Defining what exactly a salsa is can seem complicated. I don’t know, it might actually be complicated. This complication, if any comes from the fact that it seems like almost anything can be a salsa.
Growing up, salsa was pretty much one thing. An acidic tomato based sauce, with onion, and spice that we dipped tortilla chips in. Now, salsa is made of almost anything. But the truth is that it always kind of was. Salsa, just means sauce.
For a more in depth description check out what Wikipedia has to say on the matter.
For our purposes we are going to consider salas a chunky (not puréed) sauce with three main elements. There will be some type of fruit, from tomato to mango. There will be acid like citrus or vinegar. And there will be some type of spice.
Today, we are going to look at the composition of a salsa. I am going to give you a few specific recipes, but ideally by the end of this post you won’t need them. The goal here is for you to finish this post confident that you can walk into your kitchen and make a salsa out of just about anything. To do that I’m going to tell you…
Everything I Know About Salsa
To Cook or Not To Cook?
There are two main types of salsa, cooked and not cooked. The difference is pretty obvious.
Cooked Salsa
If you are unsure of how to tell the difference between a cooked and uncooked salsa just open a jar of salsa and look inside. Every jar of salsa you have ever had from Pace to Neil Brothers, to Old El Paso, to the stuff you bought at the local farmers market, has been cooked.
Cooked salsa has a much different flavour, texture and appearance than uncooked salsa. Cooking takes away the sharpness of flavour. You loose the bite of the onion, and the pop of flavour from the tomato and herbs.
There are a few benefits to cooked salsa over uncooked ones. The obvious benefit is that you can can them. Even without canning they tend to last much longer than their fresh cousins. The real benefit comes from the flavour.
Cooking does take away sharpness and brightness but it also helps develop depth, richness, and character. Cooked salsa tends to have a fuller flavour than fresh ones. That’s really the big difference.
Fresh Salsa
If I’m making tacos, nine times out of ten I’m going to be making a fresh salsa to go along with them. In fact, at home I rarely make cooked salsa at all. There are a few reasons for this.
Fresh salsa is really quick to put together. In a few minutes of chopping and mixing I have a delicious fresh salsa to compliment whatever taco I’ve made. And not just tacos. Burritos or burrito bowls, grain bowls, even just nachos, or any number of other things.
Fresh Salsa has a fresh flavour. Obvious, I know. This is the thing that I love most about fresh salsa, that big hit of freshness. It doesn’t mater what type of Mexican influenced food you are having, a fresh salsa can really compliment it.
Okay, we’ve talked about Cooked Salsa vs. Fresh Salsa. Now let’s take a look at the building blocks of a salsa cooked or not.
Like I said in the intro to this post, salsa has three main components; Fruit or the main ingredient, Acid, and Spice. Let’s take a look at these three items individually. Actually, before we do that, let’s take a look at the supporting ingredients.
Supporting Ingredients
Generally, other than the alternating ingredients like the fruit, acid, and spice, salsas are pretty much all the same, cooked or not. They almost always have onion, and cilantro. Garlic is often added. Sometimes parsley, oregano, or ground cumin may be included as well.
It is not uncommon to add tertiary ingredients like black beans, or bell peppers as well. We aren’t really going to get into that today though.
If you start with a base of just chopped onion and cilantro you can’t really go wrong. Just add some chopped fruit, a bit of acid, and a touch of spice and you’re all set.
Fruit
I know a lot of people don’t consider tomato a fruit, but it is. I think it’s fair to say that most people would consider tomato the most common salsa base, and it likely is. However, one of the beautiful things about salsa is it’s versatility. It doesn’t have to made of or even contain tomatoes.
Using the starting point of finely chopped onion and cilantro I have made salsa from pineapple, mango, peaches, individual citrus fruits or a mixture of a few different ones, apple, pear, cranberry, even melon, and of course tomato. The key is just to chop everything up nice and fine.
Acid
Just like tomato is the most typical fruit to be used to make a salsa, lime juice is the most typical acid. Why? Because it commonly grows in Mexico and South America where salsa comes from. It has that quintessential salsa flavour. Having said that, it isn’t the only acid available.
Any kind of citrus juice can do the job as can any kind of vinegar. Really it just comes down to pairing the acid to the main ingredient in the salsa and the main item the salsa is being paired with. When in doubt, just use lime juice.
The acid has two main purposes. The first of which is flavour. The acid not only adds it’s own element to the overall flavour of the salsa, it also makes all of the other flavours pop. Meaning, it creates more vibrance.
The second purpose of the acid is to break down the main ingredient and draw liquid out to create a kind of sauce for the sauce (salsa).
There is a third purpose specific to canning salsa. The acid lowers the ph level making salsa safe to can. You only have to worry about this if you are sealing the salsa in jars.
Spice
A salsa without a bit of spice or heat is no salsa at all. It doesn’t have to burn your face off, but that element is important. This is especially true when using a sweet fruit as the base. The heat has a balancing effect.
The type of chili you use will determine how hot the salsa will be. The chili also adds it’s own unique flavour to the salsa. Jalapeno is always a good bet. For a more mild flavour remove the seeds and white ribs from the jalapeno and only chop up the actual pepper part.
You can use any other type of chili you can imagine. Habanero, serrano, or poblanos (which aren’t too spicy) are also commonly used in salsas.
Choosing the right salsa
The things that we put salsa on are generally either fairly neutral in flavour or very strong in flavour. This means that we are either looking to impart flavour or compliment.
Imparting Flavour
If we are trying to impart flavour, we want a very strongly flavoured salsa with a lot of depth. This is where cooked salsa comes in very handy. Having said that, a bold fresh salsa can do this job just as well.
Use a strong main ingredient in your salsa like cooked tomato or pineapple. Compliment that with some strong background flavours like cumin and extra cilantro. Even add a bit of extra heat or use strongly flavoured chili like chipotle.
Complimenting Flavour
If you have a dish that on it’s own has is very flavourful, a strong salsa can muddy the flavours and distract from them. For this purpose you want to back off on the punch from the salsa. Use more mild ingredients like mango, or fresh tomato. Use very little cumin if any. A milder chili like polano or jalapeno is probably better suited to this job.
When I’m thinking about the type of salsa I’m going to make it always starts with the dish it’s going to be served with. I always try to think of it as an additional ingredient to the overall composition rather than it’s own thing. What I mean is that I use the salsa to fill in the gaps in flavour of the final dish.
So, if I slow roast some pork to make tacos and I’ve made a rub with four different types of chili and pork is really spicy, I don’t need or want to add a lot of heat to the salsa. Instead, I want something that is going to balance, or even cut through that heat. What does that? Sweet and acid. So, in this case make a salsa that is more sweet and acidic than it is spicy. The reveres is true as well.
If I make a dish that completely lacks spice. I make a spicy salsa.
The salsa, fills in the gaps and smooths out the final dish.
Conclusion
Salsa can be a really terrific condiment. Honestly, if done well it can make the whole dish. As we’ve seen it can be used in a variety of ways and made from a variety of ingredients. It not only goes well on tacos, but a nice grilled peach or mango salsa makes a great addition to a summer pork chop or haddock fillet too.
