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What's your favorite quick-to-make sauce?


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What's your favorite quick-to-make sauce? Mine is a faux port wine reduction.

2 cups port

2 TB butter

1 TB flour

1 minced shallot

Dash of salt

 

Make a roux and then sweat the shallot in it. Add the port and simmer until it thickens. Salt to taste.

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So many to list.

 

I am a big fan of gastriques - so many variations one can do, and so easy to make (and quite the wow factor when tasted!)

 

I make a variation of yours as well, I also add heavily reduced stock and often Sage (though I do not use a roux, but rather reduce the heck out of it to thicken).  I make that sauce for many red meats and always for venison!

 

 

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Have to, should, avoid sugar and starch.

I really like Jus Gras—made with sunflower lecithin.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

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The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Mushroom brandy sauce. Pan drippings, saute some minced shrooms, add a healthy splash or three of brandy, a little marjoram, and some beef stock.

 

Pretty marvelous on anything from your fingers on up.

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Don't ask. Eat it.

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Green Madagascar Pepper sauce - quick and easy - after pan dry frying steak remove steak - add a cup cream to pan with a couple teaspoons cracked green pepper corns (the ones that come in brine) - bring to simmer for a minute or so then pour over steak once it has just started to thicken.

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Usually some version of a pan sauce. I have a freezer full of stocks to use, but sometimes don't even bother with them. I've made some quick and tasty pan sauces just with combinations of the pan drippings, wine, water, shallots, reduced muchrooms, spirits, herbs, sherry vinegar, etc..  

 

How (or if) to thicken is a big decision. For the cleanest flavors I leave it loose and brothy, or thicken with a slurry made from 1:10 xanthan gum and arrowroot starch. If the flavors are too sharp I'll swirl in butter at the end. 

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Notes from the underbelly

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About a decade ago we lived in Moab Utah for 6 months (and loved it).  Gave many dinner parties and loved that too.

 

One night I needed a sauce for a dessert...can't recall why now...but threw together my subsequently 'famous' raspberry sauce...which is somewhat of an embarrassment to me.  But by Jove, it worked.

Raspberry seedless jam plus Chambord plus butter in a small pot.  Yumm.

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Our go-to quick sauce for most proteins is to mix some cherry preserves with a squirt of Clemente Jacques chipotle molido (for us it's more than a squirt, more like 1:1).  Zap it in the micro for 10 seconds.  I cannot eat grilled salmon (or pork or shrimp) without a dollop of this on the side.  Sometimes cherry preserves aren't readily available in our little village, so I have also used jamaica (dried hibiscus) preserves.

 

I cannot find the Clemente Jacques chipotle molido in my Florida markets, but it's available at Amazon.  It is the correct thickness and flavor.  Other bottled chipotle sauces are mostly vinegar  The alternative is to buy canned chipotles in adobo and run it through the food processor and keep on hand in fridge.  

 

41LONgk3haL.jpg

 

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

Our go-to quick sauce for most proteins is to mix some cherry preserves with a squirt of Clemente Jacques chipotle molido (for us it's more than a squirt, more like 1:1).  Zap it in the micro for 10 seconds.  I cannot eat grilled salmon (or pork or shrimp) without a dollop of this on the side.  Sometimes cherry preserves aren't readily available in our little village, so I have also used jamaica (dried hibiscus) preserves.

 

I cannot find the Clemente Jacques chipotle molido in my Florida markets, but it's available at Amazon.  It is the correct thickness and flavor.  Other bottled chipotle sauces are mostly vinegar  The alternative is to buy canned chipotles in adobo and run it through the food processor and keep on hand in fridge.  

 

Thanks for that tip!  I usually blend the canned chipotles and freeze in ice cube trays so they are always handy.  Never thought of mixing them with preserves!

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13 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Thanks for that tip!  I usually blend the canned chipotles and freeze in ice cube trays so they are always handy.  Never thought of mixing them with preserves!

Have also made with blackberry and blueberry preserves...not as good as cherry IMO.  The only disaster was strawberry.....but neither of us like strawberries with any savory dish.  

 

Also a squirt of fresh lime if you have it, after the micro.  

Edited by gulfporter (log)
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On February 11, 2018 at 4:57 PM, gulfporter said:

Our go-to quick sauce for most proteins is to mix some cherry preserves with a squirt of Clemente Jacques chipotle molido (for us it's more than a squirt, more like 1:1).  Zap it in the micro for 10 seconds.  I cannot eat grilled salmon (or pork or shrimp) without a dollop of this on the side.  Sometimes cherry preserves aren't readily available in our little village, so I have also used jamaica (dried hibiscus) preserves.

 

I cannot find the Clemente Jacques chipotle molido in my Florida markets, but it's available at Amazon.  It is the correct thickness and flavor.  Other bottled chipotle sauces are mostly vinegar  The alternative is to buy canned chipotles in adobo and run it through the food processor and keep on hand in fridge.  

 

41LONgk3haL.jpg

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite chipotle condiments is canned chipotle in adobo blended smooth with guava paste.  My Dad's family was in Mexico City in his youth then Tampa,  now they are all back in Mex City. Chipotle was always a stable in the house.  That and pickled jalapeño's 

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On 2/15/2018 at 3:05 AM, jmacnaughtan said:

For fish, I love a beurre blanc.

 

If I'm not drinking, I do a lot of vinaigrettes too.  They work surprisingly well on steaks and fish.  They just don't pair with wines :|

 

 

There are a couple of things you can do to make this family of sauces more wine friendly (vinaigrettes and beurre blancs are both emulsified sauces with an acid base). You can make the acid weaker, by choosing a lower-acid vinegar, or diluting it with water or another neutral liquid. Or using less lemon juice in the beurre blanc. And you can go with a more acidic wine that won't get flattened by the tartness of the sauces.

 

Here's a Serious Eats article that discusses wines and vinaigrettes.

 

Winefolly.com makes similar recommendations for beurre blanc, also taking into account the need to cut through the butter. Suggestions include "lighter zestier white wines and wines with more herbal and savory characteristics such as Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadet, Cortese di Gavi, Verdejo, Vinho Verde, White Bordeaux and Grenache Blanc."
 

Notes from the underbelly

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13 hours ago, paulraphael said:

 

There are a couple of things you can do to make this family of sauces more wine friendly (vinaigrettes and beurre blancs are both emulsified sauces with an acid base). You can make the acid weaker, by choosing a lower-acid vinegar, or diluting it with water or another neutral liquid. Or using less lemon juice in the beurre blanc. And you can go with a more acidic wine that won't get flattened by the tartness of the sauces.

 

Here's a Serious Eats article that discusses wines and vinaigrettes.

 

Winefolly.com makes similar recommendations for beurre blanc, also taking into account the need to cut through the butter. Suggestions include "lighter zestier white wines and wines with more herbal and savory characteristics such as Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadet, Cortese di Gavi, Verdejo, Vinho Verde, White Bordeaux and Grenache Blanc."
 

 

An interesting article.  I don't find that beurre blancs fight much with wine - I do tend to control the acidity, and use enough butter to mellow it out.

 

But one of the reasons I use vinaigrettes is so that I don't miss wine with my food if, for whatever reason, I'm not drinking ;)

 

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