A saucy threesome! (Stews & Sauces)

Member Name: calypte

Product:	Stews & Sauces
Date:	21/03/02 (318 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: um... they taste nice?, not too difficult to make

Disadvantages: not as easy as takeaway!

Ye-es, that’s right, ladeez and g-entle-men, not one, not two, but three – Three! – saucy sauces to set your tastebuds a tingle, your lips a smackin’ and your belly a rumblin’!

Ahem. Quite enough of that.

What I’m trying to say is that rather than present you with one sauce, I thought I’d go the whole way and give you the full works – starter, main course and dessert, that is – in a saucy manner.


¤•¤ STARTER ¤•¤

I’m not a big fan of starters, to be honest – three courses is a lot to eat, and I do like my dessert! However, you can’t really go wrong with a bit of salad, and for that you need a dressing. This recipe is my friend Jon’s speciality, so it shall be called:


•JON’S FANTASTIC SALAD DRESSING (that should keep him happy!)
Serves 4-6 (makes about ¾ cup)

•Ingredients:
*balsamic vinegar – half overall required quantity of dressing
*olive oil – Jon recommends using about the same quantity as vinegar, but (probably because I’m female!) I prefer to use only about half that
*¼ teaspoon English mustard powder
*1 clove garlic, well crushed, or use paste
*1 moderately heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard
*1 level teaspoon dried thyme
*1 level teaspoon dried oregano
*pinch of salt
*1-2 teaspoons sugar

Jon demands that you should always look for ‘medino’ balsamic vinegar – otherwise it’s not truly balsamic. Two good inexpensive makes are Aspels (available in Tesco, ½ litre for £3), and Aceto Balsamico (available at Safeway, 250ml for £5). Me being a bit of a cheapskate, I have tried Safeway’s own, and I have to say, it wasn’t bad! :)

It’s best not to use extra virgin olive oil if you’re not intending to use all the dressing immediately, as it tends to go cloudy. That said, the extra v
irgin oil does have a nicer taste for dressings, and I prefer to only make as much as I need rather than trying to store it. It will last at least a few days in the fridge, though.


•Method:
To the balsamic vinegar, add all of the ingredients except the oil. It’s best to do this in a bottle for easy mixing, and for storage. An empty balsamic vinegar bottle is ideal if you have one, and it looks particularly nice.

Mix these ingredients together well – easiest way is just by vigorously shaking the bottle. Now add the oil, and mix again.

This dressing is ‘fantastic’ for jazzing up boring lettuce and other salad leaves, and I also think it tastes great (pardon the pun) with grated carrot.


•Notes:
Once made, you can ‘doctor’ the recipe depending on how it looks:
If the dressing is too thick, add more vinegar.
If the dressing is too thin, add more oil.
If the dressing is too acidic, add more sugar.
If the dressing is separating, use more dry mustard powder.


•Variations:
Following the same basic idea as here (half vinegar, half oil, with added flavourings), different dressings can be made. For example, try white or even red wine vinegar instead of balsamic. A little sesame or other oil (perhaps up to 1 tablespoon) could be substituted for some of the olive oil for a different flavouring, and of course, you can experiment with your favourite herbs.




¤•¤ MAIN COURSE ¤•¤

Ooh, decisions, decisions. What kind of sauce can I tantalise you with? Well, I’ve decided to go for something quick and simple to make, which tastes as though you’ve put in a lot more effort that you really have – perfect!


•CREAMY SPICED CHICKEN
Serves 4 and takes about 50 minutes to make

•Ingredients
*1 tablespoon olive oil
*4 chicken breasts
*284ml carton o
f double cream or Elmlea
*1 tablespoon mustard powder
*1 tablespoon paprika (adds colour rather than much flavour)
*2 teaspoons ground cumin
*1 teaspoon ground coriander
*1 teaspoon garam masala
*4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
*1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
*salt and pepper

When I make this, I tend to use Elmlea instead of cream. For a start it’s not as fattening, but it also keeps unopened in the fridge for literally months. Very handy at times, and it means I can have a carton hanging about to make this on short notice.

I know it seems like there’s a lot of spice in this dish, but trust me – it’s not as overpowering when cooked as you might think, and it stops the dish being a bit bland. Cut down a bit if you prefer, or change the balance of spices. This is another one of those recipes where you can change things as much as you like to suit your own tastes.


•Method:

Unless you’re making the cream sauce in advance, start by preheating the oven to 180ºC, or 160ºC if you have a fan oven (Gas Mark 4).

Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken for about 3 minutes each side. This isn’t absolutely necessary, and if you’re in a rush you can skip this step. However, when I’ve done that, I’ve found that the juices in the chicken aren’t sealed in and have a tendency to ‘split’ the final sauce a bit – it still tastes good, though. Once browned, put the chicken (but not any oil left in the pan) into a casserole dish.

You want to mix the remaining ingredients into the cream, then add a little salt and pepper to taste. Now, a handy little tip: When I make this, it tends to be for just three people. I cut down the quantities slightly, and I pour a little of the Elmlea into a jug to use in my coffee later. This leaves enough room in the Elmlea tub to add the rest of the ingredients to stir – nice and
easy and less washing up!

Once you’ve mixed everything together well (can take quite a bit of stirring!), pour the cream mix over the chicken breasts. Bake for 30-40 minutes in the oven, making sure that the chicken is cooked through. The sauce does tend to go a little ‘browned’ on top, but believe me, it tastes lovely, and the chicken will be lovely and tender. Oh, and I find this is best served with rice.


•Notes:
As I said, this is really one of those recipes you can experiment with, changing the spices to suit your own tastes. If anyone tries this, let me know how you get on, and tell me any interesting variations you come up with!




¤•¤ DESSERT ¤•¤

Now the really difficult decision – what kind of dessert sauce to talk about? Actually, this was the hardest one to think of as, despite my sweet tooth, I rarely actually make pudding from scratch. So… well, what else could I go for apart from the classic choice of a very scrummy chocolate fudge sauce! :)


•HOT CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE
enough for – well, it depends on how piggy you are! Too much for one, better for four :)

•Ingredients:
*150ml milk
*250ml double cream (you didn’t expect a dessert recipe to be low calorie, did you?!)
*50g butter
*225g caster sugar
*150ml golden syrup
*200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces – the higher the cocoa content, the nicer it is


•Method:
Put all the ingredients except for the chocolate into a saucepan and heat slowly over a medium-low temperature until the sugar dissolves.

Being very careful, turn up the heat and bring the mixture to the boil. Keep stirring the whole time. After about 10-15 minutes, the mixture should have turned a deep, caramel colour. TAKE CARE – hot sugar is very dangerous, and can burn easily!

Remove the saucepan from the heat an
d add the chunks of chocolate. Stir it well until the chocolate melts and the whole mixture is smooth.


•Notes:
Yummy! I’ll leave it up to you to decide what chocolate fudge sauce goes best with – ice cream, perhaps, or luscious chocolate brownies, or… oops, better stop before I start drooling here!!



Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my saucy interlude! Thanks for reading and happy cooking :)

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