British sea trout from Welsh waters, known as sewin, are said to be the best in the world and well in to their season during high summer. This traditional Welsh recipe for cucumber sauce is a wonderful summery accompaniment for sewin and makes unusual use of some common ingredients such as lettuce and cucumber. Made using the same process as a roux, yet backwards with a thickening agent called beurre manie, the sauce is a savoury blend of chicken stock, cream, butter and tarragon. Beurre manie is a useful little trick to keep up your culinary sleeve. Equal parts of butter and flour are mixed together and whisked into boiling liquids as a thickening agent. It gives far more finesse than cornflour and is great for adding a little body to a sauce without the heft of a full on roux.
Ingredients for Welsh cucumber sauce
1 cucumber, peeled and finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
2 little gems, shredded
300 ml chicken stock
300 ml double cream
30g butter
1 tsp fresh tarragon, chopped
Pinch sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tsp beurre manie
To make Welsh cucumber sauce
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and slowly cook the onion and cucumber with a pinch of salt, just until soft and translucent. Add the lettuce, then the stock, and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. At this point you can blitz the sauce in a blender or experiment with leaving it whole. Add the cream, heat until almost boiling and then whisk in the beurre manie until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the tarragon and check your seasoning before serving hot with poached sewin
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