Simple Food: 4 Steps to Make a Good Sauce

Monday, 15 July 2013

4 Steps to Make a Good Sauce

How to Make a Good Sauce

When I first started cooking seriously quite a few years ago I decided to progress from Spaghetti Bolognese, Chilli Con Carne and all the other concoctions that we in the UK used to cook quite badly in the 70s and 80s. Not that I don’t cook them now, I just cook them properly with care and attention and with a lot more knowledge.

I remember about 10 years ago the current Mrs Rose at that time said to me “Tony I love your cooking but you really need to get a grip with your sauces they are not the best”. That was when I decided to “get a grip” with my sauce skills, and now that I have I am going to share it with you.

I always make a sauce in 4 stages

The solids IE mushroom, onion, chillies, herbs and spices etc.
The thickener IE plain flour, corn flour etc.
The wine, water or stock
The cream, milk or more water or stock

That goes for gravy as well, because after all gravy is a sauce.

Some people complain about lumps in their sauce, there is only one reason for that; too much liquid at the beginning.

I perfected the art of sauce making purely because I am in the main a wet food man, rarely do I eat food without a cold or hot sauce, burgers and bacon sandwiches with ketchup, fish with white wine sauce and so on.

Let me take you through the process of one of my all time favourite sauces White Wine Garlic and Fennel Sauce.

I invented this sauce to go with one of my favourite types of fish River Cobbler I love fennel and I think that it compliments fish very well.

First of all take the solids; Fennel seeds (crushed to release the flavour) parsley and garlic, fry them for a few minutes in a little olive oil.

Then add 1½ desert spoons of plain flour and make a paste.

Then add about 50ml of white wine and mix to a paste.

Then add cream and mix well.

All this is happening on a medium heat and at this point you need to be tasting and seasoning and also adding stock or water to adjust the thickness to your preference.

That’s it, it’s done, there is nothing complicated about making a sauce.

Here are some more sauces that you can try;