Central Market Cooking Class #1: Sauces 101

This post is very belated--I took two of these classes over the summer, and one last month. Nevertheless, I wanted to write about them and encourage you to try them sometime! You will leave full of food, wine, and flavored teas, and learn a lot.

I decided to start with the 101 series because I assumed (correctly) that although I'm not an absolute beginner, I am mostly self-taught and therefore I do things my way, not necessarily the right way.

There seems to be some debate out there over which are the official Mother Sauces. According to Central Market Cooking School, there are five of them: béchamel, velouté, hollandaise, espagnole, and vinaigrette. (I think that last one was their own executive decision, as I'm finding that tomato is generally considered to be the fifth.) The sauces in a nutshell:

• Béchamel is a creamy flour, butter, and milk sauce. We formed a light roux from the first two ingredients, then added the milk, and finally cheese, to make...mac and cheese. Very fancy!
  
  
• Velouté is very similar, as it is also made from a light roux, but instead of being thinned with milk, you can use chicken, beef, fish, or other stock.
  
  
• Hollandaise was the trickiest sauce to make, because you have to make a double boiler of a metal bowl suspended over a saucepan of boiling water, and then manage to cook the egg yolks without scrambling them. This sauce is egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Simple, but not really.
  
  
• Espagnole takes so long to cook that we didn't do it in class. The instructor served us some over a chicken thigh, and it was outstanding. This sauce is composed of a darker roux, vegetables, herbs and spices, tomato paste, and some type of meat stock. I guess it's the kind of thing that you'd want to make in bulk, and then freeze.
  
  
• Vinaigrette is just oil, your choice of vinegar, herbs, and spices, of course.

Classes are offered nearly every day and are about $60 for a hands-on class (and you get a meal out of it, too). They're about 3 hours long and are generally in the evening.

The other classes I've taken are Seafood 101 and Knife Skills 101. More to come!