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  • How To Make Sauce Veloute and Its Derivatives

    Blog entry

    Sauce Veloute is a very simple member of the Five French Mother Sauces that is used for a base to make many different secondary sauces and leading sauces.
     

    Standard Ratio and Recipe for Sauce Veloute

    • 4 ounce blond roux (2 ounces clarified butter and 2 ounces all purpose flour)
    • 1 1/4 quarts hot, White Stock (Veal, Chicken, or Fish)
    1. Heat up your white stock in a heavy bottom sauce pan.
    2. In a separate pan, cook roux to a blond stage.
    3. Allow roux to cool slightly before adding it to the gently simmering stock.
    4. Whisk stock and roux together and bring to a gentle simmer.
    5. Allow to simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
    6. Adjust consistency by adding more hot stock if necessary. Recipe should yield 1 qt of sauce at the “napé” stage, meaning the sauce should thinly coat the back of a spoon.
    7. Finish by straining through a chinois or a strainer lined with cheesecloth.
    8. Note: Do not season your Veloute. Veloute is always used as a foundation for other secondary sauces and small sauces, at which time you will season the sauce as a whole.

    Now that you have the basic recipe for sauce Veloute, lets look at some of its secondary and small sauces.
     

    Sauce Vin Blanc (White Wine Sauce)
     

    Sauce Vin Blanc is a variation of secondary sauce based on fish Veloute. Not surprisingly, the White Wine Sauce goes great with just about any type of fish or seafood dish.

    • 4 oz dry white wine
    • 1 quart fish Veloute
    • 4 oz heavy cream
    • 1 oz butter
    • Salt, White Pepper and Lemon Juice to taste.
    1. Reduce your white wine by half and then add your fish Veloute.
    2. Reduce your Veloute until it coats the back of a spoon. This consistency is referd to as “napé.”
    3. Temper cream and stir into the Veloute.
    4. Right before serving, swirl in you butter and season with salt, white pepper and a couple drops of lemon juice.
    5. Strain through a chinois and serve.

    Sauce Supreme
     

    Sauce supreme is a very simple variation based on Chicken Veloute. Since this sauce is so simple, it’s very important to make sure that your chicken stock is made properly and of high quality. Use heavy whipping cream and European butter if you can find them. This sauce is traditionally served with poached or steam chicken, or any other type of poultry dish with delicate flavors.

    • 1 qt chicken Veloute
    • 1 cup heavy cream, warm
    • 1 oz butter
    • Salt, White Pepper and Lemon Juice to taste.
    1. Reduce Chicken Veloute by 1/4.
    2. Add in warm, heavy cream.
    3. Swirl in butter
    4. Season with salt, white pepper and lemon juice to taste.
    5. Strain through a chinois and serve.

    Sauce Allemande
     

    Sauce Allemande is another simple sauce based on Veal Veloute. But with the richness of the Liason and the brightness of the fresh lemon juice, this sauce is simply amazing. This is a perfect sauce for Veal Scallopini.

    • 1 qt of Veal Veloute
    • 2 egg yolks (for liaison)
    • 4 ounce heavy cream (for liaison)
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
    • White Pepper and Salt to taste

    Small Sauces Based on Veloute
     

    Although you can use Veloute as a base to make your own, uniquely flavored sauces, there are some traditional “small sauces” that use Veloute as its base.
     

    Sauce Poulette

    • Simmer 8 ounces of white, button mushrooms with when making 1 quart of Veloute of your choice.
    • Use Veloute to make Sauce Allemande and then strain out mushrooms.
    • Finish with 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and lemon juice to taste.

    Sauce Bercy

    • Reduce by two-thirds: 2 ounces chopped shallots and 1/2 cup white wine.
    • Add 1 quart Fish Veloute and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, reducing slightly.
    • Turn of heat and finish sauce by swirling in 2 ounces raw butter.
    • Season with chopped parsley and lemon juice to taste.

    Sauce Normandy

    • Bring 1 quart of Fish Veloute to a simmer.
    • Add 4 ounces of mushrooms and 4 ounces of oyster liquid or fish fumet.
    • Reduce by 1/3.
    • Finish with a liaison of 4 egg yolks and 1 cup heavy cream.
    • Strain and swirl in 3 ounces of raw butter off the heat.

