Brown sauce, or cream sauce as it is also called, is popular with minced meat dishes and roasts. The finishing touch is adding a little sweetness from a dollop of jelly.
Basically, brown sauce is a sauce based on a roux of butter and wheat flour that is browned to a golden brown color. It is then diluted with liquid, usually broth (meat, chicken or vegetable broth) and often also cream.
The seasoning is crucial, and soy is almost always used to provide both color and umami flavor. Other common flavorings include salt, pepper, and sometimes a touch of sweetness from, for example, lingonberry jam or blackcurrant jelly, or an acid from balsamic vinegar.
A really good brown sauce also gets extra flavor from the drippings if you have just fried meat or meatballs in the same pan. The drippings that remain at the bottom contain lots of good flavors that lift the sauce.
4 servings
25 g butter
2 tbsp wheat flour
4 dl water
1 dl cream
1.5 tbsp veal stock
1 tbsp Japanese soy
1 tbsp currant jelly, applesauce or lingonberry jam (can be omitted)
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and whisk it in. Brown the flour until light brown for a minute while
stirring.
Add the broth a little at a time while stirring.
Add the soy sauce.
Add the cream.
Cook the sauce while stirring for at least 5 minutes over medium heat.
Season with salt and pepper.
