Oh my god, I didn’t know Sal’s was still open :eek: next trip up I am going to have to go!
I make a marinade/dipping sauce that is vaguely japanese:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup mirin
1 large softball sized onion[peel off the papery skin and cut into eighths]
1 hand of ginger, literally about the size of your hand [chop roughly into bite sized pieces]
1 quarter cup dark [chinese] sesame oil
pop all into a good strong blender or food processor, whiz until everything is more or less ground up. Decant the mess into a clean jar, and put in the fridge and shake it every few hours for about 2 days. Filter out the solids and you have a flavored more or less soy sauce that makes a decent marinade, or if mixed with dashi a good dip. I developed it to use with paper chicken. [I am allergic to oyster sauce, and ran across a japanese sauce that combined onion and ginger and wanted to make it in larger amounts. I didn’t want to spend a couple hours grinding the ginger by hand and tossed it into a boyfriends blender and it turned out decently.]
I’d have to say hollandaise is my favorite, mainly because I am flamingly incompetent in the kitchen, and have never managed to make a good one on my own. Therefore, I really really enjoy it when it’s served to me.
Likewise with the “white sauce” or shrimp sauce (it’s actually very light salmon colored) that’s served in Hibachi places. swoon I’ve tried so many times, and never managed to get it right. And the few times I’ve bought bottles of it from groceries, even ethnic groceries, it isn’t quite the same either. LOVE that stuff.
Sauce Bearnaise. It’s like hollandaise, except the flavorings are vinegar, wine, tarragon and shallots. It’s crammed with cholesterol, and it’s moaningly good on a filet mignon.
For bottled sauces, I’m currently hooked on Korean kalbi sauce. It’s a bit like teriyaki, but it has the addition of garlic, vinegar and red pepper. It’s meant to go on Korean-style short ribs, but it’s good on just about any grilled meat or poultry.
A good, all purpose BBQ/dipping sauce with just a bit of heat on the tongue. I tend to make big batches of this and then use whatever is handy to add some warmth to smaller bottles of sauce. A little scotch bonnet pepper and some pineapple jelly mixed in is wonderful on roasted pork shoulder.
4 cups ketchup
3 cups molasses
2 cups honey
1 small jar chopped garlic (4.5 ounces)
1/4 cup whole black peppercorns
1/4 cup crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce
apple cider vinegar
Pour ketchup, molasses, honey and worcestershire into empty one-gallon jug. Put peppers and about a quart of the the vinegar into a blender and blend until the peppercorns have been cracked by the blades. I prefer to leave the garlic somewhat chunky so I add it directly to the jug but if you choose to blend it with the peppercorns then the sauce will work better with a squeeze bottle. Add the garlic and pepper/vinegar blend to the jug, seal it and shake well to combine. Fill the jug the rest of the way with vinegar and shake. Allow to rest in the refrigerator for a few days before use to let the flavors mature.
Hm well we are headed up to visit Mom next week, so I can take one for the team and make a quick tour of Sal’s, check to see if Country Sweet is still open anywhere and pick up a ribeye sandwich for a quick quality check…
Vodka sauce. There are several brands ranging from store brands to Emeril’s, and other bottles costing $8 and up, but the best I’ve had is the sauce I made myself, with vodka simmered for half an hour in the tomato and a touch of cream added at the end.
I’ve had a terrible craving for Sal’s Birdland sauce, there’s a shop here that stocks it, but I may just buy Boss Sauce. I live a couple miles from the Dinosaur BBQ and love their ribs, but I don’t care for the sauce used plain out of the bottle. It’s good on grilled meat, but it’s too lemony and thin. Wegmans has some EXCELLENT store brand sauces - Memphis BBQ, Kansas City BBQ, Tropical BBQ, and others…years ago they made the most wonderful marinade called ‘Savory’, intensely powerful for marinating big chunks of beef. Wish they still had it, the whole house smelled divine in the winter, cooking pot roast.
McDonald’s Sweet & Sour sauce. Wish they bottled this.
The brown sauce you get when your order dumplings at a Chinese restaurant. I don’t know what it is called but think it has ginger, maybe, and I love it. Unfortunately you only seem to get with dumplings but when I have it, I pour it on Fried Rice and, my favorite, is to bite the end off an egg roll and pour the sauce inside. Yum.
Brown a half pound of Italian sausage in a big skillet. Sweep it to the side of the pan and add a diced onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Add olive oil if the sausage didn’t render enough fat. Hell, add olive oil anyway. Dice 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes from the garden and add to the pan. Stir it all together and cook until the onions are soft and the tomatoes have started to collapse and release their juice. Season with salt and red pepper flakes. Pour in some cream or half & half, let it reduce slightly.
Toss with cooked pasta and grate parmesan over the top.
Pesto!!! Ok, don’t know if it’s really a “sauce” but I love it on pasta and mozzarella, tomato and avocado sandwiches.
fresh basil leaves;
olive oil;
pinnoli (sp?) (pine) nuts – although they kill my budget so I often use walnuts or pistachios instead;
parmesean (sp?) cheese;
whirl them around in the food processor
yum!