The key to making salsa is to not over complicate it. It shouldn’t have more than five or six ingredients. Start with a good base, and taste continuously as you make it and you can’t go wrong.
There are a bunch of different salsa recipes published throughout my Facebook and Instagram pages and if you ask me I will be happy to hunt them down and share them with you. But it’s my hope that you can now confidently make a basic salsa without a recipe. If would like to check some out bon appétit has a great list salsas here.
A note on cilantro
I know that some people reading this are thinking “Oh, cilantro! Gross!” But here’s the thing, you are really missing out.
For a very long time I hated cilantro. It always tasted like soap to me. Slowly, I started eating it and over time that soap taste went away and I absolutely fell in love it. Now, I use more cilantro at home than any other herb.
If you hate cilantro, do yourself a favour and try it. Not once or twice, but over the course of a few months try it multiple times. Start with small amounts and once that’s tolerable add more.
If you put in this effort you will find something that you have been missing forever.
The same is true for spice. Start small and work your way up. There is nothing like the euphoric feeling you get from eating something really spicy. It’s incredible. And nothing compliments spice, like cilantro.
This week on 30 minutes or less we make one of my top five favourite salmon dishes, miso salmon.
What is miso?
The key ingredient here is the miso paste which is made of fermented soy beans. Because of the nature of how it’s made, miso on it’s own is really salty. Tamari, also known as gluten-free soy sauce, is the liquid extruded from miso during the fermentation process.
Miso is a fairly common ingredient these days and most large grocery stores carry it. If you can’t find it, check out an Asian grocery store as they will absolutely have it.
Because of the strong flavour of miso, we combine it with honey and mayonnaise to make the glaze for the salmon. The miso on it’s own would just be way to over powering. This glaze goes very well on other seafood as well from haddock, to scallops, to oysters.
As we aren’t using much of the miso paste you may be reluctant to buy it. I understand that. Luckily, miso paste lasts almost indefinitely in the fridge and can be used for a number of different things including soups, and other sauces even for beef. The point is, it’s likely a new ingredient to you and I understand any reluctance. However, I suggest spending the $3 or $4 or whatever it is if only so you can try this dish.
The Dish
This dish we are making today consists of the salmon baked with the miso glaze, brown rice and quinoa with spinach, and steamed carrots. This is a really delicious and fairly straight-forward meal. And honestly, for the the first time in 30 minute or less history almost half the 30 minutes was spent waiting for the food to cook.
Let’s get into it.
6:35 pm
I started cooking fairly late this evening so I was really happy to be cooking a meal that was going to take less than half an hour. Here’s what I did.
At 6:35 pm I turned the oven on to 400°F, rinsed my brown rice, covered it by 2 inches with hot water, salted the water, and put it on a burner on high.
I am cooking the rice with the pasta method which I’m not sure if we have covered or not. Essentially, the pasta method is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than worrying about exact measurements, we just cover the rice with water and boil it until it’s cooked. I find this works much better for brown rice than it does for white rice which has a more fine line between cooked and over cooked. We know the rice is cooked by tasting it for texture.
6:36 pm
At 6:36 I started making the miso glaze for the salmon.
For the glaze I used about 2 tbsp of miso paste along with about 2 tbsp of mayo, and 2 tbsp of honey. I also added a few drops of fish sauce and a squeeze of lime juice. This all got mixed together and set aside.
6:39 pm
At 6:39 I was done making the glaze and jumped into peeling carrots. Once the carrots were peeled I sliced them thinly on a bias (angle). Once they were cut, I put them in a small pot, covered them with hot salted water, and set them aside.
This took about 3 minutes.
6:42 pm
Once the carrots were done and set aside, I took the salmon out of it’s package, and put in on a parchment lined baking sheet. I should note that this salmon was skin on, and was a half of one whole salmon fillet. So, about one quarter of a salmon. Not a small piece.
I glazed the salmon with a generous amount of the miso paste and put it in the top third of my oven and set a 12 minute timer.
The oven wasn’t fully up to temperature yet, but that’s okay. It actually worked out really well.
6:45 pm
The salmon is in the oven. The rice is boiling so I add 1/4 c of quinoa to it. I should say that I used about 1 cup of brown rice as well. I also turned the carrots on high at this point.
6:47 pm – 6:55 pm
At this point, I actually had a bunch of time to wait so I tidied up, I drank some water. I just kind of hung out for a few minutes.
I should say the carrots started to boil at 6:51 pm.
6:55 pm
At 6:55 the carrots were cooked so I drained the water off of them, put them back in the pot and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil.
6:57 pm
At 6:57 the timer went off for my salmon. I took it out of the oven and checked it for doneness by gently poking it to check firmness. It was firm, and done.
Because of the honey in the miso paste there were dark edges around the salmon. This is perfectly fine and had no effect of the taste of the salmon.
7:00 pm
At 7:00 the rice and quinoa was done so I drained it in a mesh sieve. While the rice and the quinoa were draining I put the empty pot back on the stove and let any residual water dry out over the burner. I then added 1 tsp butter and 1 tsp olive oil along with 2 cups of raw baby spinach. I cooked the spinach for about 45 seconds, stirring, and then added the rice and quinoa back in along with some salt and pepper.
7:03 pm
At 7:03 I was done plating, pictures were taken, and we were eating.
Conclusion
This meal was really quick to come together and was really tasty. I highly recommend giving this one a go. Feel free to change up the vegetables or even the starches but keep the miso salmon.
It was nice it make something in less than 30 minutes that actually gave me time to just kind of chill out. That was a nice change of pace.
I hope that you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions about the recipe feel free to leave it in the comments or hit me up on social media.
Over the last few weeks, we have talked at great length about four of the five classic French mother sauces. We have covered tomato sauce, béchamel, velouté, and hollandaise. We have covered what they are, how to make them and different sauces you can make from them.
Today, in our fifth and final entry of the classic mother sauce series we are looking at Espagnole. Just like with the other mother sauces we will be looking at what it is, how to make it, how to use it, and other sauces that can be made from it.
Of all the five mother sauces Espagnole maybe the most important. It absolutely has the most derivative sauces of all the mothers. More importantly, it is by far the most versatile of all the mother sauces.
Now, you may have never heard of Espagnole before. That’s fine. My guess is that you have likely eaten it. Possibly made it. And by the time you’re done reading this post you will understand why for my money I think it’s the most important of all the classic mother sauces.
What is Espagnole?
Sometimes referred to as brown sauce, Espagnole is made by bolstering the flavour of a brown stock and thickening it. We’ll get into that more later.
If you have never heard of Espagnole sauce don’t beat yourself up. Unlike it’s more common mothers, Espagnole isn’t generally used on it’s own. What you likely have heard of is Demi Glace or demi for short.
Demi
Demi is traditionally made by combining equal parts Espagnole and brown stock and reducing the volume by half through simmering. Demi literally means half in French. Glace can mean a lot of things but in this context it means glaze. So demi glace means half glaze. Make sense?
