Sauces support flavor

Jeff
Smith

THERE WAS a time in
European history when
sauces performed the dif-
ficult task of covering over
the flavor of meat and
game gone foul.

In our tine, due to the bless-
ings of modern refrigeration,
sauces may function not as a
cover-up but as support for the
flavor of a fine dish.

The quickest and most frugal
way to prepare a fine sauce is
simply to degtaze the cooking pan
with a bit of wine.

Wine is so cooperative when it
comes (o making sauces that the
wine almost does the job itself.
All you have to do is get the wine
near the pan.

You also need to remember that
wine will give great flavors
without adding a lot of undue
calories and salt. | add wine to
sauces and gravies as a matter of
habit — a good habit, I'm sure.

I know you will enjoy the fol-
lowing collection of sauces.

Deglazing the Pan

When you have finished brown-
ing or cooking any kind of meat
or fish, add red or white wine to
the pan while it is still hot.

With a wooden spoon, scrape
up the brown goodness stuck to
the pan. Do not do this if the pan
drippings are black or burned.

{f there is excess fat in the pan,
you may wish to pour it out be-
fore deglazing. You may also use
dry sherry, Marsala or vermouth
for deglazing.

Basic Brown Sauce
(Makes one quart)

This sauce is basic to the French
kitchen. Ht can be served just as is
or further developed with addi-
tional scasonings or wine.

1 stick butter (4% tb. or 2 c. pea-
nut oil or olive oil)

1c. peefed and chopped yellow
onions

Ic. chopped carrots, unpeeled

Ys c. chopped parsley

1 bay leaf

l tsp. thyme, whole, diced

Ye. flour

2¢. dry red wine

2 quarts fresh or canned beef soup
stock

2 tbsp. tomato paste

Y tsp. freshly ground black pep-
per

% c. dry sherry

sald fo taste

Choose a three- to four-quart
stockpot with a heavy bottom.
Heat it and add half of the butter
or oil.

THE FRUGAL GOURMET

Add the onions, carrots and
parsley. Stir the vegetables on
medium-heat until they begin to
brown.

in a small frying pan melt the
remaining butter or oil. Add the
flour and stir until it is light
brown. Stir this roux into the
vegetables.

Add the remaining ingredients
to the pot, except the sherry and
salt. Bring to a boil, turn to a
heavy simmer and cook the sauce,
uncovered, about two hours or
until it has reduced by half.

Add the sherry and sinimer for
five minutes. Add salt to taste.
Strain before serving or using.

Marsala ang Mushroom Sauce

(Makes 1% cups)

This is good with almost any-
thing. It is great with all red meats
and most poultry, such as chicken
or duck,
1c. chopped mushrooms
2 tbsp. butier
I c. Basic Brown Sauce (recipe
above)

VY ¢. dry Marsala
salt and freshly ground black
pepper fo taste

Saute the mushrooms in the
butter. Stir in the sauce and bring
it to a boil. Add the Marsala and
immediately take off the heat.
Check for salt and pepper.

Fat-free Thickening

ff you wish to avoid the fat or
oil normally used in thickening
Sauces you may use cornstarch
mixed with dry white wine.

Add about | tbsp. cornstarch to
2 tosp. wine. Stir well and quickly
blend into the hot sauce, off the
heat, then return the pan to the
heat, stirzing until it thickens.

This can be done with most
dishes that call for a roux.

Basic White Sauce
iMakes 24> cups)

This as another basic sauce tor
the fougab kitchen. Ehoas easy to
make and offers many possibilities
iN ters of creamed meat distes,
fish, segetables 9 all kinds of
things.
2¢. milk
3 thsp. chopped setlow onion
1 bay teat
cayenne pepper lo taste
4 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. floar
salt to taste

Bring the milk fo a simmer.
Add the yellow onion, bay leaf
and cayenne pepper.

Simmer for a few minutes and
strain the milk stock. Return to
the stove,

In another pan melt the butter
and ser in the Nour.

Remove the milk from its burn-
eroand = stir in’ the four/butter
mixtire (roux). Continue to sim-
mer, stirring until thick, about 10
minutes. Add salt to taste.

