Bread Sauce

There is a sauce that when I came across it, tickled my curiosity. Here, in Ireland it is traditionaly served with feathered game alongside some gravy. In France, it is still quite unknown.

Personally, I serve it on the side with some jus made with game stock. So, there is the recipe that I like to use:

Recipe for 1/2 litre of finished sauce:

• 1/4 litre of milk.
• 1/4 litre of light game bouillon (or vegetable bouillon for vegetarians. I know it is quite unlikely that they use this sauce but I like to thik about everybody).
• 200g fresh bread crumb (make sure to trim the crust off).
• 200g butter.
• 1 shallot finely chopped.
• 1/2 onion finely chopped.
• 1 small clove of garlic, crushed with tip of a knife.
• 1/3 bay leaf.
• 1 sprig of thyme.
• 1 sprig of rosemary.
• 3 juniper berry.
• 1 pinch of nutmeg.
• salt and pepper.

In a thick bottom pot, sweat off the onion and the shallot with the butter. Add the bread crumb and the garlic, allow to cook until all the fat has been absorbed by the bread.

Pour the bouillon and the milk. Give it a good stir and add the thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and juniper berries. Allow to cook, gently, for a good half hour.

When this is done, take the pot of the heat and allow it to cool down.

Remove the herbs and juniper berries and pass through the food processor.

Put the sauce back in the pot and bring it slowly to a gentle simmer, add the nutmeg and check the seasoning. Reduce the sauce if needed and set aside in a bain-marie until serving time.

"At the time of the Congress of Vienna, the ambassador (Talleyrand), taking leave of Louis XVIII, said to him: ‘Please believe me, Your majesty, I need saucepans more than written questions.’"
Lucien Tendret (1825-1896) French lawyer

Contains gluten, lactose. Not suitable to diabetics. Suitable for pregnant women and vegetarians. Nut free.