Gourmet Sauces at Home

I personally love making quick pan sauces with whatever ingredients I can find in my refrigerator that day. Here are a few tricks when it comes to making sauces:

A great sauce could potentially take days to make: roast the bones, soak them in water with vegetables, simmer down…thicken up… The steps are endless to make a great sauce. I personally love making quick pan sauces with whatever ingredients I can find in my refrigerator that day.  Often, I take the brown bits from my chicken (French culinary word is fond) and deglaze with some white wine, a little mustard, and some cream. This does NOT take days, in fact it takes just about 5-10 minutes. And with that, Monday night’s dinner just became life changing. Here are a few tricks when it comes to making sauces:

Become a Sauce Maker

—Use large sauté pans. The wider the pan is, the more surface area for the liquid. The more surface area for the liquid, the quicker it’ll reduce. When broth and other liquids reduce, the additional water in the liquid is actually evaporating leaving only the flavor in the pan.  Thus, an amazing sauce.

—Play with your jelly. I love creating sauces with jellies and marmalades. Jellies are great because you can always store them in your refrigerator, there is already sweetness in the concoction, and the gelatin helps to thicken it up. Here’s what you need to do: add fresh fruit and a few spoonfuls of your favorite jelly to a large saute pan. Bring to a boil, (the fruit will break down), and let the sauce thicken up.

• Blueberries with orange marmalade is a perfect sauce served over homemade blintzes.
• Red wine, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberry jelly is amazing with dark chocolate smeared over toast.

—Fresh herbs elevate any sauce. I love using fresh herbs. They help make simple dishes seasonal, they help complement any protein, and they can be added to a few simple ingredients and transform your meal into something gourmet.

I love playing with fresh thyme. If you start off with chicken stock, add some fresh thyme, and add one of the following: cream, Dijon mustard, paprika, or lemon. With this, you have a great sauce.

—Never throw away your cooking liquid. Whether you are slow braising you beef, or roasting a chicken and have some cooking liquid leftover, save it. Use it as a base for your sauces: sauté your veggies in it – this makes for an amazing sauce. Even if you aren’t using it the day you are serving the chicken, store in an air tight container and save for the next time you need an instant flavor boost.

—Know your thickening options. If you don’t have time to let your sauces reduce (you want it to coat the back of your spoon), you can always cheat and thicken up your sauces with a slurry or a roux.

A slurry is a cool water and cornstarch combination. You simply add cornstarch with a cup of water and slowly add water in the cup, whisk together with a fork. Stir your sauce and slowly add a little of the slurry at a time. It doesn’t take much to thicken it up so slowly add a little at a time.

A roux is equal parts fat and flour. Melt butter in a sauté, once it’s melted, sprinkle your flour over top and continue cooking. You want it to become a loose paste consistency. Next whisk a little roux in your sauce at a time until it’s thickened up.

Here’s a link to one of my SUPER simple favorites – a Horseradish Dipping Sauce as pictured above.