Velouté

A blond roux loosened with clear stock and simmered until it is glossy. Tastes of whatever stock you made it with, which is the whole point.

25 g — butter

25 g — plain flour

550 ml — light chicken stock

40 g — button mushrooms

4 g — salt

1 pinch — white pepper

50 g roux : 550 ml stock

Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it a little longer than you would for a Béchamel — four to five minutes, until it is the colour of straw and smells nutty. That is a blond roux.

Let the roux cool for a minute, then whisk in the warm stock a ladle at a time. Add the mushroom trimmings.

Bring it to a bare simmer and pull the pan half off the burner, so that it bubbles at one edge only. All the scum collects on the still side, where a spoon can lift it off. Skim every ten minutes for half an hour.

When it coats the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line, strain it and season. Velouté is finished pale, not brown — if it has taken colour the heat was too high.

Poached chicken and fish, blanquette, vol-au-vent, vegetable gratins. Add cream and egg yolk and it becomes Allemande; add cream alone and it is Suprême.