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Cookery legends Antonin Careme and Auguste Escoffier defined five Grandes Sauces: velouté, béchamel, tomato, hollandaise, and espagnole. Together the big five form the basis for all traditional sauces.
Espagnole is the most basic brown sauce, calling for stock made with beef or veal to be simmered with mirepoix, blonde or brune roux, tomatoes, and a sachet d'epices. It is not normally served on its own, but you can immediately convert it to a very popular demiglace simply by allowing it to reduce by half. We made our sauce espagnole almost from scratch, only using store bought beef stock. There's only so much one -- or three, this case -- can do in a day.
For about 1.5 cups of demiglace, you need: 0.5 stick butter, 0.5 onion, 0.5 large carrot, 1 stalk celery, 4 tb flour, 4 c brown stock, 1 c canned tomatoes, and spices to taste.
Start by chopping up your mirepoix, a mix of diced onion, celery, and carrot.
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Cook the mirepoix over low-medium heat.
When the mirepoix has browned a bit and the butter is foaming, add in the flour and stir.
You are making a roux, which is equal parts flour (or another powdered starch) and fat (usually butter). Blonde roux is cooked until it just begins to change color while brune roux is cooked until it becomes brown.
When the roux is the shade you prefer -- we chose blonde for greater thickening power -- add the stock, tomatoes, and seasonings.
For most spices other than salt, pepper, and fresh parsley, use a sachet d'epices. This is a small sack made with some cheesecloth and cotton twine that one adds while cooking and removes before serving.
Bring to a simmer and then lower the heat to a minimum. Stir it occasionally, skimming off any fat that rises, and cook uncovered for at least 2 hours.
Strain through a sieve, pressing down to extract all the juices from the mirepoix and tomatoes. To make demiglace, put back over low heat and allow the sauce to reduce further, about 2 hours.
Next, make the Puff Pastry Dough . . .
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