Allium-free sauces

[Malawry]

So I'm catering a wedding this weekend, and the groom's mother has an allergy or intolerance of all the alliums--no onion, garlic, leek, scallion, chive, shallot, anything in that family. She's helping to pay for this event, so her son wants to make sure she gets something nice for lunch the day of the party. Nice idea. So I said sure, no problem, I'll whip up something real nice for Mom.

I have chicken breasts with a mango salsa already on the (buffet-style) menu for this party. (The other entree options, a coconut-chickpea curry and boeuf bourguignonne, are obviously out of the question for adaptation.) I could just do some mango salsa without any scallions, but I'm not sure she'd be into mangoes and I'd hate for her to feel she has to scrape a sauce off her food or something. Besides, I got the idea that she'd appreciate something special plated for her and delivered to her table rather than having her guess at what on the buffet is safe for her to eat.

Whatever it is, I want to make it Thursday because on Friday and Saturday AM I'm gonna be too busy to fuss with it. I'm thinking something simple but really good-looking that I can add to a plate with chicken breast, basmati rice and grilled vegetables to make a nice plate for this lady. Something I can squirt out of a squeeze bottle decoratively or quenelle and throw on a chicken breast at the last minute. Right now my only ideas are a pesto or a balsamic reduction, but...yawn.

You all saved me with my lemon-caper sauce for a wedding I did a month ago, surely you can help me with this little issue?

[Abra]

I do brandied pear, cognac currant, and orange brandy chicken breasts, all of which are allium-free and any of which can be made ahead and spooned over at service. Do any of these sound like they'd work?

[jgm]

I've seen recipes here and there for champagne sauces. I've never tried any of them, but they sound really good. Probably anything produced with wine would be good... and you could use mushrooms for flavor.

It would be better with shallots, of course!

[Malawry]

Interesting, Abra. Do any of them require stock? (My chicken stock contains alliums, and I am NOT going to make more stock between now and Saturday.) Ditto for demi-glace, which is even more time-consuming to make.

I had briefly considered some kind of apple pan sauce. I have some really nice Calvados that would be great. But I always add demi to this sort of thing, and I think of fruit sauces as more for pork and game meats than for chicken breasts.

[jackal10]

Lots of hollandaise based options if hot, such as Bernaise, or mayonnaise based if cold. Paloise with mint is nice, as is Divine, with sherry.

avgolemono type sauces are another possibility.

[Malawry]

Jackal10, I don't want anything a la minute like a hot egg sauce. And the chicken breasts will be served hot, so I don't want a cold mayonnaise type sauce. I need to make this sauce Thursday to serve Saturday. I like the ideas you have, but they won't work for me in my situation.

Jgm, that's part of my problem--everything's better with alliums! I don't have any champagne laying about but thanks for your suggestion. I may end up doing some kind of white wine sauce--or maybe a veloute or something.

[Milagai]

You can do the coconut chickpea curry with NO onions or garlic.

Just use tomato puree instead.

The coconut should make it plenty rich....

There's plenty of onion and garlic free Indian food for the

very strict vegetarians......

If you want a more specific recipe I can dig one up for you.

(Try Yamuna Devi's book).

Milagai

[Malawry]

I don't think of curry as universally likeable. Besides, it's already been made and frozen...

[Eden]

I cook for a large number of people with allergies, and most of the time they'd rather have something that's as close to what everyone else is getting as possible just so they don't "stand out" so much, in which case the mango salsa sans shallots would be fine. But if you're worried that she doesn't like mangoes then what about a brandied gingery peach sauce - it will be in the same color pallete (plus or minus) as what everyone else has, but still be something safe and special for her.

[jackal10]

In which case you are restricted to starch thickened sauces, but there are many classic ones of these that go well with chicken, and where the Allium can be omitted.

For example:

Supreme (veloute with cream)

Albufera (supreme with meat glaze and peppers)

Allemande (supreme with chopped eggs)

Anglais (with mushroom and parsley)

Aurore (with tomato)

etc etc

or a brown sauce like Madiera

If you are feeling generous Sauce Financiere: brown sauce, Madiera, cream, truffle. If less generous substitute the truffles with mushrooms and truffle oil...

[Abra]

The brandied pear and cognac currant preparations contain no stock. I do the brandied pear with pear brandy, which might be a limiting factor, although it's probably also good with regular brandy. It's a fruit-based sauce, the cognac currant is a cream sauce.