Sauces
don’t always have to be ones you buy in a tin or a pack. When making your own, you know every last
ingredient that goes in. Once you got a
stocked up cupboard of spices; herbs and stocks, you can create anything.
Tinned
tomatoes are great to have also. You can
bung them in on top of a pot of meat, add them to your Bolognese or use them to
create dips. I think they are a great
store and you will always find them in our cupboard.
However,
not everybody likes tomato based sauces or perhaps there might be an allergy
issue where you cannot eat them.
Here i give you some of my favourite sauce recipes and ideas:
Basic
tomato “no tomato” sauce:
1. Place 2 ½ cups water in a large pot. Add about 3 ½ cups sweet potatoes chopped;
about 1 ¾ cups/5 medium carrots chopped; just over 2 cups fresh
beetroot chopped and 2 garlic cloves.
Cook the veg in the water for about an hour until tender.
2. When the vegetables are tender, use a hand blender to puree the mix.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
Taste test for flavour.
Try
it out on for your pasta dishes.
Sauces
can be created from anything if you use your imagination.
Don’t
just think that a creamy sauce means pouring in a carton of full fat
cream!
I
find if I have the following ingredients in my fridge and cupboard, that I can
come up with something different each time:
·
Stock pots/cubes/bouillons (a lot
of these are also gluten free which is great.
They can be got now in so many flavours too)
·
Garlic
·
Crème fraiche
·
Herb cream cheese
·
Cornflour/flour
·
Milk
·
Cream
·
And the easiest ingredient –
Water!
Always
taste test everything for more seasoning.
PASTA
SAUCES:
There
is such a variety of these to play around with here.
The
most simple thing I love to do with pasta is spaghetti pesto
simply by pouring in some home made garlic pesto (see recipe posted previously)
to cooked spaghetti and adding shavings of parmesan on top with some fresh
basil leaves.
Simple
but one of my favourites!
Courgette
sauce:
1. Heat a good glug oil in frying pan on medium heat. Add to this 2 garlic cloves finely
chopped and 1 chilli finely chopped. Fry for 1-2 minutes until softened
but not coloured.
2. Add 2 courgettes, trimmed and finely grated. Fry for a further 3-4 minutes or until the
courgettes have started to soften.
3. Add 60g/2 ¼ oz parmesan or similar grated cheese and seasoning
of salt and pepper. Mix well to
combine. Stir in a few spoonfuls of water
from cooked pasta and then your cooked pasta.
4.
Simple
cream sauce:
When
you’ve cooked your choice of veg and meat for your pasta, add a glug of white
wine and reduce. Then you can add either
crème fraiche/herb cream cheese/cream to your pot, season with salt
and pepper and whatever herbs/spices compliment your pasta dish. Simmer for few minutes and serve over your
choice of pasta.
(tip:
add a stock cube to your pasta water when boiling to flavour your pasta when
cooked – I use vegetable bouillon powder.)
OTHER
SAUCES:
Béchamel
sauce:
This
is a basic white sauce base. I make this
for my homemade lasagne béchamel sauce. It can be used for pasta carbonara or
add some chopped parsley to it for a lovely white sauce for boiled bacon and
cabbage. It’s a brilliant sauce to have
when seasoned for a lot of different meals.
You can also add cheese for macaroni and cheese.
It
couldn’t be simpler and here’s how I make mine:
1. Melt 2tbsp butter over low to medium heat and add 2tbsp flour/cornflour. (I use cornflour as it’s gluten free). Add the flour bit by bit whisking it into the
butter and cook for a minute.
2. Little by little add in 1 ½ cups of milk making sure to whisk it
well to avoid lumps. When all the milk
is whisked in whisk well and cook for about 2 minutes on low heat.
3. Bechamel sauce: season with salt and pepper.
4. Mac & cheese: Off the heat stir in grated cheese; salt;
pepper; bacon and macaroni.
5. Parsley sauce: stir in fresh chopped parsley, a good handful,
and season with salt and pepper.
