You can do magic with vanilla sauce

The king of spices is: the vanilla bean. It is rare and expensive, along with saffron the most expensive spice there is. It is mainly grown in Central America and Madagascar. La Réunion is located near Madagascar, the island belongs to France and was formerly (until 1794) called Île Bourbon. This is where the Bourbon vanilla comes from, probably the best-known of the vanilla varieties. It is very soft, contains a lot of vanilla pulp and costs about 15 to 18 euros per piece. The most expensive one is also highly recommended: the Tahitian vanilla.

Vanilla is not only ideal for desserts, for example in the form of vanilla sauce with rhubarb, which is in season. White fish, crustaceans and shellfish also harmonize perfectly with vanilla. Cream soups made from root vegetables - whether rutabaga or beetroot - can also be wonderfully refined with this spice. But back to the basics – to the custard for desserts. Our secret hope is that after reading this episode you will never buy your sauce from the supermarket again. Ready-made sauces do not taste nearly as good as homemade ones.

For a good custard you need: 300 milliliters of milk. 300 milliliters of cream. Six yolks. A pinch of salt. 100 grams of brown sugar. Two vanilla beans. And here we go. Place the vanilla beans on a cutting board. Press a thumb on one end, then use a knife to slice the pod lengthways. But only the top half, don't cut through the pod; it should only be opened. Rotate the knife 90 degrees and scrape out the pith.

Mix the milk and cream together and add the pulp. Boil once, then set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt. Bring a pot of water to a simmer and place the bowl with the egg yolk, sugar and salt mixture on the water bath.

Pour the hot milk-cream mixture onto the egg yolk-sugar-salt mixture while stirring. Slowly go over the soil in a circle with a rubber spatula and "scrape off to the rose". The term denotes a technique to check the consistency of a liquid. Dip a spoon (or spatula) into the liquid, hold it upside down, and blow on it. If there is a wavy line reminiscent of a rose, the consistency is perfect. To cool the sauce, place it on a saucepan filled with ice cubes. Then you can put it in the fridge, where it will keep for three to five days.

The tip

Fill a glass with a kilo of sugar. Do not throw away the scraped pods, but place them in the sugar glass. The pods that you will use for your next custard go into the jar as well. The sugar preserves them and takes on their aroma. So you not only have a delicious vanilla sauce, but also homemade vanilla sugar - for the next cake.

Walter Stemberg and his son Sascha run the "Haus Stemberg" restaurant in Velbert, whose star was confirmed in the "Guide Michelin" for the ninth year in a row. The Stembergs write about the basics of cooking in WELT AM SONNTAG and on welt.de. All episodes online: welt.de/kochschule