Recipes

Umeboshi plum vinegar glaze

Umeboshi plum vinegar glaze

This glaze makes use of umeboshi or ume plums, a small Japanese plum that is usually pickled whole or processed into a paste. The spiciness of fresh ginger and sake round out this unique glaze that is particularly ideal for oily and fatty fish such as salmon or sardines. As with any wine or liquor used in cooking, use the best quality sake you can find to deglaze the pan in this recipe—ideally one that would traditionally be consumed hot rather than cold.
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Ingredients

MAKES: 240 ml

  • 15 ml safflower oil
  • ½ shallot minced
  • 9 g grated fresh ginger
  • 60 ml sake
  • 60 ml ume plum vinegar
  • 240 mlChicken Stock
  • 45 ml umeboshi plum paste
  • ¼ tsp white pepper
  • â…› tsp star anise powder
  • ¼ tsp salt or to taste
  • 15 g European style butter

Instructions

  • Heat the safflower oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat and add the shallot.
  • Sauté the shallot until softened and clear, about 2 to 3 minutes.
  • Add the grated ginger and sauté 1 minute more.
  • Add the sake and the ume plum vinegar and stir well.
  • Reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer until almost evaporated, about 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Add the chicken stock, umeboshi plum paste, white pepper, star anise powder and salt and whisk well.
  • Simmer the mixture until bubbles spread evenly across the pan and the mixture can coat the back of a spoon without dripping, about 8 to 9 minutes.
  • Stir in the butter until it’s melted.
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Course; Sauce

Apricot sauvignon blanc pan sauce

Apricot sauvignon blanc pan sauce

This fruity pan sauce offers a bright alternative to a simple spritz of lemon or lime on fish. It works equally well on fish fillets or as a dipping sauce for shrimp, crab or lobster. Apricot juice is readily found in most supermarkets but we find that Santa Cruz Organic is a widely available brand with excellent flavor and consistency. Sauvignon Blanc is the wine we choose for this sauce because of its clean, acid composition. The New Zealand sauvignons are among our favorites. This sauce works well with pan-seared chicken breasts as well, in which case, you can use the same pan in which you seared the chicken to make the sauce.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Heat the safflower oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat and add the shallot.
  • Sauté the shallot until softened and clear, about 2 to 3 minutes.
  • Add the thyme and sauté 1 minute more.
  • Add the sauvignon blanc and reduce the heat to a simmer.
  • Simmer until the wine is almost entirely evaporated, about 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Add the chicken stock and apricot juice, apricot preserves, white pepper and salt.
  • Whisk well to dissolve the preserves and continue to simmer the mixture until bubbles spread evenly across the pan and the mixture can coat the back of a spoon without dripping, about 5 to 7 minutes.
  • Stir in the butter until it’s melted.
  • Serve hot over baked flounder or halibut or use as a dipping sauce for lobster or crab legs.
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Course; Sauce

Szechuan peppercorn mignonette

Szechuan peppercorn mignonette

Mignonette is a classic sauce served with raw oysters, although we find it can be an excellent dipping sauce for fried oysters as well. It’s also great on raw clams on the half shell. Mignonettes always feature shallots or onions, peppercorns and vinegar. Our version calls for pink Szechuan peppercorns—a spicier peppercorn than black, white or green varieties, scallions and rice wine vinegar. You can keep mignonettes for quite a few weeks in the refrigerator—it won’t go bad, but the pepper flavor will get more intense, so keep that in mind
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl and refrigerate in a sealed container until ready to use.
  • Serve 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of sauce on raw, chilled oysters
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Course; Sauce

Dukkah compound butter

Dukkah compound butter

We love compound butters because they are a versatile way to add flavor to existing sauces, serve as a flavorful condiment or topping or, melted, become a sauce in themselves. This version makes use of dukkah, a tangy, woody Egyptian seasoning mixture that is made of toasted nuts, herbs and spices and is used to flavor proteins or served with olive oil as a dip for pita bread. Here we’ve mixed dukkah with softened butter that is then re-chilled. It is ideal for a quick sauce for meats or even vegetables but one of our favorite uses is to melt the Dukkah Compound Butter and use it to baste sunny-side up eggs to complete their cooking while infusing flavor.
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Equipment

  • Small bowl

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, mix the butter and dukkah together until well combined.
  • Scrape the flavored butter into a small dish and cover well with plastic wrap.
  • Refrigerate until the butter is hard, about 8 hours.
  • Use slices on top of grilled or pan seared poultry and meat or melted to finish sunny-side up eggs.
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Course; Butter