    Further Information

  • How To Make Sauce Espagnole

    Blog entry

    Sauce Epsagnole is one of the Five French Mother Sauces, and is the classical precursor to modern day sauces such as Demi-Glace. It goes great with any sort of roasted red meat, and is the base for many popular classic French Sauces including Sauce Robert and Sauce Bordelaise, (see below).

    Before we get into how to make Sauce Espagnole, first, a little clarification about Demi-Glace.

    Classical demi glace is one part Brown Sauce (Espagnole) and one part Brown Stock (Such as Roasted Veal Stock), combined in a pot and reduced by half. However, modern day menus that list a “Demi-Glace” as their sauce are usually referring to a stock that has been reduced by at least half, or until it coats the back of a spoon. The gelatin contained in the stock itself is what thickens the sauce. No other thickening agent such as roux is used.

    Modern chefs prefer “full reduction” sauces over a classical demi-glace because they have a much more intense flavor, and the classical thickening agent of a roux makes the sauce heavy and effects its taste.

    Recipe For Classical Sauce Espagnole (Brown Sauce)

    • Mirepoix: 4 oz/112g onions, 2 oz/56g celery, 2 oz/56g carrots
    • 2 oz/56g butter
    • 2  oz/56g flour
    • 2 oz/56g Tomato Puree
    • Sachet Containing: 1/2 Bay Leaf, 2-3 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme, 2-3 Sprigs Parsley
    • 1.5-2 qts/1.5-2L  Roasted Veal Stock
    1. Start by roasting your mirepoix over medium heat, in the bottom of a heavy bottom sauce pot with the butter, until the mirepoix turns a nice golden brown.
    2. Once your mirepoix has browned, add in your tomato puree and continue roasting for 2-3 more minutes.
    3. Sprinkle in your flour, and cook until the flour is well incorporated into the other ingredients (about 5 more minutes).
    4. Add your roasted veal stock and sachet.
    5. Bring to a simmer, and gently simmer for about 2 hours, reducing the entire sauce down to 1qt/L. If necessary, add more stock if too much evaporates during the cooking process. Skim sauce as needed.
    6. Tip: While simmering your sauce, pull it half way off the burner, so that all the scum will collect on one side of the pot, making it easier to skim.
    7. Once your sauce is finished cooking, pass it through a fine chinois a couple of times to insure a smooth, consistent texture.

    Secondary Sauces (Derivatives) Made From Espagnole

    Classical Demi-Glace

    • Combine Sauce Espagnole and Roasted Veal Stock at the Ratio of 1:1, and reduce by half.
    • Strain through a fine mesh strainer (chinois).

    Sauce Bordelaise

    To yield 1 qt/L combine in a sauce pan:

    • 1 cup/236ml red wine
    • 2 oz/56g chopped shallots
    • Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
    • 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
    • 1/2 a bay leaf

    Reduce these ingredients by half, and then stir in 1 qt of demi-glace (see above) and simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Strain through a chinois and then finish by swirling in 2 oz of raw butter. Sauce Bordelaise was traditionally garnished with diced bone marrow that had been poached in salted water.

    Sauce Robert

    To yield 1 qt/L:

    • Sweat 4oz/112g of diced white onion with some butter over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes, or until soft and tender.
    • Deglaze with 1 cup/236ml of dry white wine, and reduce by two-thirds.
    • Add in 1 qt/L of demi glace and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
    • Strain sauce through a chinois and finish with 2 teaspoons of dry mustard, a pinch of sugar, and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
    • Check seasoning for salt and pepper.

    Further Information
     

  • How To Make Sauce Tomat

    Blog entry

    Sauce Tomat, better known as tomato sauce, is a French Mother Sauce based on tomatoes. This base can consist of fresh tomatoes cooked down into a liquid, canned tomatoes, tomato puree or even tomato paste.

    “Hey, wait a second now, how is tomato sauce a French Mother sauce when it’s clearly Italian?”

    Well, you do know it was the Italians that taught the French  to cook right? But that’s a whole other post. Suffice it to say that just like all the other mother sauces, “Sauce Tomat” is an incredibly versatile base sauce that can have any number of variations.

    But before we start playing around with tomato sauce, it is important to first understand the classic version. My favorite classical recipe for Sauce Tomat is Escoffier’s version.