Piri
piri sauce:
Great
for chicken marinade and the best thing is you can make this in advance and it
will keep in a lidded container for up to a month. When you want to cook with it, pour it over
your meat like chicken and gentle cook it on a griddle pan.
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place
6-12 fresh red chillies (depending on how hot you want it) on a roasting
tray and roast for about 10 minutes.
Cool and roughly chop them.
2. Place chillies; 1tbsp chopped garlic; 1tsp salt flakes; ½ tsp
oregano; ½ tbsp paprika; 100ml/3 ½ fl oz olive and 50ml/1 ¾ fl oz red wine
vinegar in a saucepan and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool, then blend it to a puree in a
blender/food processor.
Bearnaise
sauce:
This
is a French creamy sauce great with any plain meat or fish.
1. Melt 250g/8 ¾ oz butter in a saucepan. Place 1tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp
tarragon vinegar into another saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Place 2 egg yolks and splash of water into a blender/food
processor. Blend the ingredients
together, slowly adding the hot butter to the mix as you go, little by
little. Continue to blend until the
sauce thickens.
3. Add 1 tbsp fresh tarragon roughly chopped and 1tbsp fresh
flatleaf parsley finely chopped to combine.
MARINADING:
Sometimes
I find with just marinading meat in oils; garlic; herbs and spices, gives
enough flavour and yummy juices to meat when cooking that I don’t need a sauce.
If
I’m cooking something like pork chops, I will add a few things to a pestle and
mortar like:
·
Olive oil
·
Crushed garlic
·
Sea salt
·
Black pepper corns
·
Spices like Cajun; cumin;
·
Herbs like oregano; thyme;
rosemary
I
just crush and combine all these together and pour over the chops in a bowl,
cover with clingfilm and marinade in the fridge for an hour or so.
When
frying the chops the juices are amazing and any leftovers on the pan I pour
over when serving.
Gravy:
Making
a roast dinner with the full works and rich thick gravy is one of my favourite
things to do for comfort food.
I
find making my gravy from all the juices and flavours from the roasting tray
and the vegetable water is the best way to achieve a flavoursome gravy.
I
simple
·
add all these juices to a saucepan
and bring to a boil
·
add either instant bisto gravy
granules or I prefer to use knorr stock pots beef rich stock as it’s gluten
free
·
simmer for few minutes until it is
to your favoured consistency
Garlic
butter:
Great
for yummy steak!
Simply
crush 3x garlic cloves in a pestle and mortar with 50g room temp
butter. You can roll it up in
greaseproof paper in a sausage shape roll and chill. When you want to use it you can just slice
off some and lay it over your cooked steak.
You
can spread it over crusty baquettes and bake for yummy homemade garlic bread.
Creamy stock:
I would use this yummy creamy sauce for things like chicken
and mushroom pie. Another nice way to
use this sauce is pouring it into a casserole with chicken and cooking in the
oven. Yummy with mash.
It’s simple but scrumptious.
1.
Fry some 1 chopped onion
and garlic in some flora cuisine or if you don’t have this then in butter
and oil on low heat for about 10 minutes to soften.
2.
Add about 25g cornflour/flour,
stirring thoroughly to avoid lumps.
3.
Gradually add in 150ml milk and
150ml vegetable bouillon/chicken stock whichever you fancy. Obviously the chicken stock will give it that
more creamy chicken flavour.
4.
Stir continuously to create a
thick creamy sauce.
5.
For a white wine creamy sauce
in chicken and mushroom pie: i would pour this sauce over chicken;
mushrooms; salt; pepper and glug of white wine and cook on high heat for 5 mins
and then simmer for 5, making sure to stir as not to burn the base. This is then your filling for a pie to be
cooked in the oven.
Another version of creamy stock is:
1.
In a pester and mortal combine ½
tsp cumin seeds; ½ tsp rosemary; ½ tsp thyme; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1tsp salt and ½
tsp pepper. This can be poured over
chicken pieces and cooked in the oven at 200 °C for about ½ hour.
