This is my interpretation of a basic white wine sauce which I use as a base for a lot of dishes; risotto, pasta, lasagne, moussaka to name a few...

You will need:- shallots, onion, butter, fresh thyme, white wine, double cream, crème fraiche, vegetable bouillon, flour, vegetable oil

Firstly finely chop the four shallots and the half an onion and then sweat them for 5 minutes in a pan with a little butter and oil, you can also add your sprigs of fresh thyme at this point.

After 5 minutes remove the pan from the heat and then you add half a bottle of white wine; return to the heat and reduce the sauce by half. This takes approximately 15-20 minutes.

To this reduction you can then add a pinch of ground black pepper, 250ml of vegetable bouillon and 800ml of double cream/crème fraiche combined (400ml of each); bring back to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and then pass the mixture through a sieve to remove all the onions and thyme etc. Return the sauce to the pan and now you can thicken the sauce to your required consistency using a beurre meunière (this is a 50% butter, 50% flour mixture) or cornflour is equally as good mixed with a little water. Add the mixture gradually, whisking it in each time, the sauce has to be brought back to the boil for the thickening process to be effective.

If you don't want to use the sauce immediately you can cool it down for an hour and then cover and store in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Et voila! A tasty base sauce for many home-cooked favourites!

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