Behind the French Menu: 2012-11-25

Sauce Hollandaise. The Mother of All Sauces.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Sauce Hollandaise and asparagus.

Photograph courtesy of Amy Ross

www.flickr.com/photos/donutgirl/6879640672/

Sauce Hollandaise

A mother sauce is a sauce that is used as a base for the creation of other sauces.

Those new sauces are her children.

Sauce Hollandaise is a sauce like no other, its origins go back at least four-hundred years, but it is still the sauce of choice for tens of dishes in Western cuisine. A mother sauce means that the sauce’s recipe will be used to create other sauces, those sauces then become her children. Mother sauces with Sauce Hollandaise include were first clearly defined by the Chef Antonin Carême in the early 1800s.

Sauce Hollandaise will be served either alongside or as part of many dishes that include vegetables, fish and egg dishes both hot and cold The recipe for Sauce Hollandaise is simple, it calls for egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

(BTW Sauce Hollandaise has nothing to do with Holland. In the early stages of French Haute Cuisine countries in the 1800s were being named any real connection was rarely required and that includes Sauce Español, nothing to do with Spain and Sauce Allemande, nothing to do with Germany).

Smoked salmon with rocket and Sauce Hollandaise

Photograph courtesy of Joybot

www.flickr.com/photos/joybot/6507181895/

Sauce Hollandaise on French Menus:

Les Belles Asperges Blanches Juste Cuites Parfumées au Citron et Accompagnées de la Classique Sauce Hollandaise – Beautiful white asparagus, just lightly cooked, scented with lemon, and served with the classic Hollandaise sauce. (Asparagus, should be like the best pasta, al dente: in French perfectly cooked is à point).

Lobster and pancetta over English muffin

topped with eggs and Sauce Hollandaise.

Photograph courtesy of Edsel Little

www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/7357879598/

Hollandaise sauce is my favorite sauce to accompany warm, fresh, white, or green asparagus. For more about asparagus in France see the post: Asperges en La Cuisine Française – Asparagus in French cuisine.

Tronçon de Turbot Label Rouge Poché Sauce Hollandaise ou Grillé Sauce Béarnaise. A wide cut of farm-raised, Label Rouge turbot, the fish, served either poached with a Sauce Hollandaise or grilled and served with a Sauce Béarnaise.

The Label Rouge, the red label of quality.

The Label Rouge, the red label, is a trusted, respected, and well controlled French government label of quality; the label may be awarded to all natural and manufactured food products with the exception of wine which has its labeling regulation. The red label turbot offered above comes from a French sea-farm; fish-farms that wish to apply for the label rouge are continuously checked for their farming methods. Those controls include the fish’s sanitary conditions; the food fed to the fish, and very importantly, the density of the fish in their cages. Of equal importance are the controls that prevent these fish from having any antibiotics and or hormones in their food or environment.

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and spinach

Photograph courtesy of Katherine Lim

www.flickr.com/photos/ultrakml/8192609350/

Filets de Porc Grillée aux Champignons avec Legumes, Sauce Hollandaise et Croquettes – Grilled fillets of pork and button mushrooms served with vegetables and accompanied by Sauce Hollandaise and croquet potatoes.

Smoked Haddock with Sauce Hollandaise.

Photograph by courtesy of Christine McIntosh

www.flickr.com/photos/goforchris/26072923290/

Dos de Merlu à l' Unilatéral, Sauce Hollandaise – A thick cut of hake, the fish, cooked à l'unilatéral, on the skin side only, and served with Sauce Hollandaise.

N. B. Cooking fish à l'unilatéral is considered the best way to cook thick filets of fish. Cooking slowly and only through the skin side of the fish allows the fish to cook through evenly; this method eliminates much of the tastes of the cooking oil as would cooking the fish on the open side of the filet.

Sauce Bearnaise, the child of Hollandaise.

Among the many sauces developed from Sauce Hollandaise it is Sauce Béarnaise that really stands out. This child of Sauce Hollandaise has itself become a mother sauce with many many grandchildren.

Steak Frites with Sauce Bearnaise.

