The Hundred-Foot Journey Recipe Reveal: Friday

Sauce Tomate

Ingredients
2 fl oz 60 mL Vegetable oil
2 ½ oz / 75 g Smoke pork belly, cut into lardons and blacked (reserve rind)
3 ½ oz / 100 g Carrot, cut into mirepoix
2 ½ ox / 75 g Onion, cut into mirepoix
3 ½ oz / 100 g White leeks cut into mirepoix
1 ½ oz / 50 g Celery cut into mirepoix
1 oz / 30 g Tomato paste (optional)
2 ½ oz / 75 g Flour
6 lbs / 3 kg Tomatoes, quartered
1 pc Bouquest garni
4-6 pcs Garlic clove, finely chopped (hacher)
½ oz / 15 g Salt
½ oz / 15 g Sugar
20 pcs Peppercorns
1 qt / 1 L White stock (chicken or veal)
1 oz / 30 g Butter
Salt and pepper

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
2. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven (cocotte) over high heat and sauté the lardons until the are lightly colored (blond). Add the carrot, onion, and garlic, and sauté until they begin to lightly color (blond). Then add the celery, then the leek, stirring after each addition.
3. Sir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes (pincer la tomate). Add the tomatoes, salt, and sugar then stir until combined.
4. Stir in the flour and cook it for 1 to 2 minutes stirring well (singer). Place the bouquet garni and bacon rind on top, fit the cover on the cocotte and transfer to the hot oven. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. This will concentrate the tomatoes and further cook the flour (singer).
5. Remove the cocotte from the oven and pour in the white stock. Stir well, replace the cover and place back in the oven to cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
6. Remove the cocotte from the oven and discard the bacon rind and bouquet garni. Purée the contents of the cocotte in a food mill, then strain the purée through a fine mesh sieve (chinois) into a clean saucepan. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium high heat and skim (écumer) the surface if needed. Taste the sauce, adjust the seasoning, and mount with cold butter.
7. Remove the pan from the heat and pat (tamponner) the surface of the sauce with a knob of butter held on the end of a fork. This will cover the sauce in a film of fat that will prevent it from developing a skin. Reserve the sauce in a bain marie until needed.

Tip: Sauce tomate made as a base for other sauces can also be made without flour, instead being reduced to the desired thickness.