Very often what you will find labelled as demi glace on menus is actually just Espagnole. Even if the sauce isn’t a true Espagnole it is generally brown stock bolstered and thickend through reduction rather than a roux. It would almost be like a hybrid between Espagnole and Demi Glace.
Today, a brown sauce can be a lot of things. It can be the classic espagnole that we’re talking about. It can be demi glace. The term can even cover pan sauces which I’ll get into later.
Making Brown Stock
Espagnole maybe be the mother sauce but brown stock is where it all starts.
Brown stock is made by roasting veal or beef bones until they get a rich, deep brown colour. Then simmering the bones with heavily roasted onions, carrots, and celery. Often flavourings like parsley stems and bay leaves will be added as well.
All of this is slowly cooked together for an extended period of time. At least 2-3 hours but in can be much longer depending on the size of the bones. The idea is to extract as much flavour and gelatin from the bones as possible.
After the stock has reached its peek flavour the solids are strained out and the liquid is left to cool in the fridge over night. In the morning there will be a layer of fat on the surface of the stock which is skimmed off. This leaves only the rich brown stock remaining.
This brown stock can be used to make Espagnole and demi. It can also be used as the base of soups, braises, and pan sauces or to cook rice, potatoes, or vegetables.
Making Espagnole
To make Espagnole we essentially repeat the the process of simmering and adding flavour. The difference is that this time we don’t use bones. Generally, meat trim will be roasted and added to the stock to add a more intense meat flavour.
Other ingredients that will generally be added to bolster the beef stock into Espagnole are more roasted vegetables like onions, carrots, and celery. Mushrooms are also generally added, as is tomato paste. It is also common to add red wine, port, or sherry.
After the stock has been simmered with the roasted vegetables and meat trim it is once again strained to remove the solids. To the remaining liquid a roux (equal parts butter and flour mixed together) is added to thicken the sauce.
Pan Sauces
A pan sauce is exactly what it sounds like. It is a sauce made in the pan that a piece of meat was cooked in. So, if you sear a steak in a pan, you can use that pan along with any stuck bits on the bottom of it to make a sauce.
To make a pan sauce remove the protein from the pan. Pour off any excess oil. Add 1-2 tbsp of butter and 1-2 tbsp chopped shallot or onion. Cook the shallot or onion until it starts to turn translucent. Deglaze the pan with red wine, port, or sherry and reduce by half. Now add a bit of Espagnole, or beef stock. Reduce. Adjust seasoning, and if desired add a touch of cream.
Derivative Sauces
Bigarde: To make the bigarade sauce caramelize sugar and to it add vinegar, orange and lemon juice. Add this to Espagnole and garnish with lemon and orange zest. Serve with duck and other game birds.
Bordelaise: This is red wine, shallots, peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaf simmered together and added to Espagnole. This sauce is finished with a little bit of demi glace, lemon juice, and sliced bone marrow. This sauce works very well with grilled meats and roasted fish.
Bourguignonne: Simmer red wine, shallots, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and mushrooms together and add to Espagnole. Finish with whole butter and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Serve with eggs or beef.
Robert: The sauce is onions, butter, white wine added to Espagnole. The sauce is finished with a pinch of sugar, and English mustard. Serve it with grilled pork.
Financière: Add Maderia wine and truffle to Espagnole. Serve with beef.
I could honestly go on and on and on as there are loads of sauces made with Espagnole. I think the above list gives you an idea of it’s versatility.
Conclusion
This concludes our five week series on the classic French mother sauces. I hope that you have enjoyed this series but more importantly I hope that you have learned from it.
Like anything, being a good cook is about knowing the fundamentals. Know the basics and you can create incredible things. Now, you can say that you know the five classic French mother sauces. Hopefully, you will even use them.
Over the last three weeks, I have talked about tomato sauce, béchamel, and veloute. Those sauces are three of the five mother sauces of classic French cooking. Today, we are going to talk about the fourth and most highly regarded. Today we are talking about…
How To Make Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise sauce has a reputation as being very difficult and temperamental. It’s the type of thing that home cooks often steer clear of because of the perceived level of skill required to make it. But, what if I told you that all of the hype about hollandaise is just that, hype. Just propaganda propagated by big hollandaise to keep the little guy down. Okay, maybe I made that up, but it’s not that far off.
Today, I am going to take you through an in-depth guide on how to make hollandaise sauce. We are going to look at all the things that can go wrong, how to prevent them, and how to fix them if you can. I hope that you come out the other end of this post, ready to make your first batch of artery-clogging yellow sauce. If you already know how to make hollandaise, you may just learn a thing or two as well. Let’s get into it.
What is Hollandaise Sauce?
I think that it might be a good idea to answer this question before we get too deep into this post. So, what is hollandaise sauce?
Hollandaise is a warm, egg-based sauce. It is an emulsification of fat and acid facilitated by a string of proteins found in egg yolk known as lecithin. Sound complicated? It isn’t. All that means is that an acid like lemon juice is mixed with egg yolks, heated, and then melted, clarified butter is whisked into the mixture. Does that sound less complicated?
How do you make Hollandaise Sauce?
Well, like I just said, you mix egg yolk and acid, heat them up and then whisk in melted clarified butter. Let’s break this down a little bit.
Clarified Butter
Clarified butter is just butterfat. Butter is melted, which causes a separation of milk solids and fat. The solids form two layers, one on top of the fat, and one below. The top layer is skimmed off, revealing the golden liquid below the surface. Once all of the top milk solid layers has been skimmed off and discarded, the butterfat is separated from the bottom layer of milk solids. Ideally, all you should be left with is the clear, golden butterfat.
Why clarify butter?
We clarify butter for a few reasons. The majority of the salt content of the butter is removed with the solids, as is the water content. What you are left with is pure butterfat, which has a higher smoking point than regular butter and longer shelf life. We use clarified butter for Hollandaise sauce because it gives us a better-textured sauce. It also allows us to have more control over the salt and water content of our sauce.
Acid
The acid most commonly used acid for hollandaise sauce is lemon juice. However, it is not uncommon to use vinegar. When vinegar is used, it is often in the form of a flavoured reduction. Vinegar is simmered with peppercorns, bay leaf, and maybe cloves. The solids will be strained out, and the flavoured vinegar will be used as the acid in the sauce.
It is also not uncommon to use another citrus as the acid in hollandaise sauce. Grapefruit surprisingly makes a delicious hollandaise.
The acid in hollandaise sauce has two purposes. First of all, it is there for flavour. The sauce would be kind of bland without it. The second purpose is that the acidity cuts through the intense richness of the sauce and makes it palatable. Without the acid, hollandaise would be too rich. It wouldn’t be enjoyable to eat.
Egg yolks
Egg yolks are the only other ingredient necessary to make hollandaise. The egg yolks are also multipurpose. First and foremost, they bind the sauce. The lecithin in the egg yolks is what holds the emulsification of the oil and the acid. Without the egg yolks, you would just have a very loose vinaigrette.
The second purpose of the egg yolks is texture. They are the main reason hollandaise has the velvety texture that it does.
Procedure
The procedure for making hollandaise is honestly as basic as it can get. Literally, all you have to do is mix the acid with the egg yolks and then slowly heat the mixture in a double boiler. A double boiler is just a bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. It’s important that the bowl not touch the water.
