Armorican sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 50 g carrot(s)
• 50 g celery
• 2 shallots
• 160 g vine tomatoes
• some tomato paste
• 2 tbsp, leveled olive oil
• 2 tbsp cognac for flambéing
• 1 tbsp Madeira
• 3 garlic cloves
• 400 ml crustacean stock
• 2 tbsp, heaped tarragon, dried or 1 bunch fresh
• 6 saffron threads
• 15 g butter, cold
• some Allspice d’Espelette or some chili powder
• some parsley, flat
• some fleur de sel
• Pepper from the mill

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Rest time approx. 5 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

Clean and dice the carrots, celery, and shallots. Briefly blanch the tomatoes, peel them, and also dice them. Heat the olive oil and sauté the diced shallots. Add the diced carrots and celery, as well as the tomato paste, and sauté briefly. Flambé with cognac, add the Madeira wine, and let it burn off. Now add the diced tomatoes and the crushed garlic cloves, pour in the shellfish stock, and add the tarragon to the sauce. Season with fleur de sel, pepper, and saffron threads, and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. Now finely strain the sauce and thicken with cold butter. Finally, season with piment d’Espelette or chili powder and sprinkle over very finely chopped parsley. Turn off the heat and let it stand for another 2-3 minutes. Season with a little more fleur de sel, if desired. This sauce goes very well with fish, lobster and veal medallions.