Various Cullises

Coulis Variés de Crustacés (various shellfish finishing essences) teaches the discipline of the last refinement. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that this is not a sauce base and cannot wait beside the stove. Finish your fish sauce first, then make the coulis and fold it in as the dish goes out.

The original assumed a saucier on staff, a mortar large enough to pound the remains of a shellfish service, and a tammy waiting for the second passage. At home, a sturdy food processor supplies the arm, a damp butter-muslin lining replaces the tammy, and the brigade pile becomes two pounds of remains, enough to refine sauce for a generous dinner party. The large batch was scaffolding and can go. The proportion of rich cream and the two strainings are the dish, so both stay exactly where they belong.

Done properly, the coulis falls in a smooth coral-ivory ribbon, carrying the sweetness and mineral depth of shellfish without one grain of shell. The second straining decides everything. Rush it and the sauce feels sandy; pass it patiently and the finish turns silken.