“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.
How to Make a Maple Ginger Glaze for Salmon This is a great technique for cooking salmon filets that is quick to prepare AFTER you prep all the ingredients. Not that any of the prep work is difficult, it just takes time to peel and mince a bunch of ingredients. For example, zesting an orange […]
One of My Favorite Sauces for Fresh Pasta My friend Geoff is an excellent cook and an even better baker. You may have seen his recipe for The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. He has also shared with me his Apple Pear Cake and Chocolate Cake recipes. He is also a wonderful pasta maker. At least […]
A Delicious Quick & Easy Midweek Sauce for Spaghetti Last night my youngest daughter was at a meeting for young entrepreneurs and my wife had to work late. My oldest daughter was prepping for her SATs with a tutor and I knew she would be hungry when she finished up. I didn’t have anything planned […]
How to Make a Simple Pan Sauce For Pan Fried Chicken Most of us are comfortable with pan-frying a chicken breast or what some people call “saute a chicken breast”, but how many go the extra step to make a simple pan sauce to serve with it? Making a pan sauce is easy to […]
A Simple Sauce for a Unique Pasta For Christmas, my wife gave me the hot, new cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi called Plenty More. It is his follow up to his bestselling, Plenty, and continues to delve into vegetarian cooking. What I really like about this cookbook is that it is organized by cooking methods rather […]
Spaghetti and Meatballs with Fresh Tomato Sauce & Pecorino Cheese My daughters and I prepared spaghetti and meatballs one night a couple of weeks ago when my wife was out for a business dinner. Making both the meatballs and the sauce from scratch in under an hour was a challenge and I’m sure not the […]
Rhubarb Chutney – A Condiment for All Seasons When you think of rhubarb do you think of rhubarb pie? I think of the small farm next to our house where every few years they grew rhubarb and as kids we use to play hide and seek under the big leaves. Every once in a while […]
Veracruz Sauce Recipe for Fish, Chicken or Pork Tenderloin This is an adaptation of another meal we received from Blue Apron and our favorite of the three. You may recall the recipe I posted for 3 – Chili Beef Chili and talked about this new service (to us) called Blue Apron where you receive […]
How to Make a Simple Reduction Sauce A reader wrote to me to say that he cannot make a reduction correctly. He said that it never reaches a saucy consistency unless he uses a slurry or a roux to thicken it. He wants to know if he is missing something. I love reductions and reduction […]
Macaroni Alla Carbonara My friend, Angelina, and her family went on a ten-day trip to Italy this summer so I of course had to pick her brain about the food she ate throughout the vacation. Unsurprisingly, Angelina gushed about the “paste della tradizione romana” (traditional Roman pastas) that she ordered at almost every meal. Angelina […]
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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