Photograph courtesy of Mike Fleming

www.flickr.com/photos/flem007_uk/3625173675/

Unlike Sauce Hollandaise where its creator is disputed Sauce Béarnaise is accepted as the creation of the chef and restaurateur Jean Louis Françoise Collinet. Collinet created Sauce Béarnaise as a child of Sauce Hollandaise; Sauce Béarnaise is Sauce Hollandaise with the lemon replaced by white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil and tarragon. Collinet is also remembered, by some, as the chef who, in 1837, created soufflé potatoes. The story of soufflé potatoes will be left for another day,

Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce Valois.

A sauce whose whose creator I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce Valois. Sauce Foyot is Sauce Béarnaise with the addition of the glazed cooking juices of roasted meat.

Sauce Choron.

The chef Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837 - 1924), took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Choron. Sauce Choron is Sauce Béarnaise with added tomatoes.

European sea bass cooked “en croute”, in a pastry cover,

and served with Sauce Choron

Photograph courtesy of greengiantpenguin

www.flickr.com/photos/115081708@N03/31782191597/

Sauce Palois.

Then, yet another chef whose name I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Palois. Sauce Palois is Sauce Béarnaise with the tarragon replaced with mint; that makes Sauce Palois a very popular sauce to serve with lamb.

And the question remains, who created Sauce Hollandaise?

The answer may lie in the book noted below:

Le Vrai Cuisinier François,

The Real French Chef.

François Pierre de La Varenne (1618 - 1678)

The creator of Sauce Hollandaise is disputed but a recipe for a very similar sauce using vinegar, rather than lemon juice, does appear in this 17^th century French cookbook: Le Vrai Cuisinier François.

The front page of the original edition

Photograph courtesy of the Biblotech National de France.

http://gallica.bnf.fr

Go on-line to the Biblotech National de France, http://gallica.bnf.fr and there in Le Vrai Cuisinier François, by François Pierre de La Varenne, published in 1654

on pages 254 and 255 you may read, as I did, the recipe for Asperges à la Sauce Blanche, asparagus with a white sauce.

You may download the whole book in PDF without payment, by keeping to a few simple rules.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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Lotte or Baudroie - Monkfish or Anglerfish. Monkfish on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Grilled monkfish..

Photograph courtesy of Stu_Spivack

www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/3253855079/

Lotte, Lotte de Mer, Diable de Mer, Baudroie - The Angler Fish, Monkfish or Goosefish, one of the tastiest of all saltwater fish with succulent, very firm, very white meat. On French restaurant menus, I would place monkfish as number four or five in the top ten popularity stakes. (Baudroie is the Occitan and Provencal named for Monkfish and as most of France’s monkfish are caught in the Mediterranean this is the name on most local menus),

. If you see a whole monkfish in fishmongers you quickly understand why one of its French names is Diable de Mer, the devil of the sea; it is an extremely ugly fish. You will also see that there is no meat whatsoever in its hollow body, and even when a 1 meter (3.3’) fish is caught all the meat is in the last third, which is its tail. A large fish may weigh 20 kg (44 lbs) of which 12 kg (26 lbs) is the tail.

Facing down a monkfish.

Photograph courtesy of Paul Arps

www.flickr.com/photos/slapers/40531567550/

Apart from this fish’s meat, all of which come from its tail, its cheeks and liver have always been considered a Provencal and Japanese delicacy; now the monkfish’s cheeks are also growing in popularity in the rest of France, and they will be on the menu as Joues de Lotte or Joues de Baudroie.

Monkfish with Ratatouille

Photograph courtesy of Edsel Little

www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/19676933856/

N.B. On some restaurant menus, there may be another fish called lotte or lote de rivière; this is a freshwater fish. In English, this fish is the Burbot, and while it cannot compete with the monkfish it is a meaty fish; by the lakes and rivers where Burbot are caught in France, they will be on the menu. The Burbot may look somewhat like a catfish, but it is a freshwater member of the cod family if the menu is not clear ask.

Monkfish on French menus:

Blanquette de Joues de Lotte, Soufflé de Légumes de Saison et Riz - A stew made with the cheeks of the monkfish served with a soufflé made with the season’s vegetables and rice.

