Cook Can Spin Dye » sauce

Blanquette de Veau (Veal Stew)

Sarah — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:59:36 +0000

Since my husband and I went to Paris two years ago, I have been in love with French cooking. While we were there, I sorta ate my way through the city, though I thankfully didn’t gain any weight eating all of the rich foods and sauces. Thanks to the internet I was able to recreate one of the sauces that I had while I was there: Blanquette de Veau or veal stew.

To explain this simply this sauce is a cream and egg yolk sauce with the main ingredient being the broth that is created from poaching the veal and vegetables for a couple of hours. It is very tasty and can be done with beef and chicken, too! The picture below is the veal and vegetables poaching with the bouquet garni (bag o’ herbs) smack in the middle.

My bouquet garni was celery, green onions, parsley, and thyme. There are somewhat official recipes on how to make a bouquet garni but original idea behind them is that they would be made of the herbs found in the region of France where the meal was being prepared. AKA, they used fresh herbs, whereas I used some that were dried. Ideally, you want to use fresh but dried will work in a pinch.

I must say, the end product was very, very good! I highly recommend more toast as it was the perfect and tasty tool to mop up the remaining sauce.

Se magnifique!

Mornay Sauce… Beef Jerky

Sarah — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:50:20 +0000

But not together. No, no, I have not crossed the crazy line. Actually, yes, I have (I made zucchini brownies one time and my family threatened to disown me), but THIS is NOT one of those times. Instead, two different projects within close time proximity to each other.

I was inspired to make a french sauce with the name of Mornay Sauce after having it for the first time at a crepe restaurant. The taste is mild, cheesy, and creamy sauce, going extremely well with chicken, mushrooms, and asparagus. So, the next night, I was bound and determined to make this divine sauce for my husband. And myself, of course. I dug out my Sauces Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making book by James Peterson and got to work. We did not have mushrooms or asparagus, but broccoli which made just as fine of a substitute for the veggies. I also used Fleur du Nord cheese instead of the traditional Gruyère cheese. The result was magnifique! If you are looking for an online version, the one by cookrecipes.com is pretty close to what the book had for a recipe.

Within the week, I was onto my next project of making jerky. I was prompted to embark upon this mission due to the prodding by my husband to use of the stuff currently collecting dust in our cupboards. I cheated and used a kit instead of doing this from scratch, thinking that I would have lesser of a chance of screwing it up. The kit that I used was the Nesco American Harvest Jerky Spice Works Seasoning Kit, Original Flavor, though I added some liquid teriyaki sauce. I’m not sure that I am ever able to completely follow a kit or recipe without some sort of alteration. The result was very tasty, though a little more salty that I had hoped. Maybe next time I will make it completely from scratch and see how salty that turns out.

Cranberry Rum Sauce – that’ll get your spirits up!

Sarah — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:59:07 +0000

So, this isn’t the first time I’ve been teased as being a lush, but my husband had to ask me why I was making Cranberry Rum Sauce. I told him it was to have more cranberries in my diet. His reply was, “Do you need more rum in your diet or something??”

To better explain, cranberries were in season recently and I bought a lot of them. Too much actually. So, I made cranberry jelly and cranberry relish for the holidays, gave most of it away, and still had bags in my freezer. I dug out my Ball canning book and the only other recipe for cranberries that appealed to me was the Cranberry Rum Sauce recipe. It containing booze in it probably helped my decision.

But hey, I don’t channel Julia Child for nothing.

Since I modified the recipe, I can actually post it here on my blog. No modifications = Ball suing Sarah = Sarah having a bad day. But, I didn’t have cinnomon sticks or whole cloves and allspice, so here it goes:

Cranberry Rum Sauce – approx. yield is six 8-ounce (250 ml) jars

1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups water

8 cups of cranberries (fresh or frozen)

2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used Pink Lady apples, which are tart, but if you like sweet cranberry sauce, use Fuji or Gala apples)

3/4 cup rum (I used a dark rum, but any rum will work. If you don’t like the overbearing taste of rum, cut the amount in half and use white rum).

Step 1. Get your canning shit ready. Or your freezer shit.

Step 2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine sugar, water, and spices. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and continue boiling for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cranberries and apples. Return to boiling and boil at medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until cranberry skins burst, which is about five mins. Crush mixture with either potato masher, blender, or mixer. I recommend the blender. Return to pan, add rum, and bring to a boil. Boil one minute and you are done.

Step 3. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles by lightly tapping jar on counter and add more sauce if needed. Wipe the rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until restistance is met (not futile), and then tighten to finger tight.

Step 4. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 15 mins. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 mins, remove jars, cool, label, and store.

-OR-

Step 3. Ladle into freezer containers and let cool. (Make sure that you are never putting hot or warm items into your refrigerator or freezer – they can drastically increase the temperature and cause other items to spoil and bacteria to florish). Label and store in freezer.

Cheers!