Ze Sauce, Boss! Ze Sauce!

Oh

My

God

Don't you just love it when serendipity rears its welcome head, when a situation you thought was definitely going to be fucked turns out to be exactly the opposite?

It was the time that many cooks dread: time to make the sauce. One mistake and you're twisting in the breeze, 9 feet up. A hair too much salt and the table will fall silent. A hair too much sweetness and a vague rumbling will sweep the room. Too thick, too thin, too dark, too floury, too heavy . . .

But get it right, OOOOooooo . . . . . you've just won the chef's lottery. I cursed when I tasted it and it was too damn salty, but then I thought, wait a minute -- don't you dare put sugar in it. Half a teaspoon of wildflower honey and those sweet onions . . . that's all you're going to need! And I was luckily right.

I started by sautéeing onions and garlic, knowing I'm just going to liquidize them later. Remove. Then a tiny roux, some unsalted butter and some flour. Not too thick. Then some white wine. Reduce. Then some veal broth. Reduce. Then add back the onions/garlic, and some chopped fresh tarragon and parsley. Taste. Add a little more wine.

The mushrooms shrink ten-fold

Christ alive. We haven't even come to the heavy cream, a dab of duck fat and the brilliantly sautéed shiitakes and pleurots . . . this duck is going to be the happiest duck on Planet Earth.

Waiting for the cream

PS. Never underestimate the power of tarragon! I bought a whole bottle of Pernod thinking I was going to use it for the sauce but in the end decided to use tarragon and drink the Pernod instead. Life is swwwweeet.