Recipe: Gastrique - orange

While gastriques aren't usually sauces in themselves, they are a great way to add a refined touch to a sauce.  Basically a gastrique is an acidic syrup that when added to a sauce, gives it body, shine and an acidity that is often needed, especially if your sauces are reduction based rather than thickened by a roux.  The normal approach is to make a base caramel, then add a chosen vinegar or acidic liquid, cook it out to a nice syrupy consistency, then store it to have on hand when finishing sauces and use it almost as a seasoning element.  Some chefs don't want a caramel flavour, so they will add the acidic element to the sugar right at the beginning and simply reduce it all together down to a syrup.  This recipe for orange gastrique uses orange juice as the acid.  A duck sauce comes immediately to mind, but since the acidity is not too abrasive, it can be used as a nice plate garnish on its own if you get it to the point where it flows nicely once down to room temperature.  If a gastrique ever gets to hard when cooled, just heat it up and add some water (or acid if it needs more).  Once you get the hang of it, you don't need a recipe, just sugar and an acid.

You will need:

1/2C / 125ml                sugar

as needed                     water

1.5C / 375ml                orange juice (pulp strained out)

Method:

 - add the sugar to a small saucepan and either make a dry caramel or splash some water in to help the syrup along

 - cook the sugar out to a nice amber caramel

 - add in the strained orange juice - the caramel will want to seize, just keep it on the stove

 - simmer the mixture to re-melt the caramel and bond with the orange juice

 - when the gastrique has a good syrupy consistency, turn off the heat and let cool

 - store and use as a sauce or sauce finisher