Toulouse Sauce

This is a garnish sauce rather than a standalone one, and it assumes you already have the classical mother sauces on hand. Almost all the work is in the base and the garnish; the mixing itself takes a minute.

• Allemande sauceA velouté (blond roux moistened with veal or chicken stock) finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream, sharpened with lemon. "Rather thick" means it should coat a spoon heavily, since the moist garnish will loosen it. Once the yolks are in, hold it below 180F: it will curdle if it boils.
• Cockscombs and cock kidneysCrêtes et rognons de coq were standard Toulouse garnish in 1900 and are effectively unobtainable now outside specialist suppliers. They were blanched, peeled of their outer skin and simmered white in a lemon-acidulated blanc.
• "Fat livers"Foie gras, poached or gently sautéed and diced, not ordinary poultry liver. If substituting chicken livers, expect a much stronger, more mineral flavor than the original balance intends.
• QuenellesSmall dumplings of pounded veal or chicken forcemeat bound with panade and egg, shaped with two teaspoons and poached in barely trembling salted water or stock until firm through; small ones need only a few minutes. They should be poached separately and added warm.
• MushroomsPeriod practice meant small white button mushrooms cooked in water with butter and lemon to keep them pale, not browned. Browning them muddies the ivory color the sauce depends on.
• The hingeEverything in the garnish is cooked before it meets the sauce. The sauce is only brought back to serving heat and folded together; simmering it a second time will both toughen the quenelles and split the egg liaison.
• Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no quantities. As a guide, a pint of finished sauce with about a cup of garnish dresses four to six portions. It belongs on poached chicken, sweetbreads, veal, or as the filling for a vol-au-vent.