Once the egg yolk and acid mixture are set over the simmering water, it is important not to stop whisking. You don’t have to whisk vigorously but you do have to whisk constantly. The risk here is that the yolk will cook to the bottom and sides of the bowl. This will lead to a grainy textured hollandaise. Unpleasant to say the least. It’s also important that the water not be boiling as the yolks will heat too quickly and you will have scrambled eggs which does not make a good hollandaise sauce.
The egg yolks are being cooked for two reasons, to thicken them which will lead to a thicker consistency of the final sauce. The second reason is to pasteurize the egg yolks to make them safe to eat.
The egg yolks are done cooking when they are thick and reach the ribbon stage. That is when you lift the whisk out of the egg yolks and the yolk that falls back into the bowl forms almost like a ribbon and sits of the surface for a second. Now, it’s time to add the butter.
I prefer to add the butter to my hollandaise when it is off the heat which is a slightly safer method. The key to this is that the butter has to be hot.
I remove the bowl from the double boiler and a few drops at a time I start to whisk in the butter. Once those first few drops have been incorporated I whisk in a few more drops. Essentially, this process just keeps repeating until all the butter has been incorporated. You may need to add a little more lemon juice or water to your sauce to thin it out so you can add the entirety of the butter. What’s interesting, is the more butter you add the thicker your sauce will get.
Once you get your sauce to the desired consistency, taste it, season it with salt and pepper, and cover it with plastic wrap until you are ready to use it. Ideally, you want to use the sauce right away. It can be held at room temperature, covered for about an hour. After that though, it isn’t really safe to eat. It isn’t something you want to put in the fridge and use over a couple of days either. It doesn’t hold well and it certainly doesn’t reheat well. I suggest making only what you are going to use right away.
What can go wrong?
There are really only two things that can go wrong when making hollandaise sauce.
The first thing is that the egg yolks get too hot and solidify. This can occur only on the bottom and sides of the bowl. Or, if the bowl gets really hot the whole batch of egg yolks can cook. If this happens the only solution is to start again. There is no coming back from scrambled egg yolks.
To prevent the egg yolks from getting too hot make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water in the pot below. Make sure the water in the pot isn’t boiling and is actually just barely simmering. And finally, don’t stop stirring. Keep the egg yolks moving and watch closely. You want the egg yolks to coagulate but there is only a few degrees difference in temperature between slightly coagulated egg yolk and rock hard egg yolks. So watch carefully.
The second thing that can wrong is that the butter is added too quickly into the sauce and it separates. A hollandaise that has separated looks pretty disgusting. Like curdled milk. However, if this happens it isn’t the end of the world or even the end of your sauce. It can be saved.
To fix a broken sauce start with a clean bowl and a few fresh egg yolks. Put the bowl over the heat and cook the egg yolks just like you did with the ones in the split sauce. Once the egg yolks have begun to thicken start incorporating the broken sauce as though it was the butter you originally added. What I mean by that is slowly add the broken sauce a few drops at a time, whisk to incorporate and then add more. Do this until all of the broken sauce has been incorporated. Now, you can finish adding the rest of your clarified butter if needed.
In all honesty, it is kind of a pain in the ass to have to fix your sauce. This is especially true if you are hungry and just want to eat. The real solution is not to let your sauce break at all.
Ratios
For hollandaise sauce, I usually stick to 1/4 cup of clarified butter and 1-2 tsp of lemon juice for every egg yolk. To that, I may need to add 1-2 tsp of water as well. For Eggs Benedict for two use 2 egg yolks and 1/2 cup of clarified butter.
Derivatives
Béarnaise sauce –
By far the most popular hollandaise derivative is béarnaise sauce. It is a classic steak sauce and with good reason. To make this start the hollandaise the same way you normally would except instead of using lemon juice make a vinegar reduction with shallot and tarragon. The final sauce may also be garnished with fresh tarragon.
Choron –
Choron is a mixture of béarnaise sauce and tomato sauce. Commonly served on grilled or roasted meat and poultry.
Maltaise –
The addition of blood orange juice and segments makes hollandaise a Maltaise sauce. Very, very good on asparagus.
Mousseline –
Hollandaise mixed with whipped cream. A lighter version of hollandaise great on fish and asparagus.
Paloise –
Similar to béarnaise sauce except mint is used rather than tarragon. Good with lamb.
Royal –
A really old school sauce made of equal parts velouté, hollandaise, and whipped cream. Traditionally served over white meats and poached fish.
Conclusion
It is my sincere hope that if you have never made hollandaise sauce before that this post has given you the confidence to give it a shot. At the very least I hope that you now see that hollandaise is not this mystical sauce that only true masters can make.
If you have been paying attention you may have noticed that the process for making hollandaise is almost identical to making mayonnaise and even Caesar salad dressing. The only real difference is the temperature. You may also have realized the principles for making hollandaise are the same principles for making vinaigrettes as well.
The idea here is that by learning one technique you are actually learning how to make literally thousands of things whether you realize it or not. So, if you have even made a vinaigrette, you can make a hollandaise sauce. If you have ever made hollandaise sauce you can make mayonnaise. If you can make mayonnaise you can make caesar dressing. Get it? I hope so.
Next Wednesday we will be looking into the fifth and final mother sauce. I hope that you are looking forward to it as much as I am.
Last Wednesday, I wrote about how to make a bechamel sauce, and it’s derivatives. The week before, I talked about tomato sauce. Those two sauces have one thing in common. In French cooking, they are both considered mother sauces. What that means is that they are “base” sauces. Sauces that, with the addition of other ingredients, become new sauces. In French cooking, there are five of those mother sauces. Today we are going to talk about the third sauce in the group; velouté.
You may have never heard of a velouté before. Whether you have heard of it or not, I can almost guarantee that you have made one previously. You definitely have eaten a velouté before. So then, what is a velouté? Well, that is what we’re going to talk about today.
How To Make Velouté and Its Derivative Sauces
What is velouté?
In French velouté means velvety, soft, and smooth on the palate. That should tell you what the texture of a velouté should be.
If you remember from last week, a bechamel sauce is milk thickened with a roux (equal parts flour and butter). A velouté is very similar, with one main difference. Rather than thickened milk, a velouté is a thickened white stock. Let’s break that down a bit.
A stock is just water flavoured with meat bones and vegetables. There are two main types of stock: white and brown. A white stock is made by adding raw bones to a pot with carrot, onion, and celery, and simmering it for a long period of time. This yields a clear, yellow, or light amber stock. No matter what colour the stock actually is one made with this technique is a white stock.
A brown stock is made the same way as a white stock with one additional step. Prior to being simmered the bones and often the vegetables will be roasted in the oven. This gives the stock a deep brown colour and a more intense flavour. It is also common to add tomato paste to brown stocks.
This may seem like unnecessary information. However, it is important to make the distinction between white and brown stock and here is why. A white stock thickened with a roux is a velouté. A brown stock thickened with a roux is an Espagnole sauce which is its own mother sauce. We will get into that more next week.
How to make a velouté.
