The heat is on...

... and I am starting to feel it.
Week one of Culinary Foundations II and we immersed ourselves deeply in the study and preparation of stocks and sauces.
The French word for stock is 'fond' and it's literal English translation is foundation. These days the making of a stock from scratch is not as common anymore in a professional or home kitchen as it used to be 50-60 years ago. The making of, and tending to, a pot of simmering stock involves a lot of time and effort, considering that beef stock, for example, should be simmered for 8-10 hrs and that the liquid needs to be skimmed off on a regular basis to remove impurities (fats & coagulated protein) that collect at the surface. As far as home cooking is concerned, I have yet to hear one of my friends tell me that they "made veal or beef stock over the weekend". Chicken stock, yes, probably, vegetable stock, perhaps. But even preparing fish stock is not really part of the general repertoire of today's home cook. Who keeps fish bones in the freezer, just in case a recipe requires 2 oz of fish stock? It is far easier for all of us to buy a packet of cubed concentrated bases at the supermarket that can than be readily added to any sauce recipe as required.

Sauce Robert

Until now I certainly always have had cubes of vegan vegetable bouillon at home that I use whenever necessary. Having said that, I might change my mind though; a good stock is the best foundation for a fabulously tasting sauce and I certainly experienced that more than once this week. It was a kind of revelation to me to be honest since I am not a 'sauce person'. I usually decline any sauce or gravy served with roast turkey, beef chicken etc. But perhaps that's exactly why; a sauce extraordinaire is hard to find these days.

The first two days of the week were all about veal stock, chicken stock and fish stock, the latter part of the week was dedicated to making the sauces. As I already alluded to in one of my previous posts, there are five leading (mother) sauces from which all finished sauces are derived. Two of those leading sauces are based on the stocks described above, one is a tomato based sauce, one is based on milk and the other is based on butter.

Cauliflower & Cheese

The leading sauce based on milk is Béchamel which is the basis for a cheese sauce as used in a Mac&Cheese dish, for example. As I wanted to get away from the heavy starches this week, I actually substituted the pasta and prepared Cauliflower&Cheese one night. It's something I grew up with in Germany and I'd forgotten how much I used to like it. Very tasty with a good texture if you don't overcook the cauliflower and a lot lighter than Mac&Cheese.

The leading sauce based on butter, clarified butter to be correct, is Hollandaise. And as reported previously, this is quite a tricky sauce to make. I have to say the preparation of it put a damper on my excitement this week; I struggled with it. Again. At class and at home. I can't say that I don't learn every time from it, but it is frustrating, particularly since I have to prepare it as part of my first practical test this coming Tuesday. So, I will keep you updated on this issue. No picture either. Who want's to see a broken Hollandaise? You do? To learn from my mistakes? Well, okay than as a reminder, have a look at the post from Jan 27th. As I remember, I already struggled there with the same sauce. Although with hindsight and looking at the picture I labelled 'broken Hollandaise', I am not sure if the sauce is really broken or just too cold and hence not as viscous. However tricky it's temperature profile is, Hollandaise is a warm sauce and should be served as such. There is a very fine balance to be kept between too cold and too warm. Too cold and it rather looks like mayonnaise, because the clarified butter starts to solidify; too warm and the egg cooks and than the emulsion breaks and the fat and egg separate.
Okay, below is a picture of my mishaps.

Hollandaise, egg & fat have separated

Spanish tomato sauce

As for the tomato based sauce, we prepared it a little differently than I would usually do. We used cubes of salted pork to sweat the vegetables, and it was really good. Now, I appreciate that if you like your tomato sauce to be vegetarian, than this is not an option but if you don't mind pork you might want to try it, perhaps. You won't eat the salt pork because it get's strained out and you can discard the fat before you add the tomato to your sweated vegetables. But it really makes a difference to the flavor profile. Will I use it all the time from now on? No, probably not but as a special treat now and then definitely. The reason why the version we made is called Spanish tomato sauce is not the salt pork (that is typically French), it is the addition of garlic, green bell peppers, mushrooms and hot sauce.

But the highlight of my week at school were the French sauces made from the stocks we've prepared. I rarely eat these classic sauces because the quality can vary greatly and, until this week, I had yet to try a really good one. But here they were and we had produced them ourselves. What a joy! We prepared two sauces which were both based on brown veal stock - sauce Robert and sauce Chasseur. I won't bore you with the details of preparing the stock and the leading sauce to be able to prepare the final sauces, it is just sufficient to say the effort was worthwhile. The complexity of the flavor is amazing, nothing really that one can create with prepared stock cubes. I don't really know how to describe it, I am afraid. All I can say that, should you ever dine at an upscale French Restaurant take notice of the sauces and hopefully they will be as good as the ones I was lucky to prepare and taste this week.

Sauce Chasseur ('the hunter')

Stay safe and check in again next week to read more of my kitchen adventures. ... And hopefully a happy ending to my sauce Hollandaise story.
Happy cooking everyone.

P.S. By the way, guess what we will be having for dinner tonight. Chicken with sauce Chasseur. I can't wait.