    Escoffier’s Sauce Tomat Recipe

    Although most of the sauce recipes that I’ve been giving for the Mother Sauces yield 1 quart (1 liter), this recipe will yield 2 quarts since you can almost never have enough tomato sauce, and it is always better the next day anyway. For Escoffier’s recipe you will need:

    • 2-3 oz (56-84 g) Salt Pork. Salt pork comes from the belly portion of the pig, just like bacon. However, unlike bacon, salt pork is never smoked, and the fattier (more white), the better.
    • 3 oz (84 g) Carrots, peeled and medium diced
    • 3 oz (84 g) White or Yellow onion, medium diced
    • 2 oz (56 g) whole butter
    • 2-3 oz (56-84 g) Flour, All Purpose
    • 5 lbs (2.25 Kilos) Raw, Good quality tomatoes, quartered
    • 1 qt (1 lt) White Veal Stock
    • 1 clove freshly crushed garlic
    • Salt and Pepper To taste
    • Pinch of Sugar
    1. In his book, Escoffier calls for you to “fry the salt pork in the butter until the pork is nearly melted.” The term frying can be misleading, and what he’s really calling for you to do is to render the fat.
    2. To render out the salt pork properly, place the salt pork in a heavy bottom saucepan with a tablespoon of water, cover with a lid, and place over medium heat. Check in about 5 minutes. The steam from the water will allow the fat to render out of the salt pork before it starts to brown or burn.
    3. After the salt pork is nice and rendered out, add in your butter, carrots and onions, and sweat over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, or until they become nice and tender and start to release their aromatic aromas.
    4. Sprinkle the flour over the carrots and onions and continue to cook for another few minutes. You’re essentially using the residual fat from the butter and salt pork to make a blond roux.
    5. Add in your raw tomatoes.  Roast with other ingredients until they start to soften and release some of their liquid.
    6. Add in your white veal stock and a clove of crushed garlic.
    7. Cover the pot with a lid, and Escoffier says to put it in a moderate oven, which is about 350 degrees F or 175 C. If your sauce pot won’t fit, you can always just simmer it on your stove top. Bake in oven or simmer for 1.5-2 hours.
    8. Escoffier’s classical recipe also calls for you to pass your finished sauce through a Tamis, but if you’re looking for a smooth tomato sauce, I would instead recommend that you first blend it in a blender, and then press it through a chinois.
    9. Once you have passed your sauce through the chinois, finish by seasoning it with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.
    10. Note on Sugar: The addition of sugar is used to balance the natural acidity of the tomatoes. Your tomato sauce should not taste sweet, unless you enjoy putting ketchup on your pasta.

    Modern Variations on Escoffier’s Sauce Tomat

    The major difference between Escoffier’s version of sauce tomat and modern variations that are taught in culinary school are two fold. (1), The Roux is omitted and instead of using fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes and tomato puree are used in the respective ratio of 2:1 and, (2) Instead of using white veal stock, modern recipes call for the simmering of a roasted ham bone.

    Other than that, the process is pretty much the same as discussed above. Follow the same recipe and process, except use 3lbs of canned tomatoes and 2lbs of tomato puree instead of the 5lbs of fresh tomatoes. Simmer for two hours with the addition of a roasted ham bone and omit the veal stock since the tomato puree and canned tomatoes offer plenty liquid for simmering the sauce.

    Another modern touch is the common use of aromatic fresh herbs including bay leaves, thyme, basil and oregano. Add these at your own discretion, at the end of the cooking process so that the flavor of the fresh herbs does not break down.

    Basic Light Tomato Sauce

    If you’re looking for a lighter version of tomato sauce to serve with a more delicate dish such as poached fish, use the ratios and procedure below.

    • 1 part mirepoix, (Onions, Carrot and Celery, at a 2:1:1 Ratio), small dice
    • 4-5 parts fresh or canned tomatoes
    • Fresh Chopped Garlic and Herbs To Taste
    • Olive Oil
    • Salt and Pepper To Taste
    • Butter and Heavy Cream to finish (Optional)
    1. Start by sweating your mirepoix over medium heat in a sauce pan with a little bit of olive oil.
    2. Once the mirepoix becomes nice and soft, and starts to release its sweet aroma (about 5-10 minutes) add in your tomatoes and fresh chopped garlic.
    3. Simmer for 1.5-2 hours. Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Add fresh herbs to taste.
    4. At this point, if you desire a smooth texture, you can blend your sauce and then pass it through a chinois.
    5. Finish with swirling in some heavy cream and whole butter off the flame. This is optional, but if you’re not averse to butter and cream, it will add a nice flavor and mouth feel.

