Summertime, and the livin' is easy

Gone is the time for hearty stews and stodgy pies. It's too warm. Too humid. But hey, it beats freezing temperatures and rain... Still, the last thing I want to do is stand in a kitchen for hours trying to come up with a meal. I want something quick and easy. And it has to be fresh and light. Something that screams 'Summertime is here!'. The livin' is easy, fish are jumping (preferably onto my plate) and cotton is high fashion in high temperatures...

The first things that spring to mind are barbeque and salads. I love to bbq. But... our back yard has a 45º slope; not ideal when trying to cook something over hot coals... Salads are perfect. Every colour of the rainbow can find it's way onto your plate: Red tomatoes, Pink radishes, Purple beetroot, Blue cornflowers, Green cucumber, Yellow peppers, Orange carrots. And you can be as adventurous as you want with the starch: potatoes, couscous, bulgur wheat, quinoa, rice, pasta, noodles. The same goes for protein: beef, pork, chicken, poultry, eggs, cheese, fish, tofu. You can add crunch in the form of nuts and seeds or fancy croutons. And the dressings... The same vegetables, protein, starch and crunch can taste completely different depending on the dressing you use... From 'simple' vinegar and oil to 'fancy' soy sauce and sesame oil, the options are near endless.

But, today I don't want to talk about salads. Let's face it: there is only so much 'rabbit food' you can eat. Even if it is summer and the rainbow has found it's way onto your plate... And the oven will never be able to replace the bbq, no matter what anybody says. But, every now and then, I do fancy something 'proper'. Something to fill my belly, not too healthy but high in flavour and satisfaction. But it does have to be easy and it would be even better if it can be made in advance so that I only have to heat it up come tea time.

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

• 700-800 grams ground beef
• 1 medium onion, diced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 240 millilitre ketchup
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 200 grams cheese (grated or sliced)
• 6 slices of toast or 3 bread buns

Method:

1. Cook the ground beef with the onion and the salt in a shallow frying pan
2. In a saucepan, mix together the ketchup, sugar, mustard, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and cook over low heat for 15 minutes
3. Drain the fat from the beef and add the meat to the sauce
4. Leave to simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time
5. Serve on toasted bread or buns, topped with cheese

So there you have it, quick and simple. Easily made during the weekend, stuck in the fridge or freezer and simply reheated when you want a slightly more filling meal during the summer. Serve with coleslaw, fries and pickles.

Enjoy

The base is white.

Some meals just wouldn't be the same without a bit of sauce. Just think of Lasagna, Fish Pie or Eggs Benedict; you just wouldn't eat it without a sauce. The Romans used sauce to mask the flavour and smell of ingredients that were... let's say... less than fresh.

Did you know that there are five sauces, called mother sauces, that are the basis for most other sauces? The mother sauces are: Sauce Béchamel, Sauce Espagnole, Sauce Velouté, Sauce Hollandaise and Sauce Tomate. The reason that they are called Mother Sauce (Sauce Mere) is because each of them is the 'head of a unique family' of sauces. The sauces based on the mother sauce is called 'small sauce'. Velouté is the exception as this has three 'daughter sauces'.

1. Sauce Béchamel: milk-based sauce, thickened with a white roux
2. Sauce Espagnole: a fortified brown stock sauce, thickened with a brown roux
3. Sauce Velouté: light stock-based sauce, thickened with a roux or a liaison, a mixture of egg yolks and cream
4. Sauce Hollandaise: an emulsion of egg yolk, butter and lemon or vinegar
5. Sauce Tomate: tomato-based

So, what is a sauce exactly? In principle it is a liquid that is combined with some sort of thickening agent and flavourings. Each of the five mother sauces is made with a different liquid, and a different thickening agent — although three of the mother sauces are thickened with roux, in each case the roux is cooked for a different amount of time to produce a lighter or darker colour.

