Category Archives: sauce

Pecan-whole grain tarator sauce

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Pecan tarator sauce

I was thinking about tarator sauce the other day. The word means different things to different people, and contains different ingredients in various locations around the globe. For me, a tarator sauce is a combination of nuts, bread-soaked-in-water and seasonings. It is a thing of wonder! These unlikely elements combine to form something subtly flavored, smooth, creamy, and completely dairy-free! At first, I generally used pine nuts and white bread, garlic and lemon. Definitely delicious. Then I used almonds, because they’re also lovely and much cheaper. I made this savory vanilla sauce, for instance. And a tarator sauce can make the base of a creamy soup. My version of Jane Austen’s white soup combines an almond tarator sauce with white beans and cauliflower.

I’ve always thought of tarator as a pale ivory concoction, and I’ve generally used pale nuts and white bread. Well, the other day, faced with a very tasty but rapidly aging loaf of whole grain bread, I thought, why not make a tarator sauce with that? And I used pecans, because they have a wonderful distinctive flavor. And I used balsamic instead of lemon juice, for a little depth. And then I added roasted garlic, thyme, and rosemary, because it seemed to need all those things. Turned out delicious! We ate it as a sort of dip for butternut squash-pecan dumplings. But tarator sauce is very versatile. It’s good with french fries, or on roasted vegetables, or as a dip for anything you can think of dipping in it.

Here’s Soul Sauce from Cal Tjader

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Fennel, white beans, walnuts …

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… tomatoes, olives, capers, white wine, rosemary…
We’ve decided to have a lot of saucy soups and stews this week. Not sure why, it just seems like a good second-week-of-January menu. This particular saucy stewy dish is the kind of meal that is quick and healthy, but that you would make even if it wasn’t, because it tastes so good. Everybody in my family ate it in a slightly different fashion. I had it as a kind of warm salad, over red leaf lettuce and arugula, topped with gorgonzola, which got a little wilty and was really nice with the walnuts and fennel. My littlest son had it with pasta. Which is to say he ate a bowl of pasta and butter. My older son had the white bean … ragu, shall we call it? over gemelli pasta, and my husband had a mixture of pasta and arugula with his ragu. My favorite part of this meal was the walnuts. A nice unexpected crunch, a lovely toasty flavor. This would also be good with rice, or just a nice loaf of crusty bread.

Here’s King Curtis’ wonderful Memphis Soul Stew. I love this kind of song, I really do.
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Spinach pesto croquettes

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pesto croquettes

You know what I love about these very green croquettes? They combine something very wintery (mashed potatoes leftover from Christmas dinner) with something very summery (pesto I made back when basil was abundant, and have stashed in my freezer for just such an occasion.) At the end of the summer I gathered armfuls of basil, and as I turned it into pesto, I imagined myself on a cold winter’s day, after the festivities of Christmas, with nothing but months of bleak winter ahead…sniff…sob…taking out spoonful of pesto and being reminded of a glowing late-summer day.

Other than that, though, these are uncomplicated, comforting war-ration-we-can’t-afford-any-meat fare. I tried to make them very simple, so that my sons would eat them, so it’s just potatoes, breadcrumbs, pesto, and mozzarella. But there’s nothing in it that you don’t like!!

These are easy, pretty, and very green. A good way to use up leftover mashed potatoes! I served them with a bright red simple tomato sauce, that I made quite smoky and spicy with paprika and red pepper flakes.

Here’s Blackalicious’ Green Light, Now Begin.
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Slow cooked urad dal and black-eyed peas

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urad dal and black-eyed peas

My son got a couple of science experiment kits for christmas. I got a slow-cooker. I’ve never had one before! I like the idea of trying to figure out how to use it without reading too much about it. I feel just like a 6-year-old with a box full of mad experiments to try!!

The first thing I thought to cook in the big beautiful black stoneware pot was Urad Dal. I bought some this summer at an Indian grocery store. They’re beautiful, tiny, black ovoid lentils. They need to cook for a loooooong time, on a looooooow heat. And then they turn out delcious! I matched them with black-eyed peas, because they both have an earthy flavor, and because I liked the little black beans with white spots, and the larger white beans with black spots. I seasoned them with allspice, ginger, cardamom, coriander and basil. Bright and sweet – to go with the earthy. And I cooked them in butter, because Dal Makhani, the traditional urad dal dish, is cooked with butter, yogurt and cream, and I wanted to give a nod to that. Turned out yummy! I cooked it for 6 hours on high, and I think it would have been done an hour earlier, but I wasn’t home. Very tasty with basmati rice and cauliflower in a spicy cashew-almond sauce. It’s not the prettiest dish you’ve ever made, but if you stir in some chopped tomatoes and cilantro at the end, it will have a bit of color and fresh flavor.

This was fun to make in a slow cooker, because I could leave the house with minimal fear of burning it down. But I’ve also cooked urad dal on a low burner for 5 hours, and that’s worked, too. So if you don’t have a slow cooker…don’t despair.

