Mother Sauces Extended: Soubise / Nantua Sauces

Mandatory Credit: stu_spivack

As we have start and will continue, we will take another step in the variances of the mother sauces and what you can actually do with the Bechamel base and adding some simple ingredients to take a sauce to the next level.

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So far we have taken a look at the Cheddar Cheese sauce, Mornay, and Cream sauce as extensions of the Bechamel Sauce.  Today we will take a look at the next couple of sauces; the Soubise Sauce and the Nantua Sauce.

The Soubise Sauce is a sauce that is used mainly for vegetables.  To make the Soubise sauce, which is not hard at all, you will start with your Bechamel Sauce, just as a reminder it is Flour, Butter, and Cream.

Get 1 quart of Bechamel ready to go.  You will saute 1 lb of onions, chopped.  After sauteing the onions you will puree them before you add them to the Bechamel Sauce.  Then after adding the pureed onions you will add 4 tablespoons of butter, or a half of a stick.  As an optional you can add 2 cups of tomato puree.

This sauce will also work well for eggs and chicken dishes, along with the above mentioned vegetables.

Our second sauce that we will take a look at is the Nantua sauce.

The Nantua sauce is a seafood sauce that will work best with shell fish but any type of seafood is good as well.  This is a sauce that will take the Bechamel sauce and add shrimp butter (recipe to follow) and cream to the bechamel.

You will need 6 oz of shrimp butter and 1/2 cup of heavy cream that will be added to the Bechamel.  After these are added, mix well and then serve right away.

Shrimp Butter Recipe:

1 pound butter (4 Sticks)

1/2 pound cooked shrimp, pureed, or mashed into a paste.

Directions:

Mix and mash up the butter so that it is soft enough to incorporate the shrimp into it.  Add shrimp and mix until mixed well.

Roll out a foot square of plastic wrap and add butter mixture.  Roll the plastic wrap, with the butter in it, to create a cylinder of butter.  Tie the ends of the plastic wrap and freeze until needed.

The Shrimp butter if used by itself, will create a sauce when used by itself if added to fished dishes as well.