Roux is melted butter (or fat) and flour: melt butter in a pan until 'frothing', add an equal amount of plain flour and stir (using a whisk is the best method to prevent lumps) until a thick paste forms, cook at least until the raw flour taste is gone (it will start smelling biscuit-y).
How long you cook it for depends on which type of sauce you want to make. How much butter and flour you use depends on how thick you want your sauce to be:

• Pouring sauce: one tablespoon each of butter and flour to 240 millilitre of milk
• Medium sauce: two tablespoons each of butter and flour to 240 millilitre of milk
• Thick sauce: three tablespoons each of butter and flour to 240 millilitre of milk

Sauce Béchamel, or white sauce, is one of the easiest to make and seems 'boring' to a lot of people but, made well, can be very tasty and is a must if you want to make Lasagna or Fish Pie.

Sauce Béchamel

Ingredients:

• Butter
• Flour
• Milk
• Salt and white pepper
• Flavourings such as onion (studded with cloves), bay leaf and nutmeg are all optional

Method:

1. Add milk to a pan with a whole onion (studded with a few cloves) and a bay leaf and bring to a simmer
2. Remove the flavourings (if used)
3. Make a roux as above
4. Add the warm milk as soon as the roux starts smelling biscuit-y but is still white or pale-yellow
5. Whisk the milk into the roux and leave for a couple of minutes to thicken
6. Season the sauce with salt and white pepper and a pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Sauce Mornay

Make a medium sauce béchamel and add 60 gram grated gruyere. Mix the cheese well with the sauce and leave to melt.

Sauce Moutarde (or Mustard Sauce)
Make a pouring sauce béchamel and add one tablespoon of whole grain mustard. Mix the mustard into the sauce and leave for a further minute to cook off the harsh flavour.

Sauce Soubise
Heat 30 gram butter in a frying pan and add two roughly chopped onions. Fry the onions until soft and translucent. Add the onions to a blender and puree until smooth Make a medium sauce béchamel and add the onion puree.

Sauce Nantua

This is by far the most complex sauce, not because it is difficult to make but because there are several more ingredients and steps necessary to make this sauce but the effort is well worth it.

Ingredients:

• 30 gram butter
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 onion, very finely sliced
• 250 gram raw shrimp or crawfish (with shells and heads on)
• 2 tablespoons cognac
• 125 millilitre white wine
• 375 millilitre fish stock
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of ground paprika (mild)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 fresh sprig of thyme
• medium sauce béchamel

Method:

1. Heat the butter over low heat
2. Add the carrots and onions and fry for 2 minutes
3. Chop the shrimp/crawfish and add them to the pan
4. Turn up the heat and fry until the shrimp/crawfish turn bright red, about 3 minutes
5. Add the cognac and white wine and reduce the liquid by half
6. Add the stock, bring to a boil and reduce the liquid by half again
7. Add the tomato paste, cayenne, paprika, bay leaf and thyme and cook for 30 minutes
8. Stir in the medium sauce béchamel and let bubble a further 10 minutes
9. Remove the bay leaf and thyme and pour the contents of the pan into a blender and blend
10. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing with a ladle to get as much of the 'juice'
11. Pour the sauce back into a pan and return to the boil
12. Reduce the sauce by a third and season to taste with salt and white pepper

So now you have the perfect sauces but what do you use them for? Here is a list of ideas:

1. Sauce Béchamel
• Cream of ... soup - thin out the sauce with a little more milk or good stock and add fried mushrooms, asparagus, chicken, or anything else you fancy
• Lasagna
• Souflé (use the thick sauce for the best result)
• Gratins
• Meat croquettes (use the thick sauce for the best result)
2. Sauce Mornay
• Gratins
• Cheese souflé (use the thick sauce for the best result)
• Eggs
• Vegetables
• Chicken
• Seafood
• Veal Prince Orloff
3. Mustard Sauce
• Cold cooked meats
• Vegetables
• Fish
• Steak
• Pork
4. Sauce Soubise
• Vegetables
• Chicken
• Fish
• Cold roasts
5. Sauce Nantua
• Fish
• Shellfish

Four different sauces for any occasion and all based on that simple, classic, white sauce. But there are many more varieties: Parsley sauce, Crème sauce, Cheddar sauce, Mushroom sauce to name but a few.

Tomorrow I will post the next mother sauce, so stay tuned and, most importantly

Enjoy