Of course it’s got to be Slow and Low by the Beastie Boys. That is the tempo!!
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spicy cashew almond sauce

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cashew almond sauce

This is a warm-colored, warm-flavored sauce – I picked the spices because they look nice together, but as I have surmised before, this means they taste good together, too! This sauce is extremely versatile. I like it with cauliflower and petit peas, because the flavors and textures go so well. But it would also be good with just about any other vegetable, or with chickpeas, and probably with chicken, though, obviously I don’t know a thing about that!! It’s creamy but dairy-free, and it has a nice nutty, sweet, spicy taste loved by children and adults alike. It’s also quick and easy to make, which is always an advantage.

Here’s MF Doom with Tumeric.
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Artichoke Heart Salsa

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Artichoke heart salsa


Or further adventures in my search for the perfect tart/sweet/salty/spicy food. This combines the briny saltiness of artichoke hearts (from a can, I’m afraid, but there’s nowt wrong with canned artichokes, lad!), the tartness of lime, the sweetness of tomatoes and honey, and the peppery bite of cayenne. It’s very quick to make, and it goes well with emapanadas, chips, crackers…my son liked it so much he pulled the whole bowl over and practically ate it with a spoon.

Here’s Salsa by Johnny Pacheco.
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Spicy chickpeas with cauliflower, raisins & olives

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File under “C” – Chickpeas, cauliflower, chard, cumin, cayenne…

Everyone in my family has started on the winter cycle of sniffles, so I thought it would be nice to have something brothy and spicy – something that clears your head when you breathe in the vapors. We had this over pasta, but it would also be good with couscous or rice, or even with just a crusty loaf of bread. The seasoning is simple but slightly unusual – thyme, allspice, cumin, and as much cayenne as you like. “Raisins and olives?” you cry! In the same dish! Yes! They’re actually delicious together. The raisins impart a mysterious sweetness, and the olives lend their good old olive-y saltiness. Finished with a squeeze of lemon and topped with crumbled goat cheese, this easy, quick workaday dinner has a complex blend of spicy, sweet and tart that goes together perfectly, and makes it quite memorable.

Here’s Wild Mountain Thyme by the Tannahill Weavers. Bloomin’ heather!
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Broccoli & Garlic Sauce

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brocolli with garlic sauce

This is my version of the dish that’s on every take out Chinese food menu in America. I’ve always loved it, and I’ve been known to eat a quart of it all by myself. Lately, however, it’s seemed unpleasantly sweet and sticky. I don’t think the dish has changed, it’s probably just me getting sour in my old age, and wanting my food to keep pace with me. I decided to make a less sweet, brothier version. It’s simple as pie to make, takes no time at all, and is very tasty – retaining the appealing salty/sweet/hot dynamic without the heavy syrup.

Here’s Immortal Technique’s diatribe against preachy vegetarians Beef and Broccoli. (Don’t listen if you don’t like sweary music!!) I’ve been a vegetarian since I was twelve, but I’ve got a sense of humor about it, and I think this song is pretty funny (but it has a lot of curse words! You’ve been warned!)
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Port wine tomato sauce w. olives and mushrooms

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This sauce is incredibly easy, and it turned out very very delicious and quite beautiful, with its rich dark red broth. It’s a little like sofrito, because I cooked it for quite a while, so that it would be intensely flavored. And it’s a little like puttanesca, because it has olives and capers in it. And the port wine gives it a deep sweet acidity. It’s a drunken sofrito puttanesca!!

We had it with the roasted butternut squash and greens pie, and the combination was uncannily good – a little sweet, a little tart, a little richly acidic. My boys ate it with gemelli pasta – also a good choice!

port wine-tomato sauce

Here’s bluesman Bill Samuels singing about Port Wine.
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Romesco sauce

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romesco sauce

Everybody loves romesco sauce! (Well, everybody except my 6-year-old son, but he claims to have eaten earthworms, so his taste is suspect. Shocking, I know! We’re vegetarian!) When people first taste romesco sauce, their faces instantly light up, and they have to eat some more and they say, “What is this? It’s delicious!” I’ve seen it happen many times!

Romesco sauce is a combination of roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes, hazlenuts, almonds, bread, and lots of paprika. In an ideal world, you’d roast the peppers over an open fire, and roast the tomatoes for hours in your oven. In a slightly less ideal world, you’d roast the peppers on the flame of your gas burner. Sigh. I don’t have a gas stove, so I broil my peppers, and they turn out fine. And this time of year, I cheat and use roasted tomatoes from a can. (Hunts fire-roasted diced, as it happens). You could also use peppers from a jar. This sauce will still taste good!

It’s a very versatile sauce. Good with roasted vegetables, good as a dip for chips or crackers, good on sliced baguette, good as a pizza sauce, a pasta sauce, a sauce for savory pies (particularly those with lots of greens) or croquettes.

Here’s Art Pepper’s Red Pepper Blues.
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