Gravies and cooked sauces

[Deleted]

Do you use them a lot or just to cover up mistakes?

I am not a big sauce user except for bechamel/white sauce on cauliflower.

I also put a lemon butter sauce on grilled scallops.

That's about it -- I don't count barbecue sauce, because the whole point is to burn the sauciness out of it.

[bixaorellana]

I mostly make bechamel as a base for the cheese sauce for macaroni & cheese, or on the very rare occasions I make lasagna. I don't generally sauce vegetables, preferring to "dress" them with olive oil &/or vinegar or lime juice.

I like gravies made from the by-products of roasting meat or fowl, also like to make a quick sauce by de-glazing the pan in which steaks or the like are cooked.

There are some cooked Mexican salsas that I like. They are meant to be put on the table for those who wish to use them.

[hwinpp]

I don't, or very rarely. Usually only if we're having roast pork or beef, then I'll make a brownish sauce from the reduced drippings.
My GF (I'll use that abbreviation from now on, pure laziness) makes a lot of dips. We have at least one dip every time we have dinner.

[bixaorellana]

I've notice the dips whenever you post about meals. I'm pretty unfamiliar with dips as part of a meal -- more like a snack thing for chips. Is this a particularly Cambodian thing?

(you could call her LadyH)

[hwinpp]

They're more a Thai thing. Cambodians don't have that many dips and I hardly see them in restaurants.
Usually it's fish based, with lime, chiles, shrimp paste, lemongrass in different proportions. Sometimes the chiles are blackened before being pounded to get a bitter taste, sometimes she adds other stuff.
We use these dips when we have raw vegetables or wraps ( :. She'll make a filling then serve that with big lettuce leaves for wrapping. The resulting packages are dipped.

[bixaorellana]

Aaaah ~~ so they're used like table sauces, except you put the food into them instead of them onto the food, eh? What is the texture -- like thinned peanut butter?

Extremely interesting about the blackened chiles. "Burnt" is a flavor here, too, but I think little used in the rest of the world.

Why the rolling eyes over raw vegetables & wraps -- do you prefer sturdier foods?

[Deleted]

So, have we already moved on to dips and cold sauces?

[bixaorellana]

In my defense, I didn't know until I asked that dips weren't a hot, cooked sauce. It's HW's fault!

[pookie]

I am not big on gravies and sauces with everything. I do make bechamel for lasagne and cauliflower cheese and Hollondaise for Eggs Benedict. Mr P likes pepper sauce and mushroom on his steak , mostly when we eat out , if I do mushrooms(can't call it sauce) I just cook the mushrooms and garlic in a little butter and olive oil and leave out the cream, then serve on the side. My thighs thank me everyday ;D

[Don Cuevas]

Bechamel (white sauce), is the basis for sausage gravy to serve with American biscuits. It is also a thickener for cream soups.

Brown gravy— seldom make it, as we don't eat many roasts and the meat here is too lean to produce much stock bases. Much dependence on Knorr-Suiza brand stock cubes. Later today, for example; carne en su jugo (beef cubes with bacon, onion, beans and seasonings) using Knorr-suiza beef cubes. The lighter kind, " K-S Costilla jugosa", which is like something designed to accompany prime rib. (I'm not saying it's great, but it's adequate.)

Tomato sauces, as for pastas. frequently.

Mexican salsas; eg, salsa ranchera (ranch wives' sauce); salsa verde de tomatillo. (Green sauce of Physalis philadelphica, chiles verdes and cilantro, served cold at the table or to sauce "guisados", sort of braises or stews.)

Sauces for stir fried meats and vegs, made in the pan and usually thickened with cornstarch suspended in broth or water.

I'm with Bixa on the vegs. Almost always serve vegs straight up, or with a little olive oil and some of the cooking water. Squeeze of lime, dash of salt, that sort of thing.

[imec]

A couple few that immediately come to mind. Gravy with roasted poultry. Gravy with Roast Beef (essential for complete the Yorkshire Pudding experience. Chipotle Bearnaise when we're having roasted or grilled whole beef tenderloin (only when we have company) - but sometimes I do this amazing "Madeira Sauce" to accompany "Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin" (a Wolfgang Puck recipe involving a number of Asian spices such as Star Anise and Thai red curry paste - sensational!).

[traveler63]

Yes, sauces for traditional dishes, such as veal marsala, etc. My dad was a short order cook for a period of time and he made the best sausage gravy!!!!!. My grandmother(we called her Mamaw Babe, because we couldn't say granma very easy and her name was Edna Babette and somehow the Mamaw Babe evolved), anyway, she made the best!!!!! homemade buttermilk biscuits. So they would get together on Sundays and we would have fried eggs, fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy. Wow!!!! does that bring back memories of family, all gone now, except my Mom's twin.

[hwinpp]

Jun 24, 2009 4:22:22 GMT bixaorellana said:

Aaaah ~~ so they're used like table sauces, except you put the food into them instead of them onto the food, eh? What is the texture -- like thinned peanut butter?

Most are like that but some are more watery.

Jun 24, 2009 4:22:22 GMT bixaorellana said:

Extremely interesting about the blackened chiles. "Burnt" is a flavor here, too, but I think little used in the rest of the world.

Why the rolling eyes over raw vegetables & wraps -- do you prefer sturdier foods?

Oh, I like vegetables raw and cooked. It's just that we've been having it quite a bit recently... sometimes I need the veggies cooked and smothered in butter though. Just for a change, you know...

[Deleted]

One of the restaurants that I go to serves veal and spaghetti covered with a very good gorgonzola cream sauce.

[tillystar]

a very good gorgonzola cream sauce.

Apart from meat gravy the most likely place I will use sauces is on pasta - ones like the creamy gorgonzola above

Saying that we had chicken with a lemon and honey sauce last night. The chicken was cooked in the lemon and honey and stock and then thickened up, it was delicious.