My favourite three sauces

“Hey chef, gonna do a favourite sauces/sauciness/saucey minx post if yer keen? Three each??”

This is what I awoke to this morning… and my answer is I’m keen as mustard! (First sauce pun of the post and most likely the last as I cant think of any more off hand)

Now you may all be wondering why I haven’t be contributing much of late to the general up keep of this fine blog, or you may be wondering who the fuck I am and why is this stranger assuming he knows what I’m thinking? Well I will answer both questions with the same answer…

I have been busy, my name is Paul and I can read minds.

Now we have that all cleared up I shall move quickly yet casually to the topic du jour (this is French for I’m a complete wanker).

Sauces or as we commonly know them… moisture.

Sauces are without a doubt in the top five of most important things you put on a plate, now with there only being 4 major components to most dishes and the 5^th being the actual plate, this doesn’t at first make you look at sauces with reverence and built a small sauce shrine to worship these liquids gods of the plated variety. But as with all of my points they come at you like a written word ninja, points that are disguised yet deadly in their purpose.

Allow me to unravel my seemingly indistinguishably point, what I’m proposing is that every component is equally as important as each other except maybe the plate in this case, which although it holds great importance (pun intended) is not integral in the dishes creation. What does make sauces stand out in my humble opinion is how tricky they can be to get right, to balance and to be patient enough in some cases to make properly.

Sauces for me tie a dish together they connect flavours, they can be the ever-needed colour and life a dish requires, they can be the hero of a dish or a subtlety of flavour that nothing else could achieve. I do so love sauces and moisture in general if you look at life itself, without moisture we simply wouldn’t be alive, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the simply beauty of a blossoming flower, a well lubricated engine or an enjoyable sexual experience… you all knew it was coming (pun)

So what are my favourite three??? Well that is ridiculous, I can’t say I have a favourite three they have such differing purposes.

If you where to say what are your fav 3 for steak then it would be… béarnaise, creamy pepper sauce or jus.

If you asked for fish then it would be… hollandaise, beurre blanc or pesto like saucy thing

But since the title of this post is ‘my favourite three sauces’ then I will give the recipes for three I like a lot, maybe even love but definitely find very sexy in a non fetish, to get up in my sauce kinda way!

Ponzu (the Mr Miyagi of sauces)

I fucking love this sauce and it can be used in such a large variety of ways… actually that’s not right, it can be used with a large variety of dishes but always as a sauce… that’s better.

80ml mirin

600ml soy

¾ cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup orange juice

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup lime juice

20 g bonito flakes

1 nori sheets cut up into strips

• Easy peazy lemon/orange/lime squeezy, whack all ingredients together and leave overnight for the nori and bonito to infuse then strain the next day… you will need to balance by adding either more citrus juice or more soy… don’t leave unstrained for to long or it tastes like fish’s arse juice.

Mustard glaze

I stole this recipe form ‘Wild Fire’ in Sydney, great restaurant I think and some good mates of mine where working there years ago so I knapped this little beauty, which is traditionally a fondue sauce/accompaniment. But I just love it with steak.

4 whole tomatoes (chopped up)

5 echallots

4 garlic cloves

300ml white wine

cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons hot English mustard

6 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• For this you cook out the eshallots, garlic and tomatoes then add wine, cook until soft, then blend in blender or with a stick blender.
• Add the mustards and season to your liking with the cayenne, salt and white pepper.

Cardamom emulsion (I thought it was spelt Cardamon?)

This is one of those wanky chef sauces but exceptional if used with restraint.

2.5 cups of capsicum juice (use a juicer)

¼ cup whole green cardamom

• Reduce this in a pan by half, slowly aprox 45 minutes.
• Strain then whisk in 4 tablespons of butter
• Before serving froth up with hand blender.

The world of sauces is so effing large as dressing can fall into this category as well as butters, foams, emulsions and anything that brings moisture to the table (pun) so to have a favourite three really is a redundant question but I feel I have done my part to answer the question and fulfill the challenge.

May your day be filled with moisture and night be void of dryness.

P