Class 4 - Dangerous Liaisons

So class 4 was all about Liaisons. Sorry kids...Its not as exciting as it sounds. Its just what those crazy french chefs call a binding agent (ha ha okay that sounds rather exciting too but it means thickener you sick-minded fools) for a sauce. Many different things can be used as thickeners for sauces, such as a slurry, roux, or vegetable puree. But, the most important thing to remember is that you must boil the sauce after the thickener is added to activate its full binding power.

In total, we made 5 sauces, but there was also a lot of demo time where the chef discussed how mother sauces can beget hundreds of other sauces. The two main sauces we started with were the Espagnole and Tomato. Both sauces started with rendering bacon lardons...I was instantly sold and hungry! The tomato sauce was rather strange and I doubt I would ever make it again. It used chicken stock as its base and although it was thickened with flour, I feel like it was thinner than I like and had too much of a smokey bacon flavor and not enough tomato. The Espagnole sauce used veal stock, which by the way looks like jello. Now this sauce was very tasty and rich.

After we finished these sauces, it was time to mix up the bechamel. According to chef, a really good mac and cheese starts with a really good bechamel. So you can only imagine how copiously I took notes on this. It was actually relatively easy and began with a butter and flour roux. Then you just add milk and onion and cook down until thickened and add the spices you want. If you want mac and cheese you add your cheese of choice and voila. I have to say mine came out excellent and I wouldn't be surprised if I add homemade mac and cheese to my bag of tricks for easy weeknight meals.

Before the break, chef demo'd a beurre blanc sauce, which is a sauce that's almost exclusively served with fish. It has shallots, lemon, peppercorns, wine, herbs, butter, and sometimes a touch of cream. The touch of cream stabilizes the sauce and prevents it from breaking, which happens easily on a beurre blanc and has the effect of a greasy sauce on your fish. Not good. In fact, if you were watching top chef this week, the exact thing happened to poor Jennifer. Anyway, this might be a good quick sauce to fire up for an easy fish dish some night.

Okay, so back to the kitchen and time to make the two main event sauces from our tomato and espagnole mother sauces. The two sauces we made were Sauce Chasseur ("Hunter Sauce"), which uses wine, mushrooms, espagnole, tomato sauce, and brandy. And here was my first test in kitchen safety and I chickened out. This sauce is flambed with the brandy and I was responsible for this one. I sheepishly asked my partner to handle the flambe part and she willingly obliged. It went off without a hitch and now I regret my decision. You want to know why? Well, this may just be the best darn sauce I have ever tried in my entire life. It was amazing...the mushrooms, the wine, the mother sauces, the herbs, and the cooking down until Nappant (until it coats the back of a spoon) just created this amazing sauce with the most velvety smooth texture. My mouth is watering right now just thinking of this sauce. Just wonderful. I quickly called dibs on taking the leftovers home!

The second sauce was my partners responsibility and it was a Bordelaise, which is a rich sauce made so with the addition of chopped bone marrow. You reduce shallots, red wine, thyme, and crushed black pepper until syrupy then add the sauce espagnole cook it down until nappant and then melt in the bone marrow. The outcome? A very delicious, peppery sauce suited for a juicy med-rare steak.

All in all, a good class. I liked making the sauces but the more difficult ones really seem more suited for restaurant cooking only. I can't imagine making homemade veal stock then making the sauce espagnole then making the Chasseur. But I also can't imagine never having that sauce again. Shoot...looks like I'm going to be scouring the grocery stores of NYC in a desperate search for veal bones.

Also happy to report it seems that my partner has returned to her normal pleasant self so I won't have to worry about searching for somebody new!