    Further Information

  • The Science Behind Brining

    Blog entry

    With Turkey Day quickly approaching, there has been a lot of talk on the web about whether or not you should brine your bird. Although there are good arguments from both camps, I think it is first important that the science of brining is understood before making any decisions.

    A traditional brine is a water based liquid that contains between 3-6% salt by weight. Along with salt, a brine will contain aromatic herbs, spices and sometimes vegetables (usually mirepoix, garlic, etc).

    So Why Would You Brine Meat?

    Brining has two distinct effects on muscle tissue.

    First, the high salinity of the brine “disrupts the structure of the muscle filaments” (On Food and Cooking, Pg 155). At about 3% salinity, the brine will partially dissolve “the protein structure” which supports the muscle filaments that contract when cooked. The more these muscles filaments are allowed to contract, the tougher your meat will be.

    At about 5.5% salinity, the muscle filaments themselves are partially dissolved. Since their contracting ability is hindered by the salt, the muscle filaments contract less, effectively making your meat more tender.

    Second, they way in which salt interacts with protein, allows the protein to retain more moisture, which is absorbed from the liquid of the brine itself. According to Harold McGee’s on Food and Cooking:

    The meat’s weight increases by 10% or more. When cooked, the meat still loses around 20% of its weight in moisture, but this loss is counterbalanced by the brine absorbed, so the moisture loss is effectively cut in half. (PG 156)

    This is what allows brined meat to stay more moist, compared to its unbrined counterpart.

    The reason why a lot of people prefer to brine their turkey for the big day is because turkey breasts are finished cooking at around 145 degrees F, and start to dry out at around 155 F. The legs on the other hand need to be cooked to about 165 degrees F, because they have a much higher amount of connective tissue (in the form of collagen), and collagen doesn’t begin to break down until about 160 degrees F.

    So by the time the turkey legs are done, the breasts are overcooked and dried out.

    The problem with brining a turkey is the drippings contain much more water, and are too salty to make a proper pan gravy. Harrold McGee actually doesn’t brine his Thanksgiving Bird, and he explains why in his New York Times Article “Miracle Cure or Just Salt Water?”

    Also, check out this Stella Forum Thread on Brining.

  • Elyse Wine Dinner Photo Wrap Up

    Blog entry

    Wine dinners are always so much fun; an intimate environment where people can interact with the wine maker and share their passion for everything food and wine related. On Friday, June 17th, we hosted special guest, Ray Coursen, owner of Elyse Wines. While their home base is in Yountville, Ray sources grapes from different regions all over Northern California, including the Naggier Vineyard, which is located in the Sierra foothill’s town of Grass Valley.

    

When I visited Ray in Yountville and tasted through his wines, we discussed what kind of foods we craved with every new sip. With their complex finishes and sometimes unorthodox techniques, Ray's wines inspired a unique menu.



    ahi-strawberry "nigiri"
    Elyse 2010     Rosé

    This course was originally supposed to be an amuse bouche of foie torchon with roasted apriums. Yet, as is my nature, I can't leave good enough alone and I've been retooling my torchon recipe using a couple different techniques. This time around, it didn't turn out how I wanted. Not to mention, because of our late start to Summer, apriums weren't yet available. But it all worked out for the best.



    Ray generously donated a case of his 2010 Rosé. It has a beautiful, crisp mouth feel with a clean and refreshing flavor structure, especially when served chilled on a blistering summer day. There was a slight hint of strawberry and the tingling of the acid on my palate gave me the slightest perception of effervescent carbonation, even though there was none present in the wine.

    

I had just received some beautiful A+1 ahi from my fish guru, Domi. As you can see in the picture, the ahi is a dark, rich red; not that flaccid pink color you see in a lot of low-end sushi cases. That pink color, by the way, is set by smoking lower grades of ahi with carbon monoxide.