Everyone’s favorite tikka masala sauce

Everyone’s favorite tikka masala sauce

Chicken Tikka Masala is probably the best known of all Indian restaurant dishes and one of the most beloved. A secret about this creamy tomato-flavored sauce: It’s not a traditional Indian dish at all. Tikka masala was created in a London restaurant by an Indian chef who wanted to meld in South Asian flavors with western sauce ingredients in order to appeal to English audiences. The end result is this sauce that features both garam masala and ginger and tomato paste and heavy cream. This is a great simmer sauce to make ahead and keep in the refrigerator for a quick Indian-inspired meal. It’s equally good with chickpeas, lentils, boneless chicken, fish or shrimp. Simply cook your main ingredient, and then add it to the tikka masala sauce and simmer together for 20 minutes to combine the flavors. One of our favorite, easy preparations is to cube chicken breast and season them with garam masala, ginger and tandoori seasoning, which is now widely available in the spice aisle of grocery stores. We bake the pieces in the oven or grill them and add to the tikka masala sauce. Fenugreek leaves add an authentic flavor to this dish but if you can’t find it feel free to omit or simply garnish your finished dish with parsley or cilantro leaves.
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Ingredients

MAKES: about 480 ml

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat and add the garam masala, tandoori seasoning and ground ginger.
  • Cook for 1 minute, stirring well.
  • Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, 1 more minute.
  • Pour in the chicken stock and use a whisk to stir well and break up lumps.
  • Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the heavy cream and salt.
  • Whisk well, until smooth, and reduce the heat to medium-low.
  • Simmer for 10 minutes.
  • If using, rub the fenugreek leaves into a powder between your palms and add to the sauce.
  • Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
  • Add cooked chicken, fish, lentils or shrimp and simmer on the lowest heat setting for 20 minutes.

Notes & Wine Advice

Alternatively, store the finished sauce in a tightly sealed container in your refrigerator to use within 3 days.
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Course; Sauce

Persian pomegranate and walnut sauce

Persian pomegranate and walnut sauce

This sauce is the basis of the Persian dish Fesanjan that combines the flavors of toasted walnuts and pomegranate in a thick, aromatic sauce for chicken. Traditionally, fesanjan is a special occasion dish and was originally made with wild duck. It is a popular dish for Iranian Jews during Passover. Because this sauce is both hearty and complex in flavor, we find that it’s not only good on chicken or duck, but can work well with other game birds like pheasant or quail too. This dish calls for pomegranate juice, which is readily available in most grocery stores, but also pomegranate molasses, which can be called pomegranate syrup. This is available in Middle Eastern grocery stores and is a necessary ingredient that shouldn’t be omitted.
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Ingredients

MAKES: about 480 ml

Instructions

  • Dissolve the saffron powder in 80 ml boiling water and set aside.
  • Toast the ground walnuts in a medium frying pan over medium heat, stirring often, until the nuts are deep golden brown in color, about 3 to 5 minutes.
  • Remove from the heat and set aside.
  • Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and then add the onion.
  • Sauté the onion until softened, about 8 to 9 minutes and then add the toasted walnut powder and mix well.
  • Stir in the chicken stock, pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses and sugar.
  • Mix well and lower the heat to simmer.
  • Simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered.
  • Add the saffron liquid and salt.
  • Simmer 15 minutes more or until the sauce is reduced by a third and is thick like a mole.
  • The sauce can be used by adding boneless chicken pieces to it in the last 20 minutes of cooking or by spooning the finished sauce over roasted chicken or turkey.
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Course; Nuts / Sauce
Cuisine; Iran / Persië

Our never-fail go-to gravy

Our never-fail go-to gravy

Everyone loves a good gravy, yet it seems to be one of those basic preparations that elude many cooks. The key is to approach gravy as a roux-thickened sauce. While pan drippings definitely make for a nice gravy, using chicken stock ensures that the proportions of cooking liquid to fat are easily controlled. For gravies using pan drippings—say from a roast turkey or chicken—use an oil separating cup to remove most of the fat from the drippings or your gravy will be too greasy. Reserve some of the cooking fat to make your roux—about 3 tablespoons (45 ml) worth—and discard the rest. We use a pinch of ground sage, a classic poultry spice, to flavor this poultry gravy along with thyme and celery salt so that the gravy is richly flavored and truly adds pizzazz to the meat. This gravy recipe can be doubled or tripled depending on the size of your bird or your available drippings.
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Ingredients

MAKES: 240 ml

  • 45 ml butter or pan grease from roasted chicken or turkey
  • 17 g flour
  • 360 ml Chicken Stock or cooking liquid from roasted chicken or turkey
  • ¼ tsp ground sage
  • ¼ tsp minced thyme leaves
  • ¼ tsp celery salt
  • ¼ tsp white pepper
  • Salt as needed