Typically when making a velouté additional flavourings will be added. These may include carrots, onion and celery or herbs. Once the velouté is finished, these will be strained out and you will be left with a silky, smooth sauce.
Step 1
If you are adding additional mirepoix (mirepoix = carrots, onion, and celery) sweat it in a pot with a bit of butter. Sweating vegetable means to cook them in a bit of fat over moderate heat. The purpose is to draw moisture out of the vegetables. The intent is not to brown the vegetables.
Step 2
The second step in making a velouté is to make the roux. Now, if you did sweat mirepoix you will already have fat in the pot. You may need to add more. A roux is equal parts flour and fat (typically butter). If you don’t have enough fat in the pot add some more and then sprinkle the flour over the contents.
Stir the flour and butter together until all of the flour has been incorporated and cook for two minutes stirring constantly.
Step 3
Once the roux is ready add the stock and stir to fully distribute the roux. You will need to turn the heat down to low and simmer the sauce for twenty minutes. If the heat is too high the roux will stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. You will also have to stir the velouté every few minutes. If you would like to add herbs like thyme or bay leaf now would be the time to do that so the flavour cooks into the sauce.
Step 4
Once the sauce has simmered and has the desired consistency it’s time to taste it. You are checking for two things. You want to make sure the seasoning is good. If needed, add some salt and pepper. Some people prefer to add white pepper as not to get black flakes in their sauce. I don’t actually care but I’ll leave that up to you.
The second thing you are tasting for is flour. If the velouté hasn’t been cooked long enough you may be able to taste raw flour. If this is the case, put the pot back on the heat and cook for a few more minutes.
Step 5
The fifth and final step in making a velouté is to strain it through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. As I said earlier, the word velouté means silky and smooth. A chunky velouté just won’t do. So, strain it.
Uses
Now you have a delicious velouté, but what are you going to do with it? What was the point?
As I said in the intro to this post, you have likely eaten and even made velouté and not even known it. So, what did I mean? Well, velouté is a fancy word for a very basic thing; gravy. If you have ever eaten or made gravy at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you have had velouté. Stew is a velouté. There are lots of other sauces and soups that are veloutés as well. This brings us to the derivatives of velouté.
Derivatives
Allemande –
With the addition of mushrooms, egg yolks, and lemon to a basic velouté you get allemande sauce. This is great over poultry. The egg yolks are whisked into the hot sauce to give it a richer more decadent texture and flavour. The lemon acts to brighten the sauce and the mushrooms add flavour and texture.
This is essentially the high-end version of putting cream of mushroom soup on chicken or pork chops.
Aurore –
The addition of tomato purée makes velotué Aurore sauce. This would typically be served with white meat, poultry and even eggs.
Bercy –
Bercy sauce is velouté with the addition of shallots, white wine, fish trim, butter and chopped parsley. This makes a great sauce for any kind of fish dish.
Suprême –
Suprême sauce is made by adding mushrooms, cream and butter to a velouté. This is a classic sauce for chicken. The butter is whisked in at the last minute before serving to give the sauce a velvety texture.
Diplomate –
This sauce is velouté with fish trim, lobster, butter, and truffle and typically served over a whole roasted or poached fish.
Conclusion
The above list is not a complete representation of what can be made with velouté. It is simply a few of the many possibilities. I hope that the derivative sauces above give you an idea of how versatile a velouté can be. Also, how something simple like a stock thickened with a roux can create some of the most decadent and delicious sauces in French cooking.
Come back next Wednesday when I will be covering our fourth mother sauce, Espanagloe.
Last Friday I did a post all about lasagna. In that post, I briefly talked about bechamel and how to make it. Today, I want to look more deeply into bechamel. I am going to give a more in-depth recipe and process and talk about some of the derivative sauces you can make with a few simple additions to the recipe. Let’s jump into it.
What is Bechamel?
Bechamel is a white sauce made with milk (sometimes cream) thickened with a roux. In French cooking, it is one of the five classic mother sauces. A mother sauce is a base out of which many other sauces can be made. We will talk about some of the sauces that can be made with bechamel shortly.
Don’t let the fancy name fool you. It is not nearly as intimidating as it seems. As I said in the lasagna post, it is more than likely that you have made bechamel before and didn’t know it.
First things first let’s talk about pepper. A lot of people like to use white pepper in their bechamel so they don’t get the black specks you get with black pepper. I happen to hate white pepper. I find it smells and tastes like a horse barn. I also don’t mind the black specks in my white sauce. I’ll leave it up to you whether you use white or black pepper.
It is very easy for the roux to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn as the bechamel is simmering. There are a few ways to help prevent this.
Number one is to use a heavy bottom pot.
Number two is to stir the sauce regularly making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. If you do scrape the bottom of the pot and notice brown or black bits floating in your bechamel, strain it right away and put it in a new pot. Taste it before you continue cooking because it may already taste burnt. In that case, you have to start over.
The third and probably safest option is to make the roux separately and add it after the milk has already been heated. In this case, you would simply cook the butter and flour together in a separate pot. The milk would be added to the softened onions and heated. At this point, the roux would be whisked in. You will still have to be vigilant in making sure the roux doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot, but this way is safer if that is your concern.
Derivative Sauces
From that basic bechamel recipe above many other sauces can be made. Below I am going to name the sauce and list what ingredients need to be added to make it. All the below additions are based on the above recipe. I should say that the sauces I’m about to list are very old school. You will likely only ever use one, maybe two of them.
Bohemienne
The simple addition of a tsp or two of tarragon to the bechamel makes it a bohemienne sauce. This is a sauce that is traditionally served cold with cold fish or poached salmon.
Cardinal
The additions of truffles and lobster make a Cardinal sauce. How much lobster and truffles do you add? Until you can’t add any more. This sauce is about decadence, not moderation. This sauce would typically be served over fish, lobster and truffles. That’s right lobster and truffles on lobster and truffles.
Ecossaise
Three or four whole eggs whisked into the bechamel makes it an Ecossaise sauce. Unsurprisingly, this sauce is traditionally served over eggs.
Mornay
This is probably one of only two of these derivative sauces you will ever make. This is 1 cup of grated gruyere, 1/4 cup grated parm, whisked into the bechamel. At the last minute before serving 1-2 tbsp of butter is whisked in as well. Traditionally this sauce is served with fish but it is also the base for mac and cheese. You can obviously add whatever cheeses you would like.
Alfredo
2-3 cloves of garlic sauteed with the onion, a 1/4 cup of white wine reduced before the milk is added and then 1 cup of parmesan whisked in at the end. You likely already know what to do with alfredo sauce.
Conclusion
Bechamel is not only the base that makes up some weird classic sauces that you forgot about as soon as you read them. It is also the base to soups and chowders. It makes a great centre for a lasagna or topping for a moussaka.
The recipe may seem very basic but there are things that can go wrong. Practise making this sauce, master it, and you are on your way to mastering classic cooking.
