Basic Tips for Successful Sauce

The best way to reveal and shake slightly weak flavors? A good sauce.
"It's even one of the secrets of French gastronomy," says Michel Guérard, 3-star chef and pope of diet and health cooking.
"But there are sometimes casting errors in their combination. Why make a classic vinaigrette with 3 tbsp. to s. of oil?
This peach sauce in its composition. It is unnecessarily caloric, "he rebels.

But can we reconcile taste, lightness of meals and fine size?

"The French do not want to choose between pleasure and health. They want both! " Is right. According to Nathalie Negro, dietician at the Brides-les-Bains Thermal Center, "thanks to the sauces, the cuisine can remain tasty.

If we eat sad, we can not change our habits in the long term.
The taste would be the carrot that would make us progress on the path of dietetics ...

How to lighten a vinaigrette?
"I replace half or two-thirds of the oil with broth, which simply bind with starch to obtain an oily consistency," says Michel Guerard.
In express mode, we have the right to opt for dehydrated broth, preferably degreased.
"The remaining oil is there for the taste, and because the fat keeps the aromas. 10% are enough! We can then enrich this base. "Like a game: we take 2 ingredients (oil broth) and if we add a third (garlic, ginger, lemongrass ...), we get a brand new flavor. "

Another tip to highlight the flavors: aromatize its oils.
For example, macerating rosemary in grape seed oil mixed with olive oil. Or by slipping 250g of grated fresh coconut with 10g of salt in 1 liter of peanut or sunflower oil. Or by adding 100g of fresh verbena and 10g of salt to 1 liter of peanut oil.
Thus, the combinations are almost limitless!

Important: vary sauce or dip recipes
(for raw vegetables). "We can, for example, make vegetable emulsions, advises Nathalie Negro. Thus, for a salad of raw vegetables, we take a little of each crudité that we pass to the centrifuge, we add salt, pepper and 1 tsp. to s. vinegar - any - possibly yoghurt. "
And we juggle with duets : 1 carrot 1/2 apple or 1/4 of fennel bulb 1 celery stalk.
Dips side, we can easily customize a mayonnaise light (see below) with capers, mint, lemon juice or even ketchup to make a cocktail sauce ...
"On arrival, we have to get a real tasty sauce," recalls Nathalie Negro. Not an ersatz of something, otherwise, you will feel frustrated. "

The healthy vinaigrette

Preparation: 10 min

For 75 cl
• 10 g dehydrated poultry broth in tablet
• 2 tbsp. to s. mustard
• 6 tbsp. to s. of lemon juice
• 15 g cornflour diluted in a little cold water

• 1 tbsp. to s. of sherry vinegar
• 1/2 cuil. to c. fructose
• 12 cl of grapeseed oil

• 10 cl of olive oil
• 1/2 cuil. to c. fine salt

In a saucepan, bring to the boil 50cl of water and the chicken stock.
Remove from the fire and link with the Maizena. Let cool.

In a bowl, put mustard, salt, pepper, fructose, lemon juice and sherry vinegar. Mix.
Stir in the oils, then the cold chicken broth, beating energetically. Check the seasoning.

To accompany ... a green salad, an artichoke, a spring roll , etc.

His asset: 26 kcal / 1 cuil. to s.

Chef's secret
Fructose, or any other sugar (including aspartame), "rounds" and removes a little bit of astringency from the vinaigrette. The sensation is less "tense". 1/2 cuil. to c. enough.

The orange blossom sauce

Preparation: 30 min

For 20 people
• 50 g carrot peeled and cut in julienne (sticks)
• 20 g fresh ginger cut into fine brunoise (dice)
• 9 cl of fresh orange juice
• 1 tbsp. to s. shallot peeled and chopped
• 5 g green curry paste • 2 g red curry paste
• 2 g of turmeric
• 1 knife tip of vadouvan
• 6 g of orange blossom water
• 2 cl of white port
• 1 tbsp. to c. olive oil

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil.
Sweat gently chopped shallot, uncovered, without letting it stain, for 2-3 min. Add the carrot julienne and the diced ginger.
Mingle gently with a fork.
Cook for 2-3 minutes under cover. The Julienne must become translucent.

Deglaze with the white port and reduce, almost dry.
Add red and green curry pasta, and turmeric. Stir and cook another 2 min.

Pour the orange juice and the vadouvan. Let simmer for 5 minutes: the texture should look like that of a marmalade.
Remove from the fire. Let cool, then add the orange blossom water.

Mix and keep cool.

To accompany ... a skewer of langoustines, a salad of scallops or a white meat.

Its asset: 6 kcal / pers.

Chef's secret
Vadouvan is a mixture of onions, shallots, garlic, mustard, caraway, turmeric, black pepper and fenugreek.
It is found in delicatessens.

Light mayonnaise

Preparation: 10 min

For 6 to 8 people

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp. to c. domed mustard
• 130 g of white cheese at 0%
• 1 tbsp. to s. wine vinegar
• 10 cl of olive oil

In a bowl, put the egg yolk, mustard, salt and pepper.

Beat with a little whip while turning. When everything is well mixed, pour the wine vinegar. While still beating energetically, gradually add the oil in a net. Finish with the cottage cheese.

Check the seasoning. Keep cool.

To accompany ... cold chicken or cold roast, vegetable sticks, whelks, periwinkles, etc.

His asset: 75 kcal / 1 cuil. to s.

Chef's secret
The oil can be replaced by cottage cheese or small Swiss.

The Bearnaise

Preparation time: 20 min

For 6 people

• 100 g unsweetened semi-skimmed condensed milk (reserved for fresh)
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp. to c. chopped fresh tarragon
• 40 g peeled and chopped shallot
• 1 tbsp. to s. chopped fresh parsley
• 15 cl of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cuil. to c. cute pepper

In a saucepan, put shallot, vinegar, pepper and 1 tsp. to c. tarragon. Make
reduce to 3/4. Get out of the fire.

Pour the milk in a hollow container and beat it (hand or electric whisk), until you get the texture of a whipped cream. Book fresh.

In the saucepan with the shallot, add the egg yolks and put back on low heat while whisking. Gradually bring the temperature to 65 ° C.
The mixture thickens and becomes creamy.

Gradually add the condensed milk, continuing to whip on the corner of the fire.
Add the chopped herbs and a pinch of salt.

To accompany ... red meat.

Its asset: 6 kcal / pers.

Chef's secret
65 ° C is the coagulation temperature of the egg yolk.
To check it, you slightly dip the back of the finger in the mixture: if the temperature is good, it must easily withstand the heat of contact.