Sauces make even the simplest dishes stand out. But which sauce goes best with fish? Today we'll show you a few simple ideas for classic sauces that are idealto fish and seafoodcan be served.
Classic butter sauces that go well with fish
Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise is a wonderfully rich, lemony and buttery sauce that goes well with all types of poached and grilled fish dishes, as well as eggs and vegetables. It's a classic sauce from French cuisine, but you don't have to be a master chef to make it.
If you want to make hollandaise sauce yourself, it is best to use clarified butter. Why? Clarified butter is pure fat, while regular butter contains 16 to 17 percent water, which can weaken the emulsion.
It is also important to only use egg yolks and not whole eggs. By gently heating the egg yolks over a water bath, you change the proteins so that they combine more effectively with the fat droplets in the clarified butter. This creates a more stable emulsion, meaning your hollandaise won't curdle. At the same time, you shouldn't heat the egg yolk too much. Egg yolks lose their emulsifying power when cooked, which is why the water bath method is used for heating. If you heat the yolks too much, the result would be scrambled eggs.
Beurre Blanc (white butter sauce)
Beurre Blanc is a simple, butter-based sauce that goes well with steamed fish fillets and pan-fried fish. Beurre Blanc was created in the 1890s in Nantes, a city in western France near the Atlantic coast, and was originally called Beurre Nantes. According to legend, a cook named Clémence Lefeuvre made Béarnaise sauce but forgot to add the egg yolk. Historical anecdotes aside, these two sauces are often confused. But the difference is that with Béarnaise you use clarified, warm butter. Beurre Blanc, on the other hand, uses regular butter and it is important that it is as cold as possible.
Beurre Blanc tastes velvety and rich thanks to the butter, but is also slightly sweet and spicy. Good wines for reduction are Chablis, Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, but any other dry white wine will work too.
Ingredients:
450 g unsalted butter (cold)
240 ml dry white wine
120 ml white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon shallot (finely chopped)
Salt (to taste)
Preparation:
– Cut the butter into medium sized cubes and put it back in the fridge to keep it cold.
– Heat the wine, vinegar and shallots in a saucepan over high heat until the liquid boils. Continue cooking until the liquid has reduced to about 2 tablespoons, about 30 to 40 minutes.
– Reduce the heat to low, remove the butter cubes from the refrigerator and gradually stir in with the whisk. When the first 2-3 cubes are melted and incorporated, add the next and continue stirring. Continue until there are only 2 to 3 cubes left. This process should take about 25 to 30 minutes. It's quicker if you incorporate the butter with a hand blender. The finished sauce should be thick and smooth.
– Season with salt.
How do you prepare a sauce for fish with fish stock?
Velvetyis one of the five basic sauces of classic French cuisine. It can be made with any white stock, but this version, fish velouté, is made with fish stock. There is also veal velouté and chicken velouté.
Fish velouté is the basis for the traditional oneWhite wine sauceas well as the classicBercy-Sauce, dieNormandy-Sauceand many others. It is prepared by using aRoux (melted butter and flour), cooked into a light yellow paste, combined with fish stock and cooked until reduced and has a velvety consistency.
Bercy sauce
Sauce Bercy is named after a district in the east of Paris. It is a light, light sauce made from white wine, shallots and fish velouté.
Ingredients for about 450 ml sauce:
450 ml Fisch Velouté
60 ml white wine
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon butter
Lemon juice to taste
preparation:
– Put the wine and shallots in a pot and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by a little more than half.
– Add the velouté and simmer for about 5 minutes until the sauce has reduced.
– Stir in butter and chopped parsley. Season with lemon juice and serve immediately.
Sauce for fish with cream and mushrooms: The Norman sauce
Normandy sauce is another classic sauce for fish, seafood andFettuccine. It goes ideal with white fish. The sauce is prepared by seasoning a fish velouté with chopped mushrooms and then thickening it with a mixture of egg yolks and cream called liaison. To prevent the eggs from curdling, they should first be tempered with some of the hot fish stock.
Ingredients:
500 ml Fisch Velouté
60 ml fish stock
100 g mushrooms (chopped)
100 ml whipped cream 30%/whipped cream
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
preparation:
– Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes until they are soft.
– Add the velouté and fish stock to the mushrooms. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until sauce reduces by about a third.
– In a stainless steel or glass bowl, stir the cream and egg yolk until smooth. Then slowly add about a cup of the hot velouté to the cream and egg mixture, stirring constantly. Now gradually stir the warm liquid back into the velouté.
– Bring the sauce back to the boil for a moment, but do not let it boil.
– Stir in the remaining butter and serve immediately.
Simple sauce for fish with white wine
White wine sauce is one of the most basic sauces in French cuisine for fish and seafood dishes. It is also the base from which a number of other classic sauces are made. The sauce is made by reducing white wine and then cooking it in a simple fish velouté and a little cream.
Ingredients:
125 ml whipped cream 30%
125 ml dry white wine
1 Liter Fisch Velouté
1 tablespoon butter
Salt to taste
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
A dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
preparation:
– Carefully heat the cream in a saucepan until just below the boiling point, but do not let it boil. Cover and keep warm.
– In a separate pot, simmer the wine until it has reduced by half.
– Add the fish velouté to the wine, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until reduced by about 1 cup.
– Add the warm cream to the wine mixture and let it simmer again for a moment.
– Stir in butter, season with salt and white pepper and add just a dash of lemon juice. Strain through cheesecloth and serve immediately.
To make a creamy herb and white wine sauce for fish fillet, you can add fresh parsley, chives and tarragon to a simple white wine sauce. If you don't have these exact herbs, use whatever herbs you have as long as they are fresh and not dried. Try to stick with soft-leafed herbs instead of using woody ones like rosemary.
