The food word of the day is...liaison! In the context of cooking, a liaison is not a go-between who communicates with two different groups. It refers to a mixture of egg yolks and heavy cream that is used to finish a sauce. It doesn't really thicken the sauce, but it adds smoothness and makes the sauce taste fuller and richer.
I used a liaison earlier this week to thicken a veloute sauce, and the sauce was delicious. A veloute is a white stock (stock - chicken or veal - made without roasting the bones) that is thickened with a blond roux (equal parts flour and fat - usually butter - that is cooked together to a light yellow/white color). The stock is whisked into the roux and the roux thickens the stock as it all cooks together.
To finish the sauce with a liaison, you would beat together egg yolks and heavy cream (approximately three tablespoons per egg yolk), and then temper the mixture but stirring some of the hot sauce into the egg mixture (this helps raise the temperature of the eggs slowly - no scrambled eggs please!), then pouring the egg/cream/hot liquid mixture back into the big pot of sauce and stirring it all together very well. You have to be really careful not to let the sauce come back to a boil (or even a simmer, really) once the liaison has been added to it (otherwise it might curdle!).
I've got a bonus word for the day. If you finish your veloute with both a liaison and lemon juice, you've made an Allemande sauce!
No comments:
Post a Comment