Sauce à la Romaine

A sweet and sour sauce made with dried fruit, game stock and pine nuts and is the classic sauce to serve with roast venison. 

Sauce à la Romaine is made by making a gastrique (a reduction of vinegar and sugar) and adding to it a sauce poivrade, the dried fruit and pine nuts.  If you already have the sauce poivrade made, it is simple to make the sauce à la Romaine.  If you have to make the sauce poivrade, then the process is a little more complicated!

Preparation Time: 25 Mins

Cooking Time: 1 Hr

Total Time: 1½ Hrs

Ingredients

400 ml             Sauce poivrade        

60 gms            Raisins      

60 gms            Currants    

2 tbs               Pine nuts   

For the poivrade sauce

1                    Onion  - large, sliced thinly      

2                    Shallots     

2                    Carrots  - sliced thinly

80 gms            Butter       

60 ml              Oil           

1                    Bay leaf     

1 sprig            Thyme      

                     Parsley     

                     Game  - scraps        

110 ml             Wine  - white          

110 ml             Vinegar     

280 ml             Stock  - game         

6                    Peppercorns  - crushed          

510 ml             Demi-glace

                     Pepper      

                     Salt          

For the demi-glace (for the poivrade sauce)

2040 gms         Bones  - veal, crushed

910 gms          Veal  - shank          

110 gms          Carrots  - sliced       

110 gms          Onions  - sliced thinly

1                    Bouquet garni         

230 cl              Water       

10 gms            Salt          

                     Tomato purée or mushroom trimmings    

110 ml             Wine  - white          

1 tbs               Flour  - potato        

To complete the poivrade sauce

1 tbs               Redcurrant jelly       

60 gms            Butter       

For the gastrique

60 gms            Sugar       

100 ml             Vinegar     

Method

First prepare a sauce poivrade…

Prepare a demi-glace for the sauce poivrade…

Roast the veal bones and shank in the oven until browned.

Put the carrots, onions and bouquet garni in a large high-sided, heavy-based saucepan.  Put the bones and the veal shank on top of the vegetables and add 10 cl of water.  Bring to the boil and cook until reduced and lightly coloured.  Pour in the remaining water.  Bring to the boil again, remove any scum and add the salt, allowing for the reduction.  Cook for 2 hours, strain through a damp cloth and leave to cool.  Before the stock solidifies, put it through the cloth once more to remove all the fat.

When using this stock, take the necessary amount (about 750 ml) and reduce it, allowing it to colour and thicken.  Then add some mushroom trimmings or tomato paste.

Reduce the white wine and add the reduced stock.  Thicken with potato flour.

To make the Poivrade sauce…

Brown the vegetables and the herbs in 30 gms of the butter and the oil.  Add the scraps of game.  Pour in the white wine and vinegar, one-third of the stock, the crushed peppercorns and the demi-glaze.  As the sauce reduces, gradually add the remaining stock.  Add plenty of salt and pepper.  Strain through a sieve lined with cheesecloth.

To complete the sauce, add the redcurrant jelly and the remainder of the butter.

To make the sauce Romaine…

Heat the sugar and vinegar together to make a gastrique (a light caramel).  Add the sauce poivrade

and boil for 10 minutes.

At the last minute before using…

Add and stir in the raisins, currants, and pine nuts.  Serve.