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Sauce Supreme
1 cupful white stock (made with chicken and veal); 1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley, cress, and tarragon leaves, equal parts; 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice; white roux sufficient to thicken.
Put the stock in a saucepan and add the roux, stirring until it is thick. Put the herbs into boiling water, let them stand two or three minutes, drain on a towel, and mince them fine. Stir them into the stock; add a little white pepper and salt if needed. When very hot and ready to serve, add the strained lemon juice. Pour over fish or meat.
A small herb-and-lemon velouté that depends almost entirely on two things: a smooth roux and holding the lemon juice back until the last second.
- Add the lemon off the heatAcid stirred into a hot flour-thickened sauce and then cooked will dull the herbs and can make the sauce thin and slightly grainy. Take the pan off the burner, stir the strained juice in, and serve at once.
- White roux, quantifiedThe original leaves it to judgement. For a sauce that coats a spoon, use about 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour per cup of stock, cooked together two or three minutes without letting it colour.
- White stockA pale, unsalted chicken-and-veal broth. Low-sodium chicken stock is the practical substitute; veal stock or a little unflavoured gelatine adds the body the original assumed.
- CressOften watercress, though garden cress or land cress works. Use the leaves and thin stems only; thick stems stay stringy even after blanching.
- Why blanch the herbsThe two or three minutes in boiling water fixes the green colour and takes the raw edge off the tarragon. Squeeze them dry in the towel before mincing, or the water will loosen the sauce.
- TarragonFresh French tarragon is meant here. Dried tarragon is much more assertive and should not be blanched; use roughly a third of the volume and add it to the stock instead.
- SaltThe recipe seasons before the lemon goes in; it is safer to hold back and taste again after the juice is added, since the acid changes how the salt reads.
- YieldAbout one cup, enough for four servings of poached fish, chicken breast, or veal. It does not reheat well; make it while the fish rests.