    We butchered the Ahi into "saku" and then cut nigiri-style slices. We then trimmed up some strawberry halves to make a platform for the ahi, much like a mound of rice. Since pickled ginger was a little too harsh for this presentation, (it would have blown away the delicacy of the Rosé), we opted instead to serve a slightly pickled strip of cucumber as a "palate cleanser."

    

The whole thing was sauced with a little bit of our home made citrus teriyaki and a slight sprinkling of sumac to enhance some of the slight citrus notes I picked up in the Rosé. It was garnished with a little piece of fizzy, which will fizz and sparkle in your mouth, a beautiful sensation when followed by a sip of Rosé.

    

Ahi and strawberries are always a great combination, especially when strawberries are at their peek. It was also Ray's favorite course of the night. At the end of the dinner he commented, "Everything was great, but the ahi with the strawberries just blew my mind!"



    hamachi belly sashimi, prosciutto di parma, dehydrated roasted sesame oil, melon salad
    2008 L'Ingénue, Naggier Vineyard


    Oh hamachi belly, my arch nemesis for this menu. I've served hamachi belly many different ways, but when it came to this menu, I just kept over thinking it. I had about three iterations of this dish, including two failed components that I tried to experiment with the day before the wine dinner. In fact, I spent the Thursday before futilely testing a new concept that would ultimately end up in the trash.



    The day of the wine dinner, I took a deep breath and realized I was forcing it. I was trying to make this hamachi dish something that it wasn't, and quite frankly, it was fighting back. Hamachi belly is such a beautiful, succulent piece of fish - my job was to leave it alone and let it do its thing...for the most part.



    After the hamachi and I came to an understanding, it ended up being my favorite dish of the night.



    The L'Ingénu is a complex white wine with an uncharacteristically long finish. I wanted to play off of some of these finishing notes; the slight smoke and citrus would go great with the prosciutto di parma. The fattiness of the hamachi and prosciutto would be cut nicely by the wine’s acidic bite. The melon salad was there to round out flavors and make a bridge between the hamachi and prosciutto.



    The sesame oil is mixed with tapioca maltodextrin, an extremely light weight bulking agent. The cool thing is, when it hits your palate, the maltodextrin melts away, rehydrating the sesame oil back into its original form. This is especially convenient when pairing with a wine, allowing the guest to try different components together without the sesame oil running all over the plate, possibly taking over the dish.


    roasted duck breast, bing gelée, spring radish, seared rainiers, soy-duck glace
    2006 Le Corbeau - Hudson Valley

    In last month's newsletter, our featured seasonal ingredient was cherries. I wrote about a dish I did a few years back that consisted of a pan-roasted duck breast and a Bing cherry reduction sauce. It was simple, tasty, and an instant hit. While pairing duck and cherries isn't the most original idea ever, it's damn tasty.

    

When I first tasted the Le Corbeau, it screamed out for cherries. Mind you, it didn't taste like cherries; often when I pair food with wine, I'm looking for complimentary flavors, not foods that taste like the wine. Pairing a wine that taste like blackberries with an actual blackberry dish will often cause the two to cancel each other out. But if you pair with a contrasting yet complimentary flavor affinity, that can lead to an interesting and inspired dish.



    Another thing that struck me about the Le Corbeau was its finish; it had a lingering spice. This is usually caused by "un-ripe tannins" that will completely dry out your mouth. But as I tasted the wine again and again, I realized that my mouth wasn't dry or being overwhelmed with tannins; yet this spicy note lingered on the finish.

    

"What is that spice on the finish," I asked Ray. "I know it's not tannin; I just can't place it."

    

"We coil up dried grape vines and pitch them in during the fermentation process."



    "Is that a common practice?"

    

"No!" He chuckled. "No one else is that stupid."



    And I'll be damned; it worked. It really worked. The spice was absolutely screaming out for duck, but it wasn't until a few weeks later that I was able to match that flavor with food. We were having a late Winter with almost no Spring in California which allowed us to buy some heirloom radish varieties that were much more mild then usual. Once the Summer sun starts to heat up, radishes become extremely spicy. Lacking the overbearing warmth of the sun, they still have a distinct radish spice, but it's much more subdued on the finish, allowing you to appreciate complexities in the radish that one simply cannot taste during the mid-summer months.

