Do you know that today there are more than 200 recipes for sauces? Plum tkemali, onion subiz, basil pesto, tomato satsebeli, lingonberry cumberland. And of course, bechamel milk sauce ... Each recipe is very interesting. In this article, we will share the secrets of preparing the most delicious liquid seasonings.
What is a sauce?
This is a liquid seasoning for the main dish (from the French word sauce - gravy). From time immemorial, cooks have been making sauces. The recipes of many of them are lost, but it is known that the first appeared in ancient cuisine. The ancient Romans preferred garum - a liquid seasoning of fish and vinegar. Tuna or fat mackerel dried for a couple of months in the sun, then boiled, seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper, olive oil and dry wine.
All sauces whose recipes are used in modern kitchens have a liquid base and filler. The base can be broth (meat, fish, mushroom, vegetable) or milk (sour cream, cream), additional ingredients are egg yolk, vegetables, berries, spices, odorous herbs, as well as wine, chopped nuts, cheese, honey. For thickening, flour or starch is often used.
The French gave the world bechamel sauce
The recipe for this seasoning is very simple. The hostess will need a minimum of products:
- good quality butter - 30-40 grams;
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons with a hill;
- milk - 600 ml;
- nutmeg - half a teaspoon;
- salt and black or white pepper to taste.
Cooking process: in a water bath melt the butter, pour in the flour and mix thoroughly until smooth. Put the dishes on low heat and with continuous stirring, bring the gruel to a creamy shade (but not golden!). It takes about 2-3 minutes. After a thin stream pour milk, not allowing lumps to form. Let the mixture boil, and then cook over low heat until thickened for 30-35 minutes. Strain the finished bechamel sauce, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve with meat, fish and seafood, vegetables, lasagna and moussaka.
Italians prefer pesto
How to cook this sauce? The classic recipe says that this seasoning is obtained by grinding and mixing these ingredients:
- green basil - 1 large bunch;
- garlic - 2 large cloves;
- Italian hard parmesan - 50-70 grams;
- peeled pine nuts - 1 tablespoon.
Italian pesto seasoned with 100 ml of olive oil, half lemon juice and salt to taste. Served with croutons, rice, mashed potatoes, lasagna, spaghetti, meat and fish dishes.
Lingonberry Sauce from Sweden
This seasoning perfectly sets off the taste of meat dishes. It is prepared from such products:
- fresh lingonberry - 0.5 kg;
- water - 1 liter;
- red fortified wine - 100 ml (port is perfect);
- potato or corn starch - 1 teaspoon with a hill;
- beet sugar - 1 cup with a hill;
- cinnamon - a big pinch.
Rinse the berries, add water, bring to a boil, pour the broth into a separate bowl, and rub the lingonberries through a fine sieve. Combine the resulting slurry with sugar, port and cinnamon, add 150 ml of broth and boil over low heat for 5 minutes. In the remaining liquid, dilute the starch and pour into the berry puree, which is removed from the heat in a minute or two after boiling.
Now we learn how to cook a delicious sour cream sauce. The original seasoning recipe came to us from France.
Tartare - one of the most favorite sauces of French chefs
At the heart of this seasoning is fat sour cream, so tartar is a rather nutritious sauce. It is added to fried and boiled fish, vegetable and meat dishes, cold snacks. Preparing tartare is quite simple, for this you need such products:
- chicken eggs - 4 pieces;
- vegetable oil (preferably sunflower) - 100 grams;
- fat sour cream - 150 grams;
- pickled mushrooms - about 100 grams;
- green onions - 1 bunch;
- mustard - 1 teaspoon;
- pickled cucumber - 1 piece;
- sugar (can be replaced with honey) - 1 teaspoon without a hill;
- lemon - 1 piece;
- salt is a big pinch.
In a bowl, grind the yolks of two boiled eggs and two raw eggs with mustard, pour the vegetable oil into the mixture with a very thin stream with continuous stirring. Finely chop the cucumber, mushrooms, egg whites and green onions and mix with the egg mass, adding sour cream, salt, sugar and the juice of half a lemon.
Be sure to try making this sour cream sauce. The recipe, as you can see, is simple, but the result will exceed all your expectations. Tartar is suitable for both a regular dinner and a festive table.
Mushroom cream sauce: a recipe from the Russian outback
Takm in Russia seasoned porridge, boiled potatoes and meat. Also, this sauce is great for rice, pasta, salad dressing from fresh vegetables.
The hostess will need:
- dried mushrooms - 70 grams (about 400 g of fresh mushrooms);
- onion - 1 large head;
- water - 700 ml;
- garlic - 2 large cloves;
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons with a hill;
- vegetable oil - 50 grams;
- homemade cream - 3/4 cup (about 150 ml);
- butter - 50 grams;
- salt and black pepper to taste.
Prepare the mushrooms (pre-soak dry for 40 minutes), cut and cook. In vegetable oil, brown the chopped onions and garlic, add the butter, add the flour in small portions with continuous stirring and fry until golden. Cool the prepared mushroom broth and mix with the flour frying. Simmer for 10 minutes over low heat, add salt and black pepper and cream. Leave the sauce on the stove for another 3 minutes.
Tkemali sauce from sunny Georgia
All sauces, the recipes of which are given above, have a pleasant original taste. But Georgians prefer to season the meat and side dishes with hot-sour tkemali. Prepare it from:
- sour yellow cherry plum (plum) - 1 kg;
- red hot pepper - 1 pod;
- garlic - a large head;
- fresh herbs - a small bunch of dill and cilantro;
- salt - 3 teaspoons with a slide.
Wash the cherry plum, separate the flesh from the seeds, completely pour water, add greens, salt and cook for 7-10 minutes. Drain the water into a separate bowl, discard the greens, and rub the cherry plum through a sieve. Add crushed pepper and garlic to the plum puree, mix thoroughly. Put on fire and boil for an hour until the consistency of thick sour cream, if necessary adding plum broth.
Tkemali goes well with barbecue.
Greek tzatziki sauce
We bring to your attention another creamy sauce, the recipe of which was presented to the world by the Greeks. It is served with meat and vegetables. Making tzatziki is very simple: mix 500 ml of natural yogurt with two tablespoons of cream, add finely chopped fresh cucumber, 2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced in a mortar and an incomplete tablespoon of salt.
What other sauces are there? The most famous recipes you already know. For a change we suggest you cook guacamole. This is a spicy condiment for original Mexican dishes. The taste of the sauce is very unusual.
Guacamole from Mexico
For a classic Mexican sauce you will need these products:
- avocado - 2 pieces;
- tomato - 1 pc.;
- hot red pepper - 1 large pod;
- lime juice - 2 tablespoons;
- finely chopped cilantro - 1 full tablespoon;
- onions - half the head;
- salt is an incomplete teaspoon.
Mash the avocado pulp thoroughly with a fork, pour lime juice, combine with finely chopped onions, pepper and tomato, salt and mix.
The seasoning is more like an appetizer, although the Mexican word “guacamole” literally means “avocado sauce”.
As you can see, it’s easy to make original homemade sauces. The recipes presented in the article are classic. You can show imagination and diversify them to your liking. Bon Appetit!