Tomato sauce is one of those things that a lot of us take for granted. It’s assessable, and it’s easy. But what if I told you that the tomato sauce you’ve been eating, isn’t the best tomato sauce it could be? What if there were a few simple things that you could do to make that tomato sauce not just good, but absolutely great? Well, today that is what we are doing. Today, we are talking about…
The Art Of Tomato Sauce
Every single tomato sauce has one thing in common. The main ingredient is tomatoes. I know, I know captain obvious right, but we have to talk about the tomatoes.
Tomatoes
To make this as accessible as possible I am going to focus mainly on using canned tomatoes as opposed to fresh. If you want to use fresh tomatoes that’s great! Process the tomatoes by either blanching them to remove the skin or by roasting them. Now, you are pretty much caught up to the rest of us that are using canned tomatoes.
Not every can of tomatoes is created equal. I’m not saying that you can’t use “no name” brand tomatoes for this. You can. But if you want the best tomato sauce possible you want to use the best tomatoes possible. Generally, this means San Marzano tomatoes. These are a type of plum tomato typically grown in and imported from Italy. They are slightly sweeter and less acidic than Roma tomatoes which is another classic sauce tomato. If you can’t find or don’t want to spend the money on San Marzanos, that’s okay. Most canned tomatoes will do the job. And if you are using fresh tomatoes, Romas are what you want.
I typically buy whole canned tomatoes and puree them myself. I find the ones that are already pureed sometimes have an odd flavour that I don’t like in my tomato sauce. Often I don’t actually puree the tomatoes but rather crush them with my hands. First of all, it’s a lot of fun. Secondly, it means that I might get a few small chunks of tomatoes rather than just fully pureed. I like a few tomato chunks in my sauce but that’s up to you.
Tomatoes, even San Marzano’s are acidic. The goal is to balance that acidity with sweetness. More often than not, people will just put a tablespoon or two of sugar into the sauce. I prefer a different approach that does the same thing but without adding sugar directly.
Onions
Onions are a typical addition to tomato sauce. They are generally lightly sauteed right before the tomatoes are added. I like to take this a step further and actually caramelize the onions. What this means is that I am essentially browning the onions over a moderately low heat. What is happening is that starches and sugars in the onion are being broken down by the heat and caramelized. This intensifies their sweetness and means that I don’t need to add sugar to my sauce for balance. The natural sweetness from the caramelized onions is what balances the sauce.
When people think of caramelized onions they often think of thinly sliced onions. But I want to be clear, that for a sauce I use a finely diced onion, not sliced. I caramelize them with olive oil on medium-low heat and it takes about twenty minutes.
Other Ingredients
There is a tendency to overcomplicate tomato sauce. All too often people end up throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. But to make a really good tomato sauce takes restraint. You really need to take a minimalist approach.
In addition to the tomatoes and onions, I typically add salt, pepper, and finish the sauce with some fresh basil. Occasionally, I will add a clove or two of garlic and saute with the onions, but more often than not I leave it out.
In Italian cooking, the sauce is more just lubrication than the star of the show. In North America, we generally think of this in reverse. We load our pasta up with sauce to the point that we can’t taste the pasta at all. It’s okay that we do that. I do that. I’m not trying to change the way four hundred million people eat pasta. But whether you eat like the Italians, or like North Americans, this sauce will suit your needs.
The sauce I described above is a fantastic all-purpose tomato sauce. It can be used on pasta with a bit of parmesan cheese, used to top chicken parmesan, served with spaghetti and meatballs, or even as the base of a meat sauce. Think of it as a swiss army knife. It can do a lot of things really well.
I know that there are some people out there thinking that their tomato sauce is perfect as it is. They can’t believe that I didn’t add oregano or handfuls of garlic. Well, I implore those people to try this method just once before they judge it too harshly. You never know, you may have just found your new favourite tomato sauce.
Sauce making sometimes has this air of mystery about it. There is an implied complication that can deter people from making even the most basic sauces. Today, I am going to show you how uncomplicated sauce making can be. We are going to look at two types of sauces today. Barbecue sauce and pan sauce. It’s my hope that by the end of the post you will be inspired to get a little saucier.
Let’s Get Saucy
First of all, a sauce can be almost anything. If you put butter on a cooked steak, that’s technically a sauce. So, right off the bat let’s get rid of the idea that a sauce has to be a complex combination of twenty different ingredients that have simmered together for hours and hours. I mean yes, there are a lot of sauces that start that way, and that’s okay. Just because there are a lot of sauces that take a long time to make doesn’t mean that aren’t just as many or more sauces that take no time at all. Those are the sauce we are going to focus on today.
Barbecue Sauce
At its core, barbecue sauce is a mixture of sugar, vinegar, and ketchup. That’s really it. The flavour of a barbecue sauce is determined by the ratios of those three ingredients, the type of sugar or vinegar used, and the addition of secondary ingredients. So, that raises the big questions…
How much of each ingredient do I use?
How do I know what sugar or vinegar to use?
How will I know if it tastes good?
What else should I add?
Here’s the thing, and I’m going to try to answer each of these questions in the most honest and thoughtful way I can.
How much of each ingredient do I use? It doesn’t matter at all.
How do I know what sugar or vinegar to use? It doesn’t matter, use whatever you want.
How will I know if it tastes good? Taste it.
What else should I add? Whatever you want including but not limited to onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, soy sauce, liquid smoke, etc.
Okay, maybe those weren’t the most helpful answers but they are accurate. The ratio of ingredients is 100% based on personal preference. If you like a sweet sauce, add more sugar than vinegar. Like a more acidic sauce? Add more vinegar than sugar. Like a balanced sauce? Add about the same amount of vinegar and sugar. The ketchup mostly controls the consistency of the sauce. Like a thinner sauce? Add less ketchup. Like it a bit thicker? Add more.
When it comes to what sugar or vinegar to use it again comes down to personal preference. For sugar, you can use white sugar, brown sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, or any other sweetener you can think of, or even a combination of two or more. And yes, whatever sweetener your thinking of that I didn’t mention, you can use it. Vinegar is that same thing. White vinegar, wine vinegar, cider vinegar, malt vinegar, whatever you want to use, use it. Whatever you like, use it. It’s that simple.
If you mix sugar, vinegar, and ketchup, and it doesn’t taste good you have seriously effed up. There are only two things that could happen. You either added too much or not enough of one ingredient or the other. If it’s too acidic, add more sugar. If it’s too sweet, add more vinegar. If it’s too thick, add a bit of water, or a bit more vinegar and sugar. If it’s too thin, add a bit more ketchup. Also, a little tip, if tastes good when you make it, it’s going to taste good when it’s cooked on to ribs or chicken.
In terms of what else to add to your barbecue sauce, I can’t give you specifics of what to add or when or why. What I can say is I usually find it better to add powdered onions, garlic, and ginger rather than fresh. Other than that it comes down to personal preference and trial and error. Just always start with little additions of things and add more are you go.
Pan Sauce
Let’s start with what’s a pan sauce?
Imagine you just cooked a steak in a frying pan. You take the steak out of the pan, and there are all these bits of meat, salt, and pepper stuck to the bottom of the pan. You drain off the excess oil that has accumulated and then you add liquid, usually booze of some kind. This liquid lifts all that stuff off the bottom of the pan. You reduce the liquid until it has almost completely evaporated. Then, you add a secondary liquid like beef stock. Not too much, about the same amount as the booze you added. You cook this down until it is almost evaporated. Now you add a sprig of thyme and a few tbsp of heavy cream. You cook that down until the cream is thick. Now, you pour that over your steak.
