Hungarian Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 1 gram paprika
• 2 decilitres white wine
• 1 bouquet garni (herb bundle)
• 1 litre velouté (blond stock-based sauce)
• 100 grams butter

Instructions

1. Gently heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and sweat the chopped onion without allowing it to colour. Season with fine salt and paprika.
2. Add the white wine and the bouquet garni. Reduce the wine by two-thirds, then remove and discard the bouquet garni.
3. Add the velouté (either rich with meat stock or meatless according to your dish), and bring to a gentle simmer. Maintain a light boil for 5 minutes.
4. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve (étamine), then finish by whisking in the butter to monter au beurre (enrich and emulsify).
5. The finished sauce should be a tender pink colour—the paprika alone should provide this hue. Serve as an accompaniment to noisettes of lamb and veal, eggs, poultry, and fish.