The Saucey Sauces Worked!!!

Go Blue Dad and I attempted two sauces during the month I took my sauce class. We made a veloute (chicken piccata) and a brown sauce (red wine and baby bella mushroom sauce). Overall, we were very happy with how both sauces turned out and would make each of them again.

I only have photos of the chicken piccata for this entry, but will describe the brown sauce for those interested.


For the chicken picatta, we reviewed a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis

• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-piccata-recipe2/index.html

and from epicurious.com

• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Piccata-5154

We primarily used the epicurious.com recipe, but kept both on file. I made roux (without clarified butter) to thicken the sauce and while it did, the roux did not turn as blonde or smell as nutty as the blonde roux we made in class with clarified butter. I also had to remake the roux b/c I let the unclarified butter get to hot. Once we added the roux to the sauce, it turned out very nice. Our only mistake is that we added to many capers (more than the recipe called for), so we'll adjust that next time. This was a late night dinner, so we just served it over pasta instead of preparing a full meal. Our main goal was to try to make a new sauce, so mission accomplished!


As for the brown sauce - we made a red wine mushroom sauce by combining brown stock and demi glace (made by my stepdad) along with some Chilean cabernet sauvignon wine and baby portabella mushrooms. We also added parsley, a bay leaf, thyme and pepper to the sauce in the beginning for flavor and eventually filtered it out.

As for the roux, I clarified butter the butter at home and then made a roux. It turned out better than the piccata and definitely thickened the sauce. This sauce had great depth of flavor and lingered on the taste buds and finishing a bite. Go Blue Dad said we should make it again. My only issues is that we made this dish late Sunday night (yes again!) due to a rescheduled tennis match, so I got a little impatient and added 3 tablespoons of roux, which brought the sauce very close to a gravy thickness. While it tasted very good, I would have liked it a little less thick and next time will be patience and allow the roux to thicken the sauce without adding too much.

We served this over a flat iron steak, cut very thin and served it with sauted carrots with thyme and brown rice. Next time I make this sauce, I hope to mix the meat, rice and sauce together. Yummmm - mouth watering right now!!