    

Wanting to control the amount of radish each guest received per bite, we parisienne balled a mixed case of radishes which yielded little spheres about the size of a large English pea. This was mixed with a frisée salad that paired nicely with the sweetness of the cherries, helping to tame the spice of both the radish and Le Corbeau.



    petite rack of lamb, roasted broccoli salad, honey-anchovy aioli
    2007 Howell Mountain Zinfandel

    Looking at this dish, it lacks the panache and presentation of the previous three courses. Yet sometimes simple is good. As a passionate young cook I often find that self-editing will reveal the best possible dish. When I took a sip of the Elyse Howell Mountain Zin, this lamb preparation was simply what I wanted to eat with this wine. 



    The rack of lamb was sous vide at 133°F/56°C for an hour and a half. After cooling the lamb, it was then seared to order and butter-basted to bring the core temperature back up, yielding a perfectly mid-rare piece of lamb with a beautiful roasted crust. It was served on top of a roasted mushroom and broccoli salad and dressed with a honey-anchovy aioli.



    I know the aioli might sound a little weird, but think of it in the context of a Caesar dressing. In its emulsified state, Caesar is basically an aioli with parmesan, anchovy fillets and other ingredients incorporated. Now think of what happens when you take this same home made Caesar-on-steroids and add white boquerone anchovies and a 50 year aged sherry vinegar; only you add a little too much vinegar to really give it a tangy kick. That sour tang is then balanced with a dash of apple blossom honey to bring the dressing into focus.



    Then imagine taking broccoli and wild mushrooms and frying them at 400°F, giving them a quick char, and dressing with this aioli. The dish is completed with a full reduction pan sauce, meaning that we don't use any starch thickeners. Instead, for this sauce in particular, we took about 5 gallons of veal and duck stock and reduced it down to about 2 quarts, reinforcing at each stage of reduction, straining multiple times, and finishing with a splash of Howell Mountain Zin and a few pats of butter.


    "cheese & wine" - pierre rober, abbaye de belloc, livarot coupe
    2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Morisoli Vineyard

    Ahh, the Morisoli Cab. Ray produces a few different Cabernets, all from different vineyards. They way he puts it, "You're either a Morisoli Guy or a Tietjen Guy."

    

To make things even more interesting, the Tietjen Vineyard is directly across the street from Morisoli. What's more, Robert Parker and the Wine Enthusiast scored both wines an equal 90 points. I had to make up my own mind, which should be expected, but is none the less a daunting task when the wine maker is watching you taste from across the counter expecting you to choose a side; to decide "what kind of guy you are."



    "I'm a Morisoli Guy," I finally concluded. "The Tietjen is great, but the Morisoli is what I want to pair food with and in my mind, that's what I always go back to. What wine do I want to 'cook for'.”?



    "I'm a Morisoli Guy too," Ray admitted.

    

So what does this mean?

    

The Elyse Cabernet produced from the Tietjen Vineyard is what I would call an "instant gratification wine." If you want to drink a big, California Cab by itself, this is the wine to drink.

    

The Morisoli on the other hand makes you earn it. It's not instant gratification. Up front, it's subtle yet complex. The wine was so cohesive that it was hard for me to put my finger on any one flavor. But the finish; oh the finish! It went on for decades, complex and ever changing from second to second. A good food wine is all about the finish; the flavor structure that lingers on your palate, ready to enhance the next bite of food, at the same time, the food enhancing your next sip of wine.



    Ray's pairing idea was brilliant. "With this, I think we should pair cheese."

    

"Absolutely!" I agreed. Wine and cheese are a time-tested pairing made in heaven. The problem was, finding cheeses that could not only stand up to this Cab, but enhance it.

    

I choose Pierre Robert, my favorite triple cream cheese, Abbaye de Belloc, a sheep’s milk cheese with a subtle pecorino tang without the salt, and Petit Livarot. Petit Livarot is a washed rind cheese with a distinct, "barn yard aroma" that is actually much milder on the palate then it is on the nose. Bite for bite, this was probably the best flavor pairing of the evening.



    flourless chocolate cake, seared plums, cayenne, aged balsamic, smoked sea salt
    2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Port

    The Elyse port has an amazingly complex finish. While this port is definitely "sweet," it's not so overbearing that it kills your palate, making everything taste dull or sour in contrast.

