Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [13]
NOTE This sauce can also be made with béchamel.
MUSTARD SAUCE To the velouté sauce, made with half milk and half fumet de poisson, add a teaspoonful of French mustard – or more, according to taste – just before serving. More successful than mustard added to béchamel.
SAUCE NORMANDE Today’s version of a very grand sauce is subtly different every time you make it because the juices from cooking the varying garnishes are added to it. Should you be using prawns or shrimps, boil up their shells with some water or fish stock, whizz the whole thing in the processor and strain off the liquid through a cloth: it can go into the sauce as well.
Makes 600 ml (1 pt)
600 ml (1 pt) velouté de poisson
up to 500 ml (18 fl oz) fish fumet*
oyster, mussel and prawn or shrimp cooking liquor
liquor from cooking a mushroom garnish (optional)
4 egg yolks
125 ml (4 fl oz) crème fraîche or double cream
60 g (2 oz) unsalted Normandy butter, cut up
salt, pepper, chilli powder (cayenne pepper), lemon juice
Heat the velouté in a wide pan with the fumet and shellfish liquors and the mushroom liquor if you have it, and reduce it to 600 ml (1 pt).
Beat the egg yolks with half the crème fraîche or cream, stir in a little sauce and then stir this back into the pan, keeping the heat low. Keep stirring, without boiling, until the sauce is thick.
Off the heat, stir in the butter and the rest of the cream. Season to taste. A few drops of lemon juice will improve the flavour if double cream is used.
SAUCE NORMANDE (a simpler version) Use when a creamy sauce is needed for a gratin, or to go with a fish pie, or with some poached fish of a firm texture.
60 g (2 oz) butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
150 ml (5 fl oz) fish stock or liquor from shellfish or light meat stock
300 ml (10 fl oz) double cream or single and double mixed
salt, pepper
dash of wine vinegar
Make the sauce in the usual way, adding the vinegar just before serving, when the pan is off the heat. Sherry or Madeira can be used instead; or dry white wine or vermouth, in which the fish has been cooked. Reduce it to a few tablespoons after removing the fish.
POULETTE SAUCE Make the velouté sauce with a few more mushrooms than usual – about 125 g (4 oz) in all. Beat up 2 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons double cream, and incorporate this with the hot sauce, which should not be allowed to boil. Season with lemon juice and chopped parsley. An excellent sauce for mussels or eel, and the liquid from cooking that fish is used to make the velouté sauce.
SAUCE AU CIDRE
This is a Normandy sauce, like the white wine sauce which follows.
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped
trimmings of the fish, plus its bones
150 g (5 oz) butter
about 600 ml (1 pt) cider
bouquet garni
salt, pepper
3 tablespoons plain flour
2 egg yolks
60 ml (2 fl oz) double cream
lemon juice
Fry the onion or shallot, and the trimmings of the fish, very gently, in 30 g (1 oz) of butter. When the onion begins to soften, pour in the cider, plus 150 ml (5 fl oz) water. Add the fish bones, bouquet and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Simmer steadily for half an hour, with the lid off the pan; there should then be between 450 and 600 ml (¾–1 pt) of stock.
Make a roux with 60 g (2 oz) of butter and the flour, add the strained stock, and complete the sauce as if it were a velouté, thickening it with the egg yolks beaten into the cream. Just before serving, whisk in the last 60 g (2 oz) of butter and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
SAUCE AU VIN BLANC
This is one of many similar recipes (see sauce Bercy*) which makes a good general sauce for many fish.
300 ml (10 fl oz) white wine
1 litre (1½ pt) water
1 kg (2 lb) fish bones
bouquet garni
1 carrot, sliced
1 onion, sliced
60 g (2 oz) butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
125 ml (4 fl oz) double cream
125 ml (4 fl oz) single cream
or 250 ml (8