Ok, it was from a jar, but I did at least buy the most expensive of the 4 varieties at my local Publix. Exactly what that variety was, I’ve completely forgotten. I’ll try and wring it out of my braincells.
I don’t care much for traditional red sauces, and I’m trying to be “good” and not use alfredo sauce on all of my pasta, so it seemed like vodka sauce looked like a good compromise.
But I found it to be really bland. We had it for dinner last night on three-cheese tortellini. It seemed a little bit better and more flavorful when I heated some up in the microwave for lunch today, but it was still basically boring. I don’t even want to think of how boring it would have been on a pasta that wasn’t stuffed with cheese.
The chances that I’ll be enterprising enough to make my own sauce from scratch are slim to none, so I’m hoping I just picked the wrong variety to try, and my fellow dopers might nudge my lazy and time-limited self to a better pre-made variety.
If all else fails, I will at least try and muster the wherewithal to attempt a homemade recipe or two, but only if the testimony is sufficiently fanatical.
I really just use vodka sauce when I am sick of regular marinara. But I like it. It really works well with chicken and cheesy stuff like you noted.
My brand of choice is usually Newman’s Own. I find it servicable. Several times I have made the homemade stuff. It’s freaking awesome, and everyone enjoyed it both times I made it.
I can say with certainty that the “Bourbon Chicken” served at Cajun-themed restaurants at mall food courts does not contain any bourbon. I’ve tried recreating that delicious sweet sticky brown sauce at home a few times, and I haven’t gotten it right yet. All I know is adding bourbon makes it taste bad (which is good, since now I have more to drink!).
I think I’ve tried that exact recipe (and a couple other similar ones), and even started a thread in Cafe Society about it. But it’s not right, not the same as the sweet stuff you get at Cajun Grill in the mall food court. For one thing, they use dark meat at the mall, not chicken breasts.
Part of the point of adding vodka is that tomatoes contain certain flavor compounds that can only dissolve in alcohol. Vodka, being a relatively flavorless booze, extracts those flavors without adding much of its own, the way wine does.
(I usually just add wine, since I like it that way, so I couldn’t really pinpoint the difference.)
Fair enough. If it’s not sweet and gooey enough, you might try upping the heat and cooking it a bit longer to allow enough carmelization to take place. You can also brown sugar to taste is a concoction such as this. You may also want to try a spoonful of frozen OJ concentrate, this will add mucho sugar without becoming too cloying, plus it browns nicely.
Otherwise, it’s pretty tough to perfectly replicate resturant foods at home as so many of them contain things we don’t normally have access to (unless we happen to be Wiley Dufresne) such as food additives and odd polymers and such.
Vodka sauce from a can doesn’t really resemble real vodka sauce. It’s not really in the same catagory. Luckly, vodka sauce is one of the easiest sauces to make.
Heat up some olive oil. Cut an onion in half and fry the whole half until it’s a little brown.
Add one big can of good tomato sauces (I use Pomi, which comes in a box).
Add one little box of cream- you know, like those little milk boxes you get at school. But with cream.
Add a handful of chopped parsley.
Add a good amount of good grated parmesean or romano (not green can stuff) cheese
Heat for a while.
Add vodka.
Serve. Everyone will think you are a cooking genius, when it’s really barely harder than heating up a jar of sauce.
A good homemade tomato sauce is incredibly easy. Heat a little oil in a pan, throw in a chopped onion and a little garlic, stir for a minute, put in some chopped tomatoes (a can or two, if you like) and a few other chopped vegies (eg capsicums / peppers, broccoli, zucchini / courgette). Let it cook for a couple of minutes.
That’s all you need, though if you feel adventurous at some later point you can add stuff like wine, vinegar, herbs etc.
Takes 5 minutes to chop the vegies, 5 minutes to cook, takes only about $5 worth of ingredients, and actually has flavour unlike the watery stuff from a jar.
The vodka sauce you buy actually has quite a bit of cream in it, so it may not have much less fat / energy than the al fredo stuff.
Right, good point Sven and apologies to Honeydewgirl for the hijacks. Even if you’re not really comfortable in the kitchen vodka sauce is pretty simple to whip up, and the ingrediants are rather inexpensive as things can go. Give it a whirl, since not too much tastes better than something you whipped up yourself. Just remember to start out with a lower heat and increase as needed to avoid scalding the cream.
And as long as I’m spewing my daft opinions all over the thread, vodka sauce has always been one of those “gets better with age” foods for me, so try making it a day or so in advance to allow it to properly “funk” in the fridge.
In a big saucepan:
I use a can of crushed tomatoes, the big can.
Put in sliced black olives.
Heat it up until it’s warm.
Put in a pinch or two or three off crushed red pepper. Enough to give it a bite.
Put in a half cup of cream.
2 teaspoons of vodka.
stir it up for about a minute, until the color turns pinkish.
I’ve read this too. From my own experiments, it seems like the taste of a tomato sauce with a splash of vodka added is sweeter and more complex. I’ve never made a tomato cream sauce with vodka added; I’ve only added a splash of vodka while cooking a plain red tomato sauce.
Not to mention the Jim Beam crap. I made the mistake of buying a hot sauce ostensibly made with Jim Beam. This seemed like a match made in heaven (or nearest local divine sanctuary available). What it was was the most insipid, musty, vapid, mingey excuse for a sauce I’d ever had. No flavor balance, no FLAVOR really, in fact… Most disappointing.
