La sauce d'abord !

This idea is starting to take shape for me. Make the sauce first. Then cook the meat and vegetables and either add them to the sauce or the sauce to them. I'm finding I get much better results by doing this than I get when I try to cook the main ingredients plus the sauce all at the same time in the same pan.

It works for, say, blanquette de veau (white veal stew), which I make several times a year. First cook the veal (or chicken, turkey, rabbit, lamb) in white wine and water with onions, carrots, herbs, and spices. Take the veal out, strain the broth, and then make a white sauce with the broth and some cream. Taste it. When it's is done to you liking and piping hot, add the veal and some mushrooms and let everything cook together for a few minutes. It's ready.

It's the same with gratin de chou-fleur (cauliflower au gratin) or gratin d'endives au jambon (Belgian endives cooked in cheese sauce). Steam or boil the vegetables until they are tender or at least semi-tender. Make a white sauce (always using some of the meat or vegetable broth to make it, plus some cream) and add a good amount of grated cheese. Keep tasting it to see if it's cheesy enough. When it is, pour it over the cooked vegetables, put the dish in the oven for 20 or 30 minutes, and when it has browned a little it's ready.

What made me think about this is the process of making the stir-fry you see in these photos. It's based on recipes for Mongolian Beef that I've been seeing recently. The first step is to make a sauce. Mix together soy sauce, grated fresh ginger root and garlic, some sweet elements (Hoisin Sauce, for example), more sweetener as you like (sugar, honey), some hot spicy ingredients (hot chili sauce, hot red pepper flakes), and maybe some vinegar or wine for contrast. Cook that sauce down until it's syrupy. Taste it.

When the sauce tastes good, stir-fry some meat (beef, turkey, chicken, shrimp) and then take it out of the pan. Next, stir-fry some onions and bell peppers, or other vegetables until they're tender. Put the cooked meat back in the pan or wok — if you don't have a lot of meat, add some peanuts or cashews to the mix. Then pour the sauce over it all. Stir it, and as soon as it starts bubbling a little, it's ready. Don't forget to make rice or noodles.

This is turkey with onions, sweet peppers, cashews... and sauce.