Roquefort & Celery White Sauce

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup celery (sliced thinly & blanched)
• 6 tablespoons dry white
• 1 teaspoon shallot (chopped)
• 8 white peppercorns (cracked)
• 7 ounces fish stock
• 3 ounces vegetable stock
• 3 ounces whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup celery leaves (coarsely chopped)
• 1/4 cup roquefort cheese (crumbled, or blue cheese)

Recipe

• 1 blanch celery slices & set aside.
• 2 in a sml saucepan, combine , shallots & cracked peppercorns. cook over med-high heat till reduced by 2-thirds.
• 3 stir in fish & vegetable stocks & further reduce by 2-thirds.
• 4 add whipping cream & reduce by half. season w/salt & pepper to taste.
• 5 in a sml frying pan, melt 2 tbsp butter. add celery leaves, cook till tender over med-heat & stir into white sauce. reduce heat to low & simmer 10 minutes.
• 6 remove from heat & press sauce thru a sieve. add crumbled cheese + blanched celery slices, stir till cheese is fully melted & set aside till ready for use (but my bet is soonest would likely be best as sauces can be tricky & i have not made this yet).
• 7 note: i have a penchant for mentally expanding recipes i esp favor & found myself wondering if thinly-sliced & lightly sauteed mushrooms might be a good add w/the blanched celery slices to expand the volume of this sauce + contribute flavor & added texture. i suppose it could also be converted to a primarily mushroom-based sauce by omitting the celery (& leaves) if that was preferred. just 1 of my random thoughts :-).