Making your own sauces?

evacymru

Yesterday I decided to cook sweet and sour vegetables but didn't want to pay for an expensive jar of sauce that I knew would also have far too much salt and other preservatives in. I dug out an old cookery book and found it's easy, healthy and cheap to make your own - and it tastes great!

All that's in this sauce is:

White wine vinegar 4 tbsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Tomato Puree 3 tbsp
pineapple rings (from a tin) two
cornflour 2 tbsp
Water 5 tbsp

You just mix all the ingredients except the pineapple rings together and add them to your vegetables with the diced pineapple rings and simmer for 1.5 minutes until the cornflour thickens and is cooked. Water can be added if it gets too thick.


What other sauce recipes do people have that can be used to replace the expensive ones in jars?

BWZN93

Good idea Evacymru, Ive been thinking the same thing - i need to learn sauces as Im naughty and often tend to go for dried packets instead of learning properly.

Ill drag out my cookery books and see if there is anything to be found.

Jo xx

Downsizing__for_sanity

Hi there,

You can make a pasta bolognese sauce quickly and cheaply, everyone seems to have their own recipe but here is my rough version:

1 tin chopped tomatoes (any value range is fine)
1tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp sugar
1tsp Italian herb mix
1-2 cloves garlic, depending on your taste
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, finely chopped
250g steak mince
1 stick celery, de-stringed and chopped
1 handful mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, finely chopped.
1 tsp olive oil

Fry the onion in the olive oil, crush the garlic and add. Add the mince and brown. Then add all other ingredients, I tend to add more veg if I need to bulk the sauce out a bit. You can also add soaked lentils instead of mince to make a veggie ragu if you wish.

This makes a good ragu base for lasagne, spag bol, even chilli. I'm sure many other versions will be suggested! We add anything that's in the fridge and needs using - try adding roasted or sliced peppers, olives etc. Chicken livers are very "authentic" and add lots of flavour - also v cheap at 50p a tub in the frozen aisle. If you cook everything except the mince, the sauce stores very well in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to a week. (I'm sure you could store it for longer, but we never have.)

Good luck

DFS

Tess

Here's one I use again and again, I think it is lovely:

Carbonara

2 tbs. vegetable or olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 oz butter
6 oz smoked bacon cut into pieces
half glass of white wine (optional)
3 egg yolks
3 oz grated parmesan or mature cheddar cheese
5 fl. oz single cream
salt and freshly grated black pepper

Heat oil in frying pan and saute the garlic until it is golden. Remove and discard. Add butter and bacon and cook until bacon just starts to become crisp. Pour in wine if using and boil rapidly to reduce. Remove from heat.

Cook some pasta until just cooked, not too soft, and while it is cooking take a warmed serving bowl and mix the egg yolks, cheese and cream in it and season with salt and pepper. When the pasta is cooked drain it and toss it in the bowl with the egg mixture. Qjuickly reheat the bacon and add it with its fat to the pasta. Toss all together (the heat from the pasta should cook the eggs just enough to form a coating) and serve immediately.

(You can use whole eggs and omit the cream)

Hope you enjoy it.

Tess

Forgot to add, the above recipe is supposed to serve four, but two of us manage to eat it with no problem.

nearlyrich

I just made a spicy tomato sauce to go with gnocchi for tea it was a bit of an experiment and it turned out really well.:j

I finely chopped a large onion and fried it off (in Fry Lite because I'm on Slimming World)
I added some dried herbs including basil I (I used Herbes de Provence) and seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then I added some small chunks of chopped peppers a couple of cloves of garlic ( crushed) and a VERY finely chopped chilli, my eyes are still running and those of a nervous disposition may wish to omit this step.

Finally I added a tin of chopped tomatoes.

It only took a few minutes to cook and it was very tasty. Probably a similar sauce to the hot and spicy Dolmio type sauce but more chunky because it had real vegetables in it. I am sure it was cheaper than buying a jar as they are over £1 even when on offer and I know it was almost fat free with no added sugar etc.

RichyRich

For Spag Bol I use the following (sorry, no measurements cos it just gets thrown in):-

(serves approx 2) - use more ingredients for more peopel

1 Tin Tomatoes
1 Squodge Tomato Puree
1/4 onion (or more to taste) finely chopped
2 x Beef stock cubes (or use beef stock if you have it)
2 x Italian Herb Oxo Cubes
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Basil
Dill
Green Pepper - chopped to taste, amount to taste
Mince

Bung everything except the onions, the mince and the stock/oxo cubes into a mixing bowl/jug and stir well. Put the oxo cubes into a cup, add boiling water, stir and add to the sauce, stirring in (this ensures you don't get a huge lump of oxo cube when you eat it). Fry the mince and the onions off, add the sauce and simmer for twenty minutes.

If you're feeling really posh add a squirt of olivey oil and some of that red wine that's been kicking around for ages that you've never got round to drinking (or red grape juice). Add curry powder or paprika and serve with rice instead of pasta for a fiery alternative.

Don't worry if you don't have all the ingredients. Use the tomato as a base for the sauce and add what you think will taste good. You pretty much need the mince though. Although you could use diced chicken or another meat for another twist.

Hope this helps - hope it's good enough for my first post on Old Style.

PS Sainsbury's "Basics" beef stock cubes are very good, but take a while to dissolve and don't crumble like an Oxo cube.

julybride

Spanish chicken

(Add to oven dish after brownng of chicken; I find thighs work best) sauce will feed about 4

I medium onion (best if browned but neccesary)
2 carrots
two peppers (any colour)
I tin tomatoes
2 generous tbsp of puree
chicken or veg oxo cube
1/2 3/4 pint of boiling water
1/2 to 1tsp chilli powder of paprika (to your taste)
pinch mixed herbs, salt adn pepper to taste
Clove of garlic if you wish.

(You can also add any other veg you have to use up i.e. fresh tomatoes, celery, celeriac, mushrooms)

This is all thrown into the saucepan/oven dish/slow cooker and left to simmer for a couple of hours with the chicken. If you have sauce left after serving add tinns of flageolet /kidney /barlotti beans, rice, more chilli powder, a little more water and you have arisotto mexican style. (We love both these dishes.)

monkmorency

You can make a basic white sauce very easily:

Half a pint of milk
1 tablespoon of oil / butter / margarine
2 tablespoons of flour

Bring it all to the boil, beating all the time with a whisk / wooden spoon. When it begins to thicken, lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes. Take it off the heat and season with salt and pepper. If it seems too thick you can stir in a little more milk.

You could then stir in 3-4 tablespoons of grated cheddar cheese and a pinch of mustard powder. This makes a great sauce for HM lasagne or macaroni cheese.

Adding blue cheese makes a delicious sauce for pasta. Try adding some chopped spring onions and chopped walnuts for extra flavour.

I'm so hungry now!

Wirenth

Anyone got a mushroom sauce for pouring over steak?

Please....

monkmorency

Wirenth wrote:

Anyone got a mushroom sauce for pouring over steak?

Please....

Add fried mushrooms to the white sauce recipe above.