2.
In a pan then, I fry up some
veggies like carrots; courgettes and mushrooms on medium heat in some
oil until soft.
3.
Add 2 tbsp white wine (or a
good glug!) and cook for 5 mins to reduce.
Add to this a chicken stock pot; 1 can chicken soup; salt and
pepper. Add in your chicken from the
oven and simmer for about 10mins.
Another creamy sauce you could create is by
using crème fraiche. There are so
many flavours now from the original plain to herbs and garlic. You can cook up some meat and vegetables by
stir frying. Then adding some crème
fraiche; white wine and seasoning, cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes,
depending on how you’ve prepared and cooked your meat and veg.
Indian creamy sauce: (great with Indian twist
meatballs or just some chicken)
1.
Heat 1tbsp olive oil over
medium heat. Add fresh root ginger, peeled
and finely chopped or just some ginger spice you may have; 2 crushed garlic
cloves; 1 large onion finely sliced and fry for about 10 mins until soft
but not coloured.
2.
Mix in 3 tbsp medium curry
paste/2tbsp curry powder; 400ml can coconut milk; 300ml/ ½ pint chicken stock
and salt and pepper.
3.
Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Curry is always a favourite in our house. Whether it’s just to dunk some homemade chips
in or making a chicken curry, we love it.
To my curry I add chicken; mushrooms; onions; peas and fresh coriander.
I cam across some great curry pastes in the Asian English
market in Cork city. You just add the paste to your pot and either
boiling water for a great Chinese curry flavour or a tin or coconut cream for a
more creamy texture.
Adding your favourite meat and veg to this, it’s always a
treat.
Stew stock:
You can’t beat hearty stew.
Here’s the basic stew stock I create when I am making beef stew:
1.
when your meat is browned, drain
excess fat, return to pot and add 3tbsp flour to coat and mix well,
cooking for about a minute, stirring all the time.
2.
Add 1 tbsp tomato sauce (omit
if allergies to tomatoes); 1tbsp brown sauce; boiling water to cover; 1
stock cube/pot (beef or veg); 2 chopped garlic cloves; salt; pepper;
dash of cumin; dash of Worchestershire sauce; thyme and oregano. Simmer through.
3.
If you are making stew, add in
whatever veggies you want to this and simmer until cooked through.
Cooking fish:
When frying fish, I never use any sauce.
1.
I simply take a piece of fish like
Hake, season both sides with salt and pepper.
2.
Melt butter on a frying pan
and place the hake skin side down. Fry
for a couple of minutes until the skin is starting to crisp. Add a few more knobs of butter around the pan
and cook further until the skin is crisp. Flip over the fish and cook for a
further 3-4 minutes. Transfer the fish
to warmed plates.
3.
Melt another knob of butter to the
pan over moderate heat. Then add a
squeeze of lemon juice and about 1 tbsp of chopped
parsley/chives/tarragon. Swirl to
combine and season with salt and pepper. Pour this delicious sauce over your fish
and serve.
TOMATO LOVERS!:
There is such a wide array of products out there at the
moment that are amazing. My new
addiction is “Nandos” sauces especially piri piri and sundried tomato and
basil.
I use them for creating saucing in cooking or adding a
dollop into mayo and tomato sauce for a kick dip for chips and wedges.
Tinned tomatoes:
These should be a cupboard store in every household. They can be added to anything to create a
great sauce or used in dips. They are
your main base for Bolognese sauce or add some cream to make a creamy tomato
pasta base. They are great in a base for
fajitas and Mexican wraps also.
They are also great in paella type pots; sausage casseroles
and one pot wonders! I create these all
the time by add rice to the pot and boiling water until the water has absorbed
and left you with a wonderful tomato and rice pot wonder.
Tomatoes can be tweaked with your own flavours and spices or
herbs to create a different dish everytime.
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