“It is the sauce that distinguishes a good chef. The Saucier is a soloist in the orchestra of a great kitchen.” – Fernand Point
So true! You can saute a chicken breast to perfection and make a great meal, but if you know how to make simple pan sauces, you can prepare a hundred different meals. Furthermore, you are going to find every cuisine has it’s own style of sauces, some similar, some completely different.
For example, Italian sauces for pasta like a Genovese sauce are much different from classic French sauces like a demi glace sauce. A simple soy ginger sauce for Chinese dumplings looks and tastes different from an Indian curry sauce. Even barbecue sauces can be different depending on where you live.
So here are some of my favorite sauces from various cuisines that you can enjoy with your favorite meals.
Mustard and Thyme Red Wine Pan Sauce This sauce is easy to make and don’t take that much time and the quick recipe cuts down the time even more. In a restaurant, they would have on hand demi-glace or a reduced brown sauce to make these sauces but most of us don’t have the time […]
If you want a great recipe to serve your vegetarian friends, look no further. Creating a meal for some vegetarian friends allowed me the opportunity to try Veggie-Glace Gold (meatless Demi-Glace). I have written about some of their other products in the past and was excited about trying to create a tasty au poivre sauce […]
A Classic Chicken Marsala Recipe Chicken Marsala is one of my all time favorite recipes. There is something about the sweetness of the Marsala wine that gives this dish a wonderful flavor. The cooking technique for making chicken Marsala is similar to chicken piccata, pan fry the chicken breasts, deglaze the pan with wine and […]
How to Classic French Sauces at Home How many of you while dining out have been served an incredible sauce, only to wish you could duplicate it at home? I often want to ask the chef (and sometimes do) what’s in his sauce and how did he make it. This section of The Reluctant Gourmet […]
Two Types of Remoulade Although remoulade was invented in France, I always think of it as Danish because when I was a kid, my Danish mom always had a tube of it from Denmark for making smørrebrød – a delicious open-faced sandwich made with a variety of ingredients. It is also used for fish meatballs […]
Tomatillo Salsa When I think of salsa, I think of fresh tomato salsa with chunks of red tomato and bell peppers. Salsa is Spanish for “sauce” so there are many different types of salsa to enjoy. Recently I showed you how I prepared a Chipotle salsa and now I want to teach you how to […]
What the Heck Is A Chipotle? I just recently learned this but a chipotle is a smoke-dried jalapeño pepper. It comes from the word chilpoctli which means smoked chili pepper. A very popular pepper in Mexico, jalapeños that have been left on their plants at the end of the growing season turn bright red and […]
Barbecue Rib Rubs and Sauces Did you read my post on Barbecue Ribs? It describes some of the different styles of ribs based on location around the country. Some areas use rubs, some sauces, some both. Here I’d like to share with you a few recipe selections for both rubs and sauces that you […]
The Precocious Fruit By contributing food write Chef Mark Vogel What does Alexander the Great, King Henry VIII, the Spanish explorers and the English settlers all have in common? The members of this motley crew each played a role in spreading the apricot around the globe. The apricot probably originated in China, at least […]
Amazing Tomato Sauce Yesterday I posted a recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana by Chef Mark Vogel that would be served with a quick, homemade tomato sauce. Here is Mark’s personal favorite quick and easy tomato sauce that works with his eggplant Parmesan but as a base for lots of recipes. We all have our favorite formulas […]
I'm a work-at-home dad who enjoys cooking, learning everything I can about the culinary world and sharing it with you. To learn more about me... Read More
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