Instructions

  • Melt the butter or heat the pan grease in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
  • Add the flour and whisk well until it is completely incorporated into the butter or fat.
  • Continue to cook, whisking, until the flour begins to brown slightly, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the chicken stock or cooking liquid and whisk well until the mixture is completely combined.
  • Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the sage, thyme leaves, celery salt and white pepper.
  • Simmer 5 to 6 minutes more or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
  • Taste to adjust salt.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve hot with roast turkey or chicken.
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Course; Sauce

Pinot noir, cranberry and roasted orange sauce

Pinot noir, cranberry and roasted orange sauce

This is our alternative to traditional cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. Orange and cranberry are a match made in culinary heaven and roasting the orange slices adds a caramel flavor that mellows the sauce. We like to sweeten this sauce with honey to temper the tartness of the cranberries. Cara Cara oranges are our favorite because they are delightfully sweet and aromatic. If you can’t get Cara Cara oranges, a navel orange will do just fine. A small bit of cayenne pepper adds the slightest bit of heat and dimension to this sauce, but if you don’t like it you can omit it. Cranberries naturally have a lot of pectin, which makes for a lovely thick sauce. We prefer ours chunky but you can certainly purée the finished sauce while it is still hot and then strain through a fine mesh sieve so that the resulting, cooled sauce will actually be a sliceable jelly.
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Ingredients

MAKES: 480 ml

  • 2 Cara Cara oranges or 1 large navel orange peeled and most of the white pith removed
  • Cooking spray as needed
  • 1 cup plus 270 ml honey or more to taste divided
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 280 g fresh or frozen whole cranberries
  • 240 mlwater
  • 120 ml pinot noir
  • 6 g salt
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 12 g orange zest

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
  • Slice the peeled oranges crossways into ¼-inch (6-mm) rounds.
  • Spray a lined baking sheet with cooking spray and arrange the oranges on it, leaving a little space around each round.
  • Brush the oranges lightly with some of the honey and sprinkle each one lightly with the cinnamon.
  • Bake the orange slices for 30 to 40 minutes or until they are puffy and bubbly, just beginning to turn golden brown.
  • Remove from the oven and cool slightly.
  • When the orange slices are cool, place in a food processor with the cranberries and pulse into a coarse paste.
  • Scrape this mixture into a medium saucepan with 240 mlof water and the pinot noir.
  • Place the pan over medium heat and add the remaining honey, salt and cayenne pepper.
  • Simmer this mixture, stirring often, until it is thickened and syrupy, about 30 to 40 minutes.
  • Remove from the heat and stir in the orange zest.
  • Pour the finished sauce into a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Notes & Wine Advice

The sauce may be refrigerated in a tightly sealed container for up to 2 weeks. Serve with roasted turkey or chicken.
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Course; Sauce

Soursop sweet and sour sauce

Soursop sweet and sour sauce

This is an exotic sauce that is simple to make. Soursop is a tropical fruit found in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It has a naturally sweet and sour flavor profile and a milky white consistency when puréed. Called guanabana in Spanish, soursop is often used in fruit shakes and ice creams. You can find frozen puréed soursop in the freezer section of Caribbean and Spanish markets or, often, in the Latino foods section of traditional supermarkets. We like to use this sauce as a substitute for traditional Chinese sweet and sour sauces in chicken and vegetable stir-fry.
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Ingredients

MAKES: 240 ml

Instructions

  • Combine the soursop, lime juice, chili pepper flakes, garlic powder and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  • Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Add the cornstarch mixture and whisk well.
  • Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 1 to 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
  • Use immediately by drizzling over a chicken and vegetable stir-fry or refrigerate in a tightly sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
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Course; Sauce

Pimenton southern white sauce

Pimenton southern white sauce

This classic southern barbecue sauce is used as a condiment for grilled food rather than an on-grill flavoring. Easy to make, we use ours on everything from pulled pork sandwiches to roasted potatoes or grilled veggies. Whole grain mustard adds texture and bite to the creamy mayonnaise, which is made piquant by the addition of both garlic and horseradish. It’s most delicious on barbecued chicken, and we particularly like to brush finished chicken kebabs with this sauce. You can make this sauce ahead and keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
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Ingredients

MAKES: about 420 ml

Instructions

  • Whisk all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until well combined.
  • Refrigerate in a tightly sealed container until ready to use.

Notes & Wine Advice

Use as a condiment for barbecue chicken.
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Course; Sauce