    

It was Ray's idea to do a flourless chocolate cake which turned out to be serendipitous. One of the newest additions to the Stella team is Kevin, our executive pastry chef. This guy kills it on a daily basis. His techniques are incredibly solid only to be matched by his recipes.

    

I'm not a huge chocolate fan, usually too bold for my palate. Just a personal preference. And I'm especially not a fan of flourless chocolate cakes, which are usually dense, chewy pieces of formed chocolate. Yet Kevin has made me a convert. His flourless chocolate cake recipe is amazingly simple and will be posted in an upcoming article.



    The chocolate cake was served with aged balsamic syrup and seared plum. The plum was sprinkled with a small pinch of cayenne to give depth and dimension to both the chocolate and the port. The cake itself was sprinkled with a little smoked sea salt; smoke always being a great flavor to pair with sweet.

  • Fifty Fifty Beer Dinner At Stella

    Blog entry

    Last Friday we teamed up with Fifty Fifty Brewery to do a "Brew Master's Dinner." We had a lot of fun putting this menu together and Brew Master Todd Ashmen held the crowd captivated as he discussed each beer pairing.

  • "Stella Studios"

    Blog entry

    Stella Studios
    Hard at work creating new videos for your educational enjoyment!

  • How To Make and Use a Liaison

    Blog entry

    A liaison is a mixture of egg yolks and cream that is used to finish some classical French sauces. Although a liaison will slightly thicken a sauce, it’s biggest contribution is richness and mouth feel.

    When using a liaison it is important to understand that pure egg yolks will curdle around 140-150 F and about 60-70 C. When you mix the egg yolks with cream, it raises the curdling temperature to around 180-185 F and about 83 C.
     

    Standard Ratio for Liaison

    The standard ratio for a liaison is 16 x 1 x 2. So for every 16 ounces (or one pint) of sauce, you will need 1 egg yolk and 2 ounces of cream.
     

    Incorporating a Liaison Into a Sauce

    To incorporate a liaison into a sauce, first beat your egg yolks and heavy cream together in a separate bowl. Heat your sauce to about 180 degrees F or 80 degrees C, which is just below the simmering point. If you allow your sauce to simmer or boil, it will curdle your eggs.
     

    Now slowly add some of your hot sauce to your cream and yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Once you have added about 1/3 of your total sauce to your liaison, add the entire mixture back into your original sauce.

    Heat the sauce to about 180 F (80 C) and strain through a fine chinois before serving.

    For more information on how to make and use a liaison, listen to SCS 9| Sauce Hollandaise. Or you can check out our Complete Guide to the Five French Mother Sauces.

  • Sourdough Boule - Tease

    Blog entry

    Been shooting lots of video this past week for our Stella Bread Series that will supplement some of our upcoming audio lectures. This is a 70% hydration boule with about 10% whole wheat and leavened with a sourdough starter. The video turned out great, the bread was AWESOME, but first, we need to get through two more audio lectures to lay a nice foundation. Sorry to be such a tease!

  • Lost In Translation

    Blog entry

    LOST IN TRANSLATION

    by Zalbar

    Introduction

    When I was asked to explain the whole saute pan versus frying pan issue it seemed at first to be a rather simple thing. However, the topic itself raised a whole other series of questions for me. Why are there so many french terms used in english speaking kitchens? Why do we even use them instead of our own unique words? What led to french labels and techniques dominating the globe and spreading as far and as wide as it does today? Subsequent Lost In Translation articles will explore the culinary history and evolution of french cooking as well as it’s impact on cuisines around the world. However, let’s first look at the subject that kicked off this series of articles. The saute, sauteuse and sautoir.

    PART I

    ~ Saute, Sauteuse, Sautoir ~

    The kitchen, both domestic and commercial, is littered with french terminology and for good reason. It is the french that set out in print the what, when, where and how of modern culinary practices and techniques in use today. It was the french chefs who were hired by other countries royalty and upper class houses to prepare lavish banquets and feasts. Their methods and terminology have stood the test of time and endured throughout the ages. History as well as several major societal and cultural upheavals are what has birthed one of the dominating and most influential cuisines to leave it’s imprint upon the globe.This is not to say that there are not also a goodly number of culinary texts and traditions from other countries that have endured as well, however, french cuisine stands apart as being recognized at either extreme of the dining experience. On the one hand it is almost art with it’s small complicated towering mounds of delicately sauced and perfectly cooked morsels of food. They flood the palate with undulating waves and layers of flavour and texture, each more exquisitely satisfying than the next. On the other hand it is also renowned for being a culinary pioneer of down to earth, rustic and heart warming comfort food using every scrap of an animal or vegetable. While most of us would snap our asparagus in half, blanch and eat the top part, the french would calmly retrieve the discarded stems, peel them, and show you the wonderfully tender shoots hidden beneath. To use a euphemism of my own making, the french dive deep in both ends of the culinary pool.

