11 March 2020

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.

23 comments:

  1. This sounds very interesting and I must go back and read more, but I wanted to say that I cannot see any of the pictures. They are all just black space and when I click on it I see this:

    403. That’s an error.

    Your client does not have permission to get URL /-paCgxh9UFNE/XmhxWdf6htI/AAAAAAAA56k/VgPSCrqbupkxwy0WLxjTjzMV05mIpUvUgCEwYBhgLMLXlofMF/s1600/DSC00044a.jpg from this server. (Client IP address: 76.189.175.207)

    Forbidden That’s all we know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The photos are showing up fine on my computers and tablets. Mystery...

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    2. I take that back. The photos are showing up fine on my Windows computers, and Walt's, but not on my Android tablets. Let's see what other people see when they open the blog.

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    3. The pictures just suddenly popped up on my tablets. Hope they appeared on your screen too.

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  2. Pictures are not visible, Ken.

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  3. Can't see them either, Ken. Not on Windows laptop, nor on Android phone.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think Blogger is working on the server. On my Android tablets, the photos came in after a moment of hesitation. I hope it all starts working normally soon. Thanks for telling me about your experience.

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  5. No images on my end, either, Ken (Mac desktop, Chrome browser and Safari browser).

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    Replies
    1. Oh well. I'm not sure what Blogger is doing, or whether the server my blog happens to live on is having a lot of trouble. I hope they have redundant systems.

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  6. No pictures on my iPad but the narrative sounds delicious and what a good tip about making the sauce first.

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    Replies
    1. Hope the pictures have suddenly appeared by now.

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  7. Maybe the pictures will appear tomorrow. I need to make a banquette asap.

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    Replies
    1. I had some trouble seeing my blog photos on Android (a Google product) this morning, but then they suddenly appeared. No problem on Windows. Once the photos are downloaded into the OS's cache, they remain available, so it is hard to know if they are still available for today's first-time downloaders. As you say, maybe tomorrow.

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    2. But what about the disappearing comments?


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    3. I don't have all the answers. Blogger is free software, and you get what you pay for. Until now, and for nearly 15 years, it has worked very well, considering. Blogs are the dinosaurs of the social media world. Nothing lasts forever, as someone once said. À demain...

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  8. Nothing sticks after BettyAnn?

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  9. Ou sont les photos de Ken? Desktop, Firefox browser.

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    Replies
    1. On ne sait pas. Peut-être que nous les verrons demain. Moi non plus, je ne les vois plus.

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  10. Wonderful! I can now see your photos! It's Thursday, March 12th, 12:19am EDT. Very nice post.

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  11. Your wonderful pictures appeared while I was eating a calorie conscious salad this evening. Suddenly I felt like ordering Thai takeout.

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  12. Photos are visible now on my ipad, but the disappeared comments are still gone. Google may have too many fingers in too many pies. I know Blogger is free, but it is certainly indirectly very profitable for Google. As we say in French, le géant aux pieds d'argile!

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    Replies
    1. Apple products, of course, never have bugs.

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