Normande Sauce
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add 1 teaspoon flour, and cook until it just starts to turn golden. Add the cooking liquor from the fish, oysters, or mussels for which the sauce is being made and also some of the cooking liquor from the mushrooms which will garnish the dish, having about 1 cup liquor in all. Cook for about 10 minutes. Mix 2 slightly beaten egg yolks with ½ cup cream and combine with the sauce. Cook until the boiling point is reached but do not boil. Strain through a fine sieve.
Poulette Sauce
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add 6 to 8 mushrooms, minced, and cook until they just start to brown. Add 2 shallots, finely chopped, mix well, and add ½ cup cream. Cook until it is reduced to ½ the original quantity and add ½ cup béchamel or crème sauce. Bring to a boil and correct the seasoning with salt. Add 2 slightly beaten egg yolks mixed with a little cream. Bring again to the boiling point, stirring constantly, but do not boil. Add the juice of ½ lemon and ½ teaspoon chopped parsley. Use with fish, calf's brains, or other specialties.
Paprika or Hongroise Sauce
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add 1 onion, finely chopped, and cook until it is golden. Add 2 tablespoons paprika and mix well. Gradually add 1 cup cream, stirring constantly, and thicken the sauce by adding 6 tablespoons velouté or crème sauce. Correct the seasoning with salt. Use with fish, poultry, or veal.
Hot Ravigote Sauce
Combine 1/3 cup dry white wine, 1/3 cup vinegar, and 6 shallots, finely chopped, in a saucepan and cook until it is reduced to 1/3 the original quantity. Add 1 pint crème sauce or sauce blanche and boil gently for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat, add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon mixed chopped chervil, tarragon, and chives. Use for boiled poultry or fish.
Shallot Sauce
Put 1 tablespoon chopped shallots and ¾ cup white wine in a saucepan and cook until it is reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Add 1 ½ cups velouté and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Remove from the fire, add 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and finish with 2 tablespoons butter. Use for fish.
Soubise Sauce
Cover 1 cup chopped onions with hot water, parboil for 3 to 4 minutes, and drain. Put the onions in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon butter and cook slowly until they are soft but not brown. Add 1 pint béchamel sauce and cook for 15 minutes longer. Strain through a fine sieve, return to the fire, and add, little by little, 1 cup cream. Correct the seasoning with salt. Use with fish, lamb, veal, or sweetbreads.
Villeroy Sauce
Cook 3 cups velouté until reduced to 2 cups. It should be very thick. Combine with 2 slightly beaten egg yolks and cook until it reaches the boiling point, stirring constantly, but do not let it boil. Let the sauce cool to lukewarm before using. It is used to coat pieces of chicken, lamb, sweetbreads, or vegetables, or for croquettes. The food is then coated with bread crumbs, beaten egg, and again with bread crumbs and fried in deep hot fat.
White Wine Sauce for Fish
Place 6 filets of fish in a large, shallow saucepan with 1 tablespoon butter, ½ teaspoon salt and a little pepper, 2 shallots, chopped, ½ cup mushroom trimmings, and a generous ½ cup each dry white wine and fish stock. Let the fish cook in it and when they are done, remove to a serving dish. Cook the liquid until it is reduced to 1/3 its original quantity and add 1 cup crème sauce or velouté and ½ cup sweet cream. Finish with 2 tablespoons sweet butter, correct the seasoning with salt, add a few drops lemon juice, and strain through a fine sieve over the fish.
And now to go on to the butter sauces of the mayonnaise type, of which there are fewer and most of which are simpler. Hollandaise sauce, an emulsion formed by the combination of egg yolks and butter, is the base sauce of a group of several variations.
Making hollandaise seems to scare many otherwise competent cooks. Unless proper precautions are taken, it will, of course, separate. But the proper precautions are so simple that there is no real reason for anyone's ever having a failure. Use a double boiler and keep the water in the bottom part just below the boiling point, add the butter a little at a time, having each addition well incorporated in the mixture before adding more, and stir the sauce every minute of the time.
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