So, what is a pan sauce? It is a sauce made by using the flavours left in the pan after cooking to flavour the sauce.
I know some of you are thinking that the process I just described seems kind of complicated. But bear in mind that the whole process takes about three minutes depending on the temperature of your pan.
It is typical to use booze of some kind to deglaze the pan but stock works just as well. Deglazing is adding a liquid into a hot pan to lift up anything stuck to the surface of the pan. Now, what booze you choose depends on the dish. It’s most typical to use wine. For steak red wine would be more common, and for fish or chicken white wine would be more common. But you can also use brandy, whiskey, port, or anything like that. That just comes down to personal taste really.
The secondary liquid should generally be stock, which is just flavoured water. If you are cooking beef, use beef stock. Chicken equals chicken stock. Now, if you are making pork or fish and can’t find their respective stocks, use chicken stock. I prefer homemade stock, but there are good quality store stocks out there that won’t cost you much and are perfectly fine to use.
In the example I used above I added cream to the sauce. I did this for two reasons. The cream helps to thicken the sauce and it enriches the flavour. If you wanted to you could add cornstarch or a roux to thicken it. Alternatively, once the liquids are reduced, you can remove the pan from the heat and whisk in a few tbsp of cold butter. This will thicken and enrich the sauce as well. I prefer to use butter or cream for pan sauces over cornstarch or a roux because they are quicker, and because the batches are so small.
You can also add, chopped shallots, or onions, a bit of garlic, fresh herbs, a bit of lemon juice. It comes down to the flavour you want, the item you are making the sauce for and your personal preference. But, the technique remains the same.
This technique is important to know because it is so versatile. You’ve probably already done something similar to this when making gravy at Thanksgiving or Christmas and not even realized it. But whether it’s beef, pork, chicken, fish, or whatever you can make a very delicious sauce, very quickly, and with only a few ingredients.
Sauces are an important part of cooking and eating. They add colour, flavour, and diversity to a plate. Knowing how to make a delicious sauce can make an okay meal great. The thing is that the assumption a lot of people make about sauces is that have to be complicated. Yes, there are lots of sauces that are complicated but, we are going to focus on sauces that are complex only in flavour. Today, we are going to look at five simple sauces that will change your life.
1. Compound Butters
A compound butter is a butter that is mixed with flavourings. Often items like garlic, fresh herbs, spices, anchovies, and even brandy are added to the butter to add flavour. Compound butter is fantastic used in place regular butter served with bread. But more importantly, they work very well as a sauce. A few pieces of compound butter on a steak or a piece of fish right before you serve it can make for a light flavorful sauce. You can also use compound butter to flavour mashed potatoes, or pretty much anything.
Another great aspect of a compound butter is that it can be frozen. It will last for a few months in the freezer and when you need it, it’s there.
There are some classic compound butter recipes such as Beurre Maître d’Hôtel which is butter mixed with salt, pepper, parsley, and lemon juice. And then there are more interesting preparations like the ones found in this Saveur article.
To make a compound butter, 1 lb of butter come to room temperature and then mix in whatever flavourings you would like. Then spread out a long sheet of parchment or plastic wrap. Evenly distribute the butter in a long line on the parchment or plastic wrap. The idea is that you want to make a butter snake. Now wrap it and pull it as tightly as you can. If you are using plastic wrap twist the ends tight to tighten the butter snake. If using parchment tie with butchers twine. Now, put the butter in the fridge or freezer. When you are ready to use it, cut a few pieces off with a hot knife and let them warm up before adding to food.
2. Pan Sauce
Let’s say you just seared a steak in a pan. You take the steak out to let it rest but what do you do with pan and everything in it? Well, you could dump it out, wash the pan and be done with it, or…you could make a pan sauce.
A pan sauce is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It is a sauce that is made in a pan. The idea is that the bits of meat or food that are left over on the bottom of the pan go into flavouring the sauce rather than just being dumped down the drain.
Most pan sauces start by first discarding any excess oil that has accumulated in the pan. We don’t want a greasy sauce. The next step is to add a liquid. This would preferably be an alcohol like wine, or brandy. It could also be stock or water. This initial liquid is used to lift all the bits of food off of the bottom of the pan. The liquid is then reduced down to concentrate the flavour and then often a secondary liquid will be added. This secondary liquid could be cream, demiglace, coconut milk, or stock if the initial liquid was alcohol. This secondary liquid would also be reduced to concentrate the flavour and thicken the sauce.
Other flavourings like minced onion, shallot, or garlic may also be added to the sauce. These items would be added and cooked prior to the addition of that first liquid. Fresh herbs can also be added either whole or minced but would usually be added nearer the end of the cooking process.
The last thing that almost always goes into a pan sauce is butter. The butter enriches the flavour of the sauce. It gives the sauce a smooth silky texture and a nice shine. The butter is added to the sauce and whisked in so that it doesn’t just sit on top of the surface.
Let’s go back to the steak example.
You just finished searing a steak and removed it from the pan. Dump all the excess oil into a tin can or something that isn’t going to melt or break from the heat. Add 1 tbsp of minced onion, and 1 tsp of minced garlic. Sautee this for a minute or two until the onion is pretty much cooked. You don’t want to brown these you just want them translucent. Now add 1/4 cup of white wine. Cook the wine until about half of it has evaporated. Now add 1/4 cup of beef stock and cook that until half of it has evaporated. With the beef stock add 2 sprigs of thyme or 1 sprig of rosemary. Once the stock has reduced add 2 tbsp of whipping cream and bring it to a boil. Cook the sauce until it begins to thicken. Now add 1 tbsp of butter, remove the pan from the heat, and whisk until all the butter is melted and incorporated into the sauce. Pour the sauce over your steaks and enjoy.
3. Sauce Vierge
Traditionally Sauce Vierge which means virgin sauce (because it’s not cooked) is made of olive oil, tomatoes, basil, and lemon juice. It may seem Italian but it’s actually French.
This incredibly simple sauce goes exceptionally well on fish or chicken. Other herbs may be substituted for the basil or used in addition to the basil. Other acids like flavoured vinegar may also be added to suit your tastes and needs.
There really isn’t much more I can sauce about this sauce. It doesn’t really get much more simplistic than this, or more delicious.
4. Vinaigrette
I’ve talked about vinaigrettes a lot in different posts. Usually, I’m talking about them in terms of salad dressing. But, this basic sauce goes very well on fish. The right vinaigrette can also work on beef, pork, chicken, duck, or lamb.
Master the technique and you can use it everywhere.
The ratio of oil to vinegar is 3:1. Use mustard, either as a powder or prepared to bind the oil and the vinegar. Use honey, maple syrup or whatever else to sweeten and stabilize the sauce. And mix everything but the oil together and then slowly whisk in the oil.
Vinaigrette works in so many places. Master it.
