Sauce Poivrade or pepper sauce

There is a recipe for a classic pepper sauce: the sauce poivrade. This sauce is a classic accompaniement of marinated meat and games.



Recipe for 1/2 litre of finished sauce:

For the mirepoix:

• 150g carrots.
• 100g onions.
• 100g unsmoked pork belly.
• 50 celery.
• 1 sprig of thyme.
• 1/2 a bay leaf.
• 30g butter.
• 1/2 litre white wine vinegar.
• 1 dl white wine.

For the roux:

• 40g butter.
• 40g plain flour.

For the sauce:

• 1 dl white wine.
• 7.5dl beef bouillon or chicken bouillon.
• 2 tablespoons minced mushrooms.

Procedure

In a thick bottom saucepan, sweat off the mirepoix with the butter, for 20 minutes. Then, add the vinegar and the wine and allow to reduce by half.

In a separate pot, make a brown roux with the butter and the flour. Dilute it with the bouillon, allow to cook for 30 minutes. Skim from time to time.

Degrease the mirepoix and add it to the thinckened bouillon. Add the wine wine and the mushrooms and allow to cook, gently for 1 hour. Keep skimming from time to time.

Crush 12 black peppercorn with the bottom of a saucepan and add them to the sauce. Allow to cook for another 5 minutes. Make sure not to let the sauce cook more than 8 minutes as black peppercorn turn bitter if they cook more than 8 minutes.

Stain the sauce through a chinois.

If the sauce is to go with a marinated meat, use the strained marinade to dilute the roux. In the case of a game add the meat trimings to the bouillon.

"The assistant of the stock, the roux, brings to the brown sauce only a flavor note of little importance, beyond its thickening principle, and it has the disadvantage of requiring, in order that the sauce be perfect, an almost absolute elimination of its components. Only the starchy principle remains in a sauce properly skimmed. Indeed, if this element is absolutely necessary to give mellowness and velvetiness to the sauce; it is much simpler to give it pure, which permits one to bring it to the point in as little time as possible, and to avoid a too prolonged sojourn on the fire. It is therefore infinitely probable that before long starch, fecula, or arrowroot obtained in a state of absolute purity will replace flour in the roux."

August Escoffier

Contains gluten and lactose. Suitable for diabetics, pregnant women. Nut free.