – and heat through. Add salt.
See individual sections for other sauces, i.e. Anchovy sauce, Anchovy and mushroom sauce, Crayfish sauce (Sauce Nantua), Lobster sauce, Mussel sauce, Prawn sauce, Shrimp sauce.
VELOUTÉ DE POISSON
The success of a velouté sauce depends on a good stock – the same recipe can be used with meat and poultry stocks instead of fish fumet – and on the gentle reduction that matures the flavour and makes the texture as velvety as possible. The sauce can be served on its own, or used as the base for further complexities. It is fine, for instance, to add mussel or oyster liquor and then reduce again, perhaps with some cream (see sauce Normande below).
Makes about 600 ml (1 pt)
60 g (2 oz) butter
4 tablespoons plain flour
1 litre (1¾ pt) fumet de poisson*
about 100 g (3½ oz) chopped mushroom stalks (optional)
crème fraîche or double cream, to taste
salt, pepper
Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it for 1 minute, stirring most of the time. Meanwhile heat the fumet to boiling point. Pour it on to the roux gradually, off the heat, using a whisk to make the sauce as smooth as possible.
Now add the mushroom stalks, if you have them. Bring the sauce back to boiling point, stirring. Lower the heat, or put the pan over another pan of simmering water and leave the sauce to reduce by almost half. Allow at least 45 minutes: it will take longer to reduce over water than if it is directly on the stove (in which case I would recommend that you use a heat-diffuser to make sure it cannot catch). If a skin forms, whisk it in.
Finally add as much crème fraîche or cream as consistency, flavour and your taste demand. Strain out the mushroom stalks if used and season it according to the end you have in mind for the sauce. Serve it very hot.
SAUCE ALLEMANDE Make the velouté sauce. Beat up 2 egg yolks with 60 ml (2 fl oz) of single and 60 ml (2 fl oz) of double cream. Pour in a little of the sauce, return to the pan and stir steadily over a low heat (don’t boil) until the sauce is very rich. Use with the finest white fish, poached or baked in white wine or fish stock; the stock is used in making the basic velouté sauce.
SAUCE ANDALOUSE Make the velouté. Peel and chop 2 very large tomatoes. Cook them in a little olive oil, with a clove of garlic, crushed. When they are reduced to a purée, add to the sauce, plus 2 canned peppers, chopped small. (Fresh peppers can be used but they must first be seeded, then boiled, peeled and chopped.) Last of all stir in some chopped parsley. A good sauce for mullet of all kinds, and any firm fish such as tuna.
MORNAY SAUCE Add 2 heaped tablespoons grated Parmesan, 2 tablespoons grated Gruyère and some grated nutmeg. Dry Cheddar can be substituted for Gruyère but you will need more of