A blanquette is a stew originally created for white meats, that is: rabbit, lamb, pork and veal; today a blanquette will often be seen with fish. Blanquette recipes usually include mushrooms and white wine in a cream or crème fraiche sauce. Now that the cheeks of the monkfish have begun to be enjoyed outside of Provence, they may be on your menu; they taste somewhat similar to scallops with a different texture. The renewed popularity of monkfish cheeks in the north of France where they were initially ignored has sent the prices up. Additionally, the popularity of monkfish cheeks has brought the cheeks of many other fish into contention. Other menus show that French chefs are experimenting with cod cheeks, tuna cheeks, and more.

Pan roasted monkfish.

Photograph courtesy of Naotake Murayama.

www.flickr.com/photos/naotakem/3676846367/

Bourride de Baudroie - Provence’s most popular and famous monkfish stew, often flavored with saffron; monkfish is the only fish in the bourride de baudroie. The Bourride de Baudroie is traditionally a large stew a so you may pass on any hors d’ oeuvres or entrees unless you are really very hungry. The only fish in this stew is the monkfish; the rest of the stew is vegetables and, of course, plenty of garlic flavor and aïoli a garlicky mayonnaise. Depending on the chef, this stew will be accompanied by potatoes, and usually, additional aïoli or a rouille sauce with garlic toast will be on the side.

Monkfish in safaron.

Photograph by courtesy of horax zeigt hier

Lotte de Quiberon Rôtie, Risotto Carnaroli aux Cèpes Français Roasted monkfish from the area of Quiberon in Brittany, accompanied by a risotto made with the Italian carnaroli rice and French porcini mushrooms.

When I saw this menu item I wished that I had been able to order it right there and then; all the parts of the offered dish are special, and when offered with a carnaroli rice risotto they become unique. Monkfish are also one of the few fish that really can be roasted and that alone would make this dish special.

The fish and seafood from Bretagne are considered among the very best in France and so their origin will be noted on many menus; however, here the chef is indicating a specific place and for the cognoscenti, Quiberon is a very special source for monkfish. Quiberon is a peninsula on the southern coast of the département of Morbihan and apart from its fishing industry and oyster and mussel farms Quiberon is a very popular summer holiday vacation spot for the French. In July and August do not even think about looking for a free hotel room; the hotels are often booked up to one year in advance. The carnaroli rice used for the risotto is the rice that 99% of all Italian and French chefs will agree is unbeatable where risotto is concerned. The Arborio and Baldo rices may be better known, but carnaroli rice which comes from the same part of Italy as the Arborio and Baldo is even better. Here the risotto is made with those very tasty French porcini mushrooms; what could be better. French porcini mushrooms are equally tasty family members of the better known Italian porcini mushrooms.

Grilled monkfish on lentils,

Photograph by courtesy of Kake.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4410146450/

Lotte Rôtie, Bouillon de Homard aux Herbes Fraîches, Rattes Safranées et Brunoise de Légumes. A roasted cut of monkfish served in a lobster bouillon accompanied by saffron flavored ratte potatoes and vegetables cut in the brunoise manner.

Ratte potatoes are one of France’s favorite potatoes and their name actually does mean a rat a or a mouse; however, that is nothing to do with their taste. Their name indicates that some can be considered a modern art version of a rat or a mouse when they are as yet uncut and uncooked. Brunoise is one of the ten or more special French cuts used for the shapes and sizes of vegetables and some fruits; a vegetable cut brunoise denotes a cut about 2mm thick.

Smoked Monkfish

Photograph by courtesy of boo_licious

Ragoût de Queue de Lotte aux Légumes de Saison et sa Crème aux Huîtres - A stew of monkfish tail prepared with the season’s vegetables in a cream of oyster sauce.

A whole monkfish.

Photograph by courtesy of alistairas.

Only rarely will you see a whole monkfish in a fish market as there is no meat on the body and its head is quite ugly; apart from its tail, cheeks and liver there is nothing to sell to most customers; the fishmonger will sell the head and body for those who are making fish stock.

Monkfish tails.

The meaty tails mostly weigh over one kilo, (2.2 lbs), and will be sold skinned; the cheeks and liver will both be sold separately and that is often to restaurants. Monkfish livers may, however, may not be on too many menus as their price has risen very year, over the last few years; the demand from Japan has created a very active export market.

(Catalan - rap), (Dutch - hozemond), (German - seeteufel or angelfisch), (Italian - coda di rospo, rana perscatrice or diavolo di mare), (Spanish – lophius or rape).(latin - lophius piscatorius),

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