Wine Making
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Sauces for Quick Gourmet Cooking
   
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A Look At Wine Glass Racks
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Any wine collection is not complete without a collection of wine glasses with which to drink the wine. Wine glass racks can store your stemware easily and elegantly. Not only will a wine glass .....
The saying goes that "The French have a hundred sauces to
disguise a few foods - and the Americans have a hundred foods
disguised only by white sauce!"
It is true that many great gourmet dishes involve a special
sauce, which used to take hours to prepare. For the quick
gourmet chef, there's a way around this:
1. Hollandaise and Barnaise: Both are available in glass jars.
You should be able to find them in your local gourmet shop or
supermarket.
2. Madeira, Armoricaine, Newburg, Supreme, et al: These, too,
are available in jars or frozen, and will transform the humble
hamburger or leftover into a gourmet's dream.
3. Bottled Meat Sauces: Diable, Robert or Cumberland sauce,
Worcestershire, and a wide range of mustards from Devilled to
Bahamian to Dijon. Wash your hands thoroughly, use a judicious
few tablespoons of whatever you fancy, and rub it thoroughly
into chops and steaks. This replaces the marinades which used to
take hours.
4. Dessert Sauces: Be cautious about these! There are lots of
edible varieties - but very few that come up to a gourmet's
standard! . . . as you will see in our gourmet dessert section,
there are innumerable quick tricks with liqueurs and fresh fruit
for presenting gourmet desserts in a minute. (
http://www.easy-gourmet-cooking.com/gourmet-desserts/ )
5. Basting Sauces: Here you begin to be a gourmet chef, for a
basting sauce is largely invention based on experience as you
grow proficient with recipes. Basting sauces are used with fish,
meat and poultry. Generally, they are melted butter blended with
herbs - or spices - or fruit and fruit peels - with or without a
dash of cooking wine. The precise ingredients depend upon the
final flavor desired: tangy, sultry, or sweetish.
The basting sauce should be made at the start of the cooking
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and grow acquainted with itself. A quarter pound of butter makes
an adequate basting sauce; half a pound is sometimes better-if
you can bring yourself to it!
The basic procedure is to combine butter chunks and desired
seasonings or flavorings in a small saucepot (a stainless steel
one-cup measure with a handle is satisfactory), and to obtain
the full savory blend by simmering gently during the first steps
of searing meat or poultry, firming the fish flesh, etc. A
basting sauce is used to moisten and flavor a dish during its
cooking; it is brushed directly onto roasting meat or poultry
with a pastry brush at 10 or 15 minute intervals, or poured over
fish and broiled dishes every 5 minutes for quick cookery.
For long cooking roasts, when the basting sauce has all been
used, a roaster baster will pick up pan juices for moistening
the dish.
6. Wine & Wine Sauces: "The better the wine, the better the
dish" is the gourmet standard ... although it's not necessary to
buy fine vintage drinking wines for use in the kitchen. If you
have good local wine, do use it for cooking.
Never buy cooking wine or liquor purely on a price basis; the
cheap brands do not have sufficient alcoholic content to create
a flambee dish - and will not have enough flavor to remain in
the sauce. White wines can be used for any recipes, but red
wines can only be used for dark meats . . . when they will not
discolor the dish.
At table, the only standard today is flavor, and red or white
wines are served interchangeably. Traditionally, red is for meat
and white is for chicken or fish - but these days, you can do as
you please!
When wine is added directly to a dish during cooking, lower the
heat immediately or the meat will toughen.
7. Fats and Oils: For true gourmet cooking, there is no
substitute for butter unless particularly specified. Sweet
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commercial brands; if salt butter is used, decrease the amount
of salt in a recipe and check seasoning just before you serve.
Butter is absolutely essential for sauces and basting, but
cannot be used for frying; at high temperatures, it decomposes
chemically and burns.
For Deep-Fat Frying, use liquid or hydrogenated oils such as
Crisco. These can be re-used once or twice, if you allow
sediment to settle and decant (pour off) the clear top fat after
each frying. Once frying fat has been used for fish, it cannot
be used for anything else! If you enjoy fried foods, it's wise
to have two fat kettles - one for fish, and one for everything
else.
For all Italian, Spanish or Latin-American dishes, a tablespoon
of olive oil should replace butter in starting the dish.
Lard is excellent for greasing baking potatoes or pan-frying
fish. It cannot be re-used, but is inexpensive enough to discard
and start fresh next time. Bacon grease is equally good for
baking potatoes or to saute fish, and can be smeared thickly
over chicken breasts or squab before roasting. Because of its
positive flavor, only tangy herbs will combine with it for added
taste.
No gourmet cook ever uses margarine for anything.
8. Meat Glazes: For a handsome browned surface to meat or
poultry, mix a tablespoon of commercial gravy coloring with two
table spoons of water. Paint all exposed parts of the poultry or
meat before placing in the oven.
9. Shallots are a small onion bulb resembling garlic in
formation of cloves, but very mild in flavor. Typically French,
they are not always available but make all the difference in a
sauce if they can be had. Minced scallions (spring onions) are
an acceptable substitute - and in moments of stress, a
tablespoon of grated white onion will equal 2 minced shallots.
10. Grated orange and lemon peel are readily available in jars;
a teaspoon equals the grated rind of a whole medium- sized fruit.
11. Garlic can be bought powdered (a quarter teaspon equals a
fresh clove), but a garlic press will produce a much better
flavor from a peeled garlic clove.
Onion and garlic juice are also available; use them purely for
flavoring, as many dishes are better with sauteed pieces of
onion. Onion flakes are good for home-cooking, but not
sufficient for gourmet results.
Good luck with your quick gourmet sauces!
About the author:
If you'd like to prepare wonderful, delicious and stylish dishes
that will delight your family and amaze your friends - without
spending hours struggling in the kitchen with complicated and
potentially disastrous recipes - then our website is for you!
All our recipes can be completed in just 30 minutes and are fun
and easy to prepare. http://www.Easy-Gourmet-Cooking.com