Recipe: Califlower in Lemon and Tarragon Sauce

Recipe Source (sauce): Atkinson, Catherine, Christine France and Maggie Mahew.  400 Sauces.  Anness Publishers, 2007 pp. 52 - 3. 

I grew up in a family of good cooks.  We always ate well, and dinner at my mother's house was a coveted invitation in my circle of friends.  That said, our dining habits were in a certain style, and that style was emphatically not fussy.  When we had sauce it was barbecue sauce (a homemade barbecue sauce that my mother no longer makes, much to the disappointment of many) (yes, mom, that's a subtle hint) or my grandmother's Red Sauce with lots of meat inside, served over pasta.  Other types of sauce have always seemed strange and exotic to me, even sauce (like the ubiquitous "white sauce") that seems commonplace to people from other backgrounds.  When I saw this cookbook at Costco, at a good price, I knew that I needed to take this opportunity to expand my education.

This sauce, or rather this combination of sauces, caught my eye at first.  My first encounter with the veloute sauce came from an older English cookbook lent to me by a good friend, and for some reason it appealed to me enough that I wrote it down.  The version of the sauce from this book seems a little less fussy, and was the base for the lemon sauce on the next page that appealed to me more.  I did make a couple of small changes.  I used homemade turkey stock for the veloute sauce, and I increased the amount of wine in the lemon sauce.  I used homemade turkey stock because it was cheaper than storebought chicken stock.  It was probably healthier to boot, although I'm no nutritionist and can't speak authoritatively on the subject.  I used a little extra wine because there wasn't enough left in the bottle to make it worth saving. 

I served this sauce with some steamed cauliflower, because the cauliflower was taking up more space than I wanted in my refrigerator.  There was some sauce left over; hopefully I'll find a use for it before it goes bad.  Anyway, I'm going to present the recipes all together here, which is why it somehow counts for both the original recipe and recipe review categories. 

Cauliflower in Lemon and Tarragon Sauce (serves 4; approx. $1.98/serving)

2 1/2 cups turkey stock

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons light cream

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 lemon

1 bunch fresh tarragon, chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

6 tablespoons white wine

3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons brandy

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Small to medium sized cauliflower

Equipment:

• 4 saucepans
• Steamer
• Small colander

1. Heat the stock until almost (but not quite boiling.)
2. In another pan, melt the butter.  Stir in the flour. 
3. Cook the butter-and-flour mixture over moderate heat, stirring constantly, for 3 - 4 minutes or until it starts to develop a pale straw color. 
4. Remove the pan from heat and gradually blend in the hot stock.  Stir constantly.
5. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, still stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
6. Reduce heat to a slow simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about 1/4. 
7. Skim the surface of the sauce occasionally. 
8. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the cream.  Set aside.  Note: Up until this point you have made a veloute sauce, which is a very nice sauce in its own right. 
9. Thinly pare the rind from the lemon, taking care not to remove any of the white pith. 
10. Squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon and pour it into a saucepan.  Discard the lemon.
11. Add all but 1 tablespoon of the tarragon to the pan, along with the lemon rind and shallot.
12. Add the wine and simmer gently until reduced by half. 
13. Strain the liquid into a clean pan and return to the stove.
14. Add the veloute sauce (steps 1 - 8 above), cream, brandy and reserved tarragon.  Heat through.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
15. Meanwhile, prepare the cauliflower by trimming it into florets. 
16. Steam the cauliflower over boiling water for 3 - 4 minutes or until tender.  Do not overcook the cauliflower.  Overcooked cauliflower smells very, very bad and may cause the neighbors to call about toxic chemicals emanating from your home.
17. When the cauliflower is ready, transfer to the serving vessel. 
18. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and serve.