Saturday, October 24, 2015 – Another ingredient challenge. My friend Crystal picked beets, parsnips, fennel, chicken stock, and onion. The chicken stock was an interesting one. Now, I could make soup, but that would be too obvious. So instead, I made a sauce, roasted the veggies, and topped them with the sauce.
Specifically, veloute sauce. For those who didn’t take a French cooking class, veloute sauce is made from a roux (butter and flour) and chicken stock. I also sauteed the onions in the butter before making the sauce, for added flavor. For the veggies, I decided roasting would be the best way. Not sure why. Laziness, I suppose. And fennel tastes like licorice, so I figured the best way to use it was as a garnish.
In any case, the recipe, because I do that, apparently.
Ingredients
1/4 cup (half stick) butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dried fennel seeds
35g (1/4 cup) flour (Wondra or all-purpose)
2 cups chicken stock
salt
ground white pepper
4 beets, sliced into 1/8-1/4 inch thick slices
4 parsnips, sliced into 1/8-1/4 inch thick slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Layer the beet and parnsip slices on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes.In the meantime, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt and the fennel until soft, about 10 min.
- Add the flour and cook, stirring frequently for 3-5 min.
- Add stock. Bring to a simmer on high heat. Lower heat and simmer. Sauce should thicken up very quickly.
- Season the sauce to taste and remove from heat.
- To plate, layer the beet and parsnip slices on a plate and top with sauce.
Serves 8.
[Edit 5/23/2016: Increased the beets and parsnips from 2 to 4. Swapped fennel leaves with dried fennel seeds, and used it in the sauce instead of as a garnish. Bumped from serves 4 to serves 8.]
So I originally used black pepper for the recipe, but after trying it out, I think white pepper would be better, at least for presentation. (The recipe has already been updated.) Speaking of pepper, don’t be afraid to put a lot of salt and pepper into the sauce. Remember, veloute is a mother sauce, so the flavor will be a bit mild until you season the boatload out of it. In fact, if you read through the Wikipedia article, you’ll get some ideas on how you can add a little something to the sauce. (The only reason I didn’t was because the ingredient challenge limited me to 5 ingredients.)
Other than that, the sauce was pretty amazing. And the veggies make a good delivery vehicle for the sauce. Challenge definitely succeeded.