If you’ve ever struggled to bring a meal together or add more flavor, then what you need is simple: you need a sauce. Be it a gravy or a vinaigrette, salsa or mole, marinara or curry, a sauce can take a plate of food from from dull to delicious, from meh to mouth-watering, from so-so to sublime. And if you don’t know where to get started with saucing, The Essential Homemade Sauces Cookbook can help you find your way.
Witten to take you on a journey from easy sauces to more complex ones, the cookbook starts with a quick introduction to the mother sauces as well as ingredients and equipment you’ll need to get started saucing with confidence. And if that’s not enough, there’s a quick reference chart that you can refer to, to know which sauces go best with different proteins. Then chef/author Mark Driskill takes you on a journey through all the sauces, with recipes to help you bring it all together.
The first chapter on the sauces starts with Vegetable and Herb Sauces and Vinaigrettes. There are classic vinaigrettes like a Classic Red Wine or Lemon Ginger. And then there is the Tuna Nicoise Salad or Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Toasted Walnuts and Sorghum Sherry Vinaigrette to bring it all together. There is a Classic Fresh Tomato Salsa and a Charred Corn and Poblano Salsa. There is a Classic Pesto and a Chimichurri. And of course a Classic Marinara or Vodka Saice, along with a recipe for Spaghetti Puttanesca with Clams and Herbed Bread Crumbs.
But then you move on to the second chapter, Butter, Cream, Pan Sauces, and Gravies. Gravies! This chapter starts with a Classic Beurre Blanc and a Garlic Butter Sauce before moving on to the Classic Bechamel, Best-Ever Cheese Sauce, and Cajun Alfredo Sauce. You can make a Classic Brown Gravy oruse the recipes for an Herb Roasted Chicken with Giblet Gravy or Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits with Sawmill Gravy. I could stop there and be the happiest of campers, but Driskill keeps going.
There is a Classic Mayonnaise, Remoulade, and Lemon-Dill Mayonnaise. Then it’s on to Hollandaise, where you can learn to make a Smoked Salmon Benedict over Whole-Wheat Sourdough with Mousseline and Pan-Seared Flounder with Noisette.
And then, it’s time to get to the Spicy, Tangy, and Sweet Sauces. You can make your own BBQ sauces, like a Sweet-and-Spicy BBQ Sauce or a Carolina-Style BBQ Sauce, or even a South Carolina-Style Mustard BBQ Sauce. There is a Classic Indian Curry, a Classic Thai Curry, and a Classic Vietnamese Curry. Or you can stir-fry with a Sesame Ginger Sauce , Brown Sugar and Black Pepper Sauce, or Garlic Chili Sauce. You can learn a Mole Nego (black), Mole Amarillo (yellow), or Mole Rojo (red). Or you can go straight for dessert with a Strawberry Rose Syrup, Espresso Chocolate Sauce, or Salted Caramel Sauce.
With options like these, no one will be able to call your cooking dull, flavorless, or boring again! The Essential Homemade Sauces Cookbook can add the finishing touch to your dishes to elevate them to the next level.
A copy of The Essential Homemade Sauces Cookbook was provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.