    The english saute pan is derived from the french pan called a sautoir. A noun, a thing. The word saute can also be used as a verb, an action. Our problem is that we tend to borrow some terms and ignore others as well as the meaning behind the word and thus lose the comprehension of everything else similar that surrounds it.

    In french, to saute something merely means to fry ingredients with a little fat over high heat. That is the complete definition right there, nothing more, nothing less. The word saute itself literally means jump. I’m sure this is not new to anyone, and everyone has read this explanation or heard it somewhere. What most of us fail to grasp is the actual meaning behind the word. The jumping is in reference to the action of ingredients in hot oil but can also refer to the sauteing technique of tossing food rapidly into the air. What type of pan you use determines the method of sauteing that is most applicable.

    The sautoir is a wide shallow pan with straight sides, what is also termed a saute pan in english. Sauteing in this is what we would normally call pan frying. As water escapes the ingredients, due to heating, it jumps and bounces in the pan. It sautes. Think of how you cook a steak on the stove-top. High heat and a bit of oil in the pan and away we go. A few minutes on either side and then off to rest before plating and eating. There is no tossing of the food in the air. We are not swinging the pan around like we’re sifting for gold. Yes, this is still sauteing food to the french. Remember, high heat and a small amount of fat. That is the only qualification to be considered for sauteing an ingredient.

    The sauteuse is a long handled bowl shaped pan. If you took a big cereal bowl and put a long handle on it you wouldn’t be all that far off. We would use small pieces of meat or vegetable, often times both at once, with the saute method of rapidly tossing the items in the air to achieve browning on all sides. This is what we are most familiar with when we use the term saute.

    Another similarly misunderstood word is deglaze or deglacer. Glace. Demi-Glace. Glace de viande. These are all terms we have heard before. Most people know that glace is the french word for ice. If we deglaze the pan and make a pan sauce we call this in french, saute-deglace. But to understand it in culinary terms as the french use it we have to look at it’s meaning. For example glace de viande, which is really concentrated and reduced brown stock or sauce, would translate literally as meat ice. I know, it doesn’t sound very appetizing, but there it is. It also doesn’t really make much sense in english. Glace, where we get our word glaze from, doesn’t only mean ice, as in frozen water. It is referring to the whole process of cooling or heating something so that it thickens. If anyone has ever seen the rubber hockey pucks that are glace de viande, you are probably now getting an inkling of the true meaning of the word glace. Deglace where instead of glacing or glazing something till it thickens to the proper consistency such as in barbecue ribs, we are doing the reverse. The fond or solids, this glace, left in the pan becomes liquid. We deglace or deice them. Another way to say it it is that we un-ice it, we melt it.

    All this rambling is to point out what I meant by understanding the cultural and contextual meaning behind a word or phrase. Especially a foreign phrase, and to not use it rote or off the cuff. Why the words mean what they do is very important. If you asked someone how their boyfriend or girlfriend was and got the response “They rock my world.” You would understand. Trying to explain that to someone in a literate sense that only speaks italian, for example, would be almost impossible. Literal translations simply do not work. You have to get at the significance of the phrase to truly relay it’s meaning. This is the most important lesson to take away from this whole article and not just the meaning behind the saute pan and the saute method.

    The weird dichotomy of the whole saute, sauteuse, and sautoir thing though is that, if you step into any non-traditionally french kitchen and ask for a saute pan what you’ll most likely be handed is a sauteuse, and if you buy a saute pan what you’ll get is a sautoir. Most pans you see stacked up and used in kitchens and on the burners are simply frying pans or poeles which we define as a flat shallow curved sided pan. We most often use the saute method with them, but they are neither a sauteuse or a sautoir.  Ironically, one cannot saute food, in an english kitchen, in a saute pan.

    ~Zalbar

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