A Saucy Week

Five mother sauces: BETHV – Béchamel, Espagnole, Tomato, Hollandaise & Veloute. I
am paying special attention every week to the items we will be tested on in the practical. For this
week, we have béchamel, veloute and hollandaise sauces. Let’s just release this into the universe
so I can move beyond it: I have burned my fair share of roux in my cooking life. The béchamel
sauce is probably the one I am the most comfortable with. I have made similar sauces for a
macaroni and cheese for my nephew many times over. The veloute sauce reminds me of gravy.
It’s probably my least favorite sauce in regards to taste. Both are pretty easy to prepare.

Hollandaise is the one that makes me nervous. Before class everyone, and I do mean
EVERYONE, said it breaks every time they make a hollandaise. Well, I made my hollandaise in
class and it did not break. I can’t help but think this was a little surreal, a fluke. Something I will
have to try again. Or maybe I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Either way, I will have to
make a hollandaise sauce for the practical exam so I better figure out the mystery of the
hollandaise.

This week was a lot of fun. We got to make derivatives of the mother sauces. My
béchamel turned out fantastic, in my humble opinion. I made a cheddar cheese sauce. The
derivative for the hollandaise did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I infused saffron into the
sauce but I did not read a head of time that the saffron needed to be infused with the liquid of the
sauce first. By the time I realized it, it was too late. I had to use water which did not work so
well.

So far the element that I am tripping over the most is the gas stove. I have only ever
cooked on an electric stove. I have been told that chefs have a lot more control over the food
with the gas stove, which is better. This will take some getting used to. This week I made a
decision, I want to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach but it does help that I am away from
the kitchen for 5 days from Thursday to the next Wednesday. I am going to start coming in to
practice knife cuts and cooking every Tuesday and Friday. So on Friday I came into the kitchen
to make my veloute sauce. I knew eventually I would burn something. Well, this was it. I had
clarified butter on the stove and in a very short time, it started to burn. Glad I got another ‘rite of
passage’ out of the way in the class. After all, this is the kitchen where you can make mistakes
and learn from them.

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