5. Chimichurri
Chimichurri is similar to Sauce Vierge but more complex in flavour. It originates in South America and uses local ingredients to pack a big punch of flavour into every bite. Typically consisting of parsley, cilantro, oregano, garlic, chillies, olive oil, and vinegar. Some variations contain tomato and some have a much higher portion fo chillies to make it much spicier.
This sauce goes exceptionally well with steak but also works with fish, chicken, or pork. It can also be mixed with mayonnaise to make a kick-ass sandwich spread. Though untraditional, it is one of my favourite taco condiments as well.
Chimichurri pretty much tastes how you would expect summer to taste, especially when combined with grilled steak.
Master these five sauce and you will be set for life. They are all so versatile and useful that you will never run out of things to sauce.
I have never met anyone who didn’t like pasta. There are so many different shapes and so many different sauces; it would be impossible not to find something you could love. The problem is that it’s easy to get stuck just making the same pasta sauce over and over again. The thing is, with so much variety out there, there’s no need to get stuck in a repeating cycle. Below is a list of 5 pasta sauces you need to master. Some you may have heard of. Some you might not of.
All of the pasta sauces on the list have around five ingredients, and they take very little time to put together. So, let’s get into it.
Here are…
5 Pasta Sauces You Need To Master
Tomato (Marinara)
There are few things in the world of gastronomy that are as perfect as a classic tomato sauce. Tomatoes, onion, olive oil, salt & pepper, sugar, and basil combine to make something so simple, so unassuming, and so delicious that it boggles the mind.
So how do you make it? Start by dicing an onion. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a medium pot and add the onion to it. You don’t want the heat to be too high, a medium temperature will be fine. The idea here is that you want to cook the onions until they are slightly caramelized. It’s going to take about ten minutes and you will have to stir them every few minutes or so.
While the onions are cooking open a can of whole tomatoes. If you can get San Marzano Tomatoes, which are imported from Italy, that would be best. Open the can, pour the tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with your hand. You don’t need to completely puree them but you don’t want any big chunks either.
Once the onions are slightly caramelized add the tomatoes and a bit of salt and pepper. Heat the tomatoes, give the sauce a taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and sugar as needed. You don’t want the sauce to be sweet. That’s not what the sugar is for. The sugar is there to take some of the acidity out of the tomatoes. The more you caramelize your onions, the less sugar you may need. Also, the tartness of the tomatoes depends on what time of year they were harvested. If it was sunny that day. How much water they had. So, don’t just blindly add sugar. Taste and then add only as needed.
After the sauce is seasoned, simmer it for ten minutes and then take it off the heat. Chop up one to two tablespoons of fresh basil and add it to the sauce. From here you can puree the sauce or just leave it as is.
This sauce is great to have with a stuffed pasta like ravioli, or tortellini. It’s great to use in the layers of a lasagna. It’s fantastic in a seafood linguine with a bit of white wine and chilli. Or it’s great just on its own over spaghetti with parmesan. There is so much you can do with such a simple sauce that you need to master this one A.S.A.P.
Pesto
Pesto is one of those sauces that people often buy at the grocery store because they don’t know how easy it is to make. The ingredients are fresh basil, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and salt. That’s it. Take all of these ingredients, but them in a blender and you have pesto. Honestly, that’s it.
If you want to store the pesto for a week or two in the fridge, blanch the basil by dropping it in boiling water for thirty seconds and then into ice water to cool it. Dry the basil off as best you can with paper towels before adding it to the other ingredients. This blanching will help the basil retain its green colour and will prevent your pesto from going black as it sits.
If you have one big bunch of basil, use two cloves of garlic, a quarter to a half cup of good olive oil, two to three tablespoons of parmesan cheese, one to two tablespoons of pine nuts, and a good pinch of salt. Puree this, add more oil if needed and it’s good to go.
The pinenuts freak people out because they are really, really expensive. Luckily, you can buy them from the bulk section. So, only get the amount you need. If all you need is two tablespoons only buy that much.
This sauce, like the tomato sauce, is very versatile and goes well with so many things. Have with pasta. Toss it with sausages and roasted peppers. You can add it to mayonnaise to jazz up your sandwiches. It’s so good and quick to make.
Aglio e olio
Pronounced Ag-li-ol-ee-o this sauce is made of three ingredients. Olive oil, garlic, and chilli flakes.
Heat a generous amount of olive oil (three to four tablespoons) over medium heat, slice two cloves of garlic as thin as you can and add that to the oil. Cook until the garlic softens. You may need to turn the heat down if the garlic starts to colour. After four or five minutes add half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes. Toss cooked spaghetti into the sauce and season with salt and pepper as needed.
This is one of those unassuming sauces. Big flavours out of very little.
Brown Butter
Brown butter is butter that is cooked just until the milk solids begin to caramelized or brown. To the browned butter you can add chopped herbs like rosemary and thyme. You can add lemon juice, capers, and olives. Or the most classic pairing of all, brown butter and sage. This sauce goes really well with fish or seafood. And the sage and brown butter go really well with pasta stuffed with squash. So good.
To make brown butter put a quarter cup of butter in a pan at heat over medium. The butter will melt and then it will start to foam, you will notice after a few minutes brown bits around the edges of the pan. Swirl the butter and watch closely because the butter will brown quickly at this point. There is a fine line between brown butter and burnt butter, and you don’t want to cross it. The colour should be a caramel brown and it should smell nutty.
Once the butter has browned you need to shock by adding something cold like lemon juice, a touch of wine, or even some capers or olives. You want to drop the temperature of the butter as quickly as possible to prevent it from burning.
Now, pour it over haddock, or salmon, or toss it some squash stuffed pasta.
Carbonara
Classic Carbonara is an egg, some bacon (traditionally guanciale which is jowl bacon), parmesan, and pepper. That’s it.
Put one egg in a bowl and add two to three tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Whisk this egg and cheese mixture together. Add the hot bacon and hot linguine. Stir until the pasta is completely coated and the sauce thickens.
The heat from the bacon and the pasta cooks the egg as the parmesan melts it creates a creamy sauce.
You can also add a small handful of chopped parsley to finish it.
This is a dish that only takes as long to cook as it takes to make some bacon and some pasta. It is one of those dishes that confuses people with its simplicity. People try to overcomplicate this dish and make it much more difficult than it is. It is perfect just the way it is. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.
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Clarified Butter
The procedure for making hollandaise is honestly as basic as it can get. Literally, all you have to do is mix the acid with the egg yolks and then slowly heat the mixture in a double boiler. A double boiler is just a bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. It’s important that the bowl not touch the water.
surface for a second. Now, it’s time to add the butter.
Once you get your sauce to the desired consistency, taste it, season it with salt and pepper, and cover it with plastic wrap until you are ready to use it. Ideally, you want to use the sauce right away. It can be held at room temperature, covered for about an hour. After that though, it isn’t really safe to eat. It isn’t something you want to put in the fridge and use over a couple of days either. It doesn’t hold well and it certainly doesn’t reheat well. I suggest making only what you are going to use right away.
your hand. You don’t need to completely puree them but you don’t want any big chunks either.
Pesto