Basic Brown Sauce

As I talked about previously, I am definitely a gravy and sauce person. While making the Mushroom Sauce (page 546) for a previous dish of Soy-Tan Dream Cutlets (page 294), I spotted the Basic Brown Sauce (page 545) and bookmarked it for future use.

The Basic Brown Sauce recipe is inspired by the classic espagnole sauce, consisting of a mirepoix, roux, stock, wine, tomatoes (sauce or paste) and herbs. I'll admit here that pre-vegan, I don't think I've ever had a real classic espagnole sauce but I wanted to give this a shot anyway. With those ingredients, it's got to be good.

The sauce, as mentioned, starts with a mirepoix, then roux and the rest is similar to any other sauce recipe. I did deviate from this as I had no red wine (mon dieu!) so I had to substitute by using a splash of balsamic vinegar. I know it's not the same but the balsamic gave the sauce that extra bit of flavour and depth that was needed.

I served the sauce over some sliced Soy-Tan Dream Cutlets and it was a hit. The sauce is definitely a more complex tasting sauce compared to say, the Mushroom Sauce in the book and works well with heavier dishes like seitan.

The sauce itself is easy to make but a little more involved than other sauces as you need to purée it at the end.

If you've never had an espagnole sauce before (or even if you have), this is definitely worth a try. Remember with any sauce, it is only as good as your ingredients so do use a good stock and wine and you can't go wrong.

Bon appétit!

— Ms. Veganorama

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Previous blog entries:

Soy-Tan Dream Cutlets: 1, 2