The Simple Sauce

Many foods demand a good sauce or gravy. All of which are based on one of the five "mother sauces" of cuisine. Luckily for you and me, we do not have to know how to create these mother's because they are almost all readily available in the local supermarket, with the exception maybe of the cream sauce, which is milk and flour and butter. That is pretty easy and I will get around to some recipes with that later, like a good macaroni and cheese, and chicken pot pie that you could be proud to serve even to adults.

So, if you tried the smothered chicken recipe then you know how to make a simple "pan sauce" which is nothing more than deglazing the pan in which a meat was cooked, with a flavorful liquid and perhaps adding a bit of flavorful fat, such as butter, cream or oil.

That is a technique that you can really use and build on. For example, the chicken can be replaced with steak and rather than chicken broth you can use beef broth or red wine. You can also do the same with pork chops or pork tenderloin medallions, I would leave off the cheese, and for adults you could use a fortified wine like Marsala for the pan sauce.

So now I would like to say a few words about heavy cream and butter. You should buy a pint of ultra pasteurized heavy cream and keep it in your refrig. The date on the ultra stuff is pretty long, about 6 weeks. And if you divide this up over a 4-6 week period among the number of family members this is not going to kill you. Nor is REAL butter. These ingredients are just indespenable when it comes to cooking flavorful dishes.

I don't care how much propaganda you hear about the evils of fat, you have got to get over it and understand that in moderation you can use real foods such as butter and cream and cook fresh foods in a healthy way. My grandparents did not used processed foods and spreads and packaged sauce mixes that came from a chemistry lab. They lived to 90+ years because they worked hard and ate well. So tell the food police to F off and buy fresh, buy organic, but eat real food and you will be just fine.