Sauce Muscovite
Béarnaise Sauce
Pesto Sauce
Sauce Muscovite
From Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking
for the American Kitchen (Canada, UK), by Wolfgang Puck.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp caviar
1 cup Hollandaise sauce
Instructions:
Fold the caviar into the sauce hollandaise just
before serving with delicately poached fish.
Yield: To make 1 cup
Béarnaise Sauce
From French Provincial Cooking
(Canada, UK), by Elizabeth David.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 eggs
4 to 5 oz. butter
half a wineglass (4 or 5 Tbsp) of white wine
2 Tbsp of tarragon vinegar
2 shallots
black pepper
salt (if necessary)
lemon juice
few leaves of fresh tarragon
Instructions:
Put the white wine, vinegar, chopped shallots and a
little ground black pepper in a small pan and reduce it
by fast boiling to about 2 Tbsp. Strain it and
add a few drops of cold water. Put this essence in
the top half of a double saucepan or in a bowl which
will fit into the top of an ordinary saucepan. This
underneath saucepan should be half full of warm
water and put on to a gentle flame.
To the liquid
already in the top pan, add half the butter, cut into
small pieces. Let it melt quickly, then add the rest,
stirring all the time. Now add, gradually, the beaten
yolks of the eggs and stir very carefully until the
sauce thickens. Add salt if necessary, which will
depend on whether the butter used is salted or
unsalted, and a few drops of lemon juice and a few
of cold water. Take the sauce from the fire and stir in
the chopped tarragon, and the sauce is ready. At no
time should the water underneath the sauce boil and
the sauce is not intended to be served hot, but tepid.
Mint instead of tarragon turns béarnaise into paloise,
a modern variation, useful for serving with lamb and
mutton.
If you should be obliged to make your béarnaise in
advance the least risky way of reheating it is to put
the bowl which contains it inside another one
containing hot water and stir it for a few seconds, but
not over a flame. Never mind if the sauce is not very
hot; it is better to have it cool than curdled.
Pesto Sauce
From Pizza Presto (Canada, UK), by Norman Kolpas.
A classic of Genoa, Italy, this sauce has many
variations. Add more or less garlic to suit your taste.
If the basil tastes too strong for you, replace part of it
with parsley. If you have any left over, put it in a small
glass or plastic container, smooth its surface, and
pour a thin film of olive oil on top to cover; then cover
the container with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate
for 3 to 5 days. Stir in the oil before use.
Ingredients:
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup shelled pine nuts
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled
Instructions:
Put all the ingredients in a food processor fitted with
the metal blade. Pulse the machine on and off to
chop them coarsely, then scrape down the bowl.
Process continuously, stopping once or twice to
scrape down the bowl, until the pesto is smooth.
Yield: makes about 1 cup