Cooking without Sauces

lipidicman · 21 April 2005 at 3:15PM

I hope this is the right forum for this.....

My cooking has evolved over the years - starting out with spag bol from the jar - adding more and more vegatables and garlic, herbs and even extra tinned tomatoes - but I have never given up the dolmio/ragu. I assume it would be easy and I want to try to cut it out as I seem to be making 90% of the effort!

I also like to make Mexican chili fajitas, sweet and sour/ scechzaun chicken and lots of curries (I do use pataks pastes rather than sauces for the curry) and would like to learn to make them from scratch. Using 5 types of veg and a quick sauce seems silly to me now but I am a little lost without the sauce.

Any ideas/help/recipes gladly accepted!

Curry_Queen · 21 April 2005 at 3:39PM

Your basic tomato sauce is quite simple to make using tinned tomatoes, a little puree, sugar, maybe a touch of balsamic vinegar if you have any, and herbs, garlic, onions etc. This is all ragu/dolmio is with the added water and chemicals

lipidicman · 21 April 2005 at 3:46PM

Thats what I thought - and I do have Balsamic vinegar. I really have built up around the sauce and now need to dump it

So I cook the onions and garlic, then the meat, carrots and peppers etc. Then add a tin of tomatoes and balsamic vinegar....or do you add the tomatoes before the meat (and do the meat seperately maybe)? A little lost here

Also, mexican and chinese seem a little harder - any ideas?

Galtizz · 21 April 2005 at 3:53PM

Have a look HERE (post no. 9) for a genuine Italian bolognese recipe posted by Caterina, it is so fun I have it copied and stuck in my recipe book, it gives me a giggle every time I read it.

lipidicman · 21 April 2005 at 4:10PM

Galtizz wrote:

Have a look HERE (post no. 9) for a genuine Italian bolognese recipe posted by Caterina, it is so fun I have it copied and stuck in my recipe book, it gives me a giggle every time I read it.

She says simmer it for 3 hours - really? will the meat be OK?

Otherwise pretty much what I do, I just need to drop the Ragu

Now, any mexicans out there?

crazyhazy · 21 April 2005 at 4:13PM

should be fine, this is basically what my mum does. I do mine in the slow cooker though, cook the mince first then chuck everything in and the meat is lovely after cooking for 8 hours while we're at work. I think it needs at least 3 hours to absorb all the flavours.

lipidicman · 21 April 2005 at 4:16PM

Great, you get lots of replies in this part of the forum! Thanks, keep 'em coming!

r.mac_2 · 21 April 2005 at 4:25PM

hiya,

I always brown my mince before adding the onions - this means if lots of fat comes off it, I can drain it in a seive beofre adding anything else. It also stops the onions from burning (this used to happen a lot!)

HTH

C-Q I love your new avatar!!!!

lipidicman · 21 April 2005 at 4:27PM

I find the onions need to go in first - otherwise they are hard - but maybe simmering for 3 hours (!) gets around this. I often drain the fat off but it can ruin the end flavour if you drain too much off

trafalgar_2 · 21 April 2005 at 4:35PM

This is a good site for sauces

http://www.free-recipes.co.uk/sauce-recipes.asp

filigree_2 · 21 April 2005 at 4:56PM

I use passata (sieved tomatoes) for pasta sauces, it has a thicker texture which would hit the spot if you are used to Dolmio. It's pretty cheap, Asda Smartprice passata is about 40p for 750ml.

As a rough guide, I would brown 500g of mince with a chopped onion, garlic and chopped pepper. Pour on the passata and simmer for about 30 mins, add herbs especially fresh basil. It's not authentic ragu but it's quick and easy.

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Cooking without Sauces

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