Sauce Bonne Femme

French Velouté Sauce, flavored with crème fraîche and lemon juice

Ingredients:
2 cups Velouté Sauce
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup crème fraîche

Stir the crème fraîche and lemon juice into the slightly cooled velouté.

Velouté sauce

Velouté (vuh loo teh) is one of the white mother sauces of French cooking. Many other sauces (called petites sauces in French) can be made from it. I use the thinner version of this sauce on pasta (instead of the cream based pasta sauces).


4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (Use 2 tbsp for thinner version)
4 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (Use 2 tbsp for thinner version)
2 cups chicken stock
salt and freshly ground pepper

Put a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat and add the butter. When the foam subsides take the pan off the heat. Using a whisk, rapidly stir in the flour. Return the pot and stirring every couple of minutes, cook until the flour is a straw color (blonde roux).
Whisk the stock slowly into the roux. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes till done. Season to taste.

The sauce should have a smooth and velvety texture. Some recipes ask you to strain the sauce, but I think the sauce is smooth enough without straining.