My instructor at the Theory of Food course suggested cooking various sauces and getting to know them well. There are 5 “Mother Sauces of French Cooking”. In fact I did a Toastmasters speech on them (one day I’ll video the speech and post it on this blog). There are many secondary sauces can be made from these 5.

I’m using the book “Sauces” by James Peterson.

One of the mother sauces is Béchamel, a white sauce. Adding onions to the Béchamel creates Soubise sauce. Traditionally it was quite thick as it was used to coat meats for roasting.

However, I’m going to make a variation that can be used as a flavouring agent for other sauces. I peeled and thinly sliced about 2.5 kg of onions.

Heat 125 grams of butter in a large pot. Sweat the onions (cook until translucent but not browned). You have to constantly stir the onions so they don’t brown or burn. When they are soft, add 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

I’m going to blend this mixture because I will freeze it and use it for other sauces. I could add ingredients to this to make it tangy – like wine vinegar or tomato purée.

For example, I grilled the pork chops I got from Stone Horse farm. I then used the drippings to create a roux using agar.

The onion purée is whisked into the roux

The soubise sauce is served with the pork chops. Portion out the remaining sauce and freeze.