Variation: Try adding a dash or
two of dry sherry to this sauce. It
is great on vegetables. | stir cook-
ed onions into this sauce and eat
the whole dish by myself!

White Cheese Sauce
(Makes one cup)

Another basic flavor from
France. 1 like this sauce with bak-
ed pasta, with vegetables and any-
thing that is left over, such as
cooked chicken.

Ic. Bas White Sauce (recipe
above)

VY c. freshly grated Parmesan or
Romano cheese

dash of Worcestershire sauce to
taste

I thsp. dry sherry
salt and freshly
pepper to taste

Stir the cheese into the hot
sauce. Add the remaining ingre-
dients.

To make mock cream sauces

Place 1 Ib. low-salt/low-fat cot-
tage cheese, along with 1 c. low-
fat milk, in a food blender. Blend
until very smooth, like cream.
You may wish to make it a bit
thinner. Use in any sauce recipe
that calls for cream.

Do not cook it as long in a
sauce as you would regular cream.
This mock cream will scare you
when you first add it to a hot
sauce because it will separate and
look grainy. Don’t worry.

Simply stir over the heat for a
moment and it will smooth cut
beautilully.

ground = black

Summer sensation: sweet

Inquisitive
Cook

ANNE
GARDINER

LETTING THE juices run
and the butter drip from
ears of fresh, local corn is
one of the best parts of
summer.

Even the shucking can he faust.
Pulling the layers of papery. green
husks off the cob releases the
sweet, moist smeil af summer
gardens, And picking off the long
sik is shades of Rapuntzel for a
romantic child,

Most of us overlook the wonder
that every strand of sith was once
attached too a kernel within the
cob. And eich sith wis pollinated,
courtesy of wind of bees in order
for that kernel to desclop,

Remember the old: directions to
get the corns pot bora. then ron

a

from the garden to the pot,
shucking as you go? For most of
us this is impossible, but ihe ad-
vice does remind us that it’s well
worth searching for very fresh
vorn,

As soon as corn is picked, its
sugar content: begins to turn to
starch, And favor diminishes
along with it,

New hybrid varieties now muain-
fain their sugar content longer
than the traditional kinds. Scilly
the feast possible time lapse be-
tween picking and eating is best

Look for fresh, green husks
with sik that's free of decay. The
stem should Jeok fresh, nor brite
and dry.

Gently pull back the busk and
check for small, plump, even
kernels. Bulging keracis that are
crowded together are likely over-
ripe.

Weanesday, August 14, 1991 - North Shore News - 39

" NEWS pholo Neif Lucente

A MOCK cream sauce will separate when added to a hot sauce -
simply stir over heat for a moment and it will smooth out

beautifully.

corn on the cob

Pierce a kernel with your
fingernail. In fresh corn, a milk-
like Hiquid spurts forth, Tf the corn
is too cipe, the kernels are doughy
and tough and hold (litte
moisture,

Heat hastens the action of en-
zymes which convert sugar to
starch. TP you must store corn be-
fore eating, Keep it in plastic bags
inthe refrigerator and eat within a
day. Shuck just before cooking so
the protective husks keep in che
NIOISEUT YE,

Boiling is sq) the snost common
method of cooking. Place the corn
met kettle of boiling water (uast
enough ta cover the corp Suse
the salt for dater simee salt in the
coking water ftourheas phe
hernels,

Some people add it touche od
miko ond a pinch of sara to the
water. usually because that's what

 teduces

Mom did. Some feel it adds
sweetness to the corn, but it isn't
necessary in truly fresh corn.

Besides, the milk coagulates and
sticks to the edge of the pot, mak-
ing ita real mess to clean.

Cover the pot, and bring to a
boil for five to seven minutes,
Longer boiling causes toughness,
flavor and) the corn’s
fleeting aromas disappear.

Caumptire cooks take pride in
corn coasted in the husks. Remove
the sak and tie the busks back in
their orivinal position with string,
Dip in cold water to keep the
husks from barring,

Or shuck and wrap cigdtty in
for then rosest aver four inches
above how codds. teri: frequent
Ik fon PO toe PS minutes depending
on the size of the cats. Or bury in
hot caddy and cook cmhe te Ta
Tete,