SAUCY MAGIC
Delicious and versatile, easy concoctions perk up bland meats and fish
Do you have to restrict what you eat for a food allergy, or like me, diabetes? Do you feel that you never again will eat something delicious?
Does the very word “sauce” scare you or conjure up thoughts of slaving over a hot double boiler?
When you are punched in the gut with the news you have diabetes and you may have to severely limit the foods that you have always enjoyed, it seems that you world becomes full of “you can’ts.” When you hate to cook as well, your world seems full of I won’ts.
I am here to remind you that you can! It is not all that painful to eat a delicious diet that also works for the way you now need to live.
Please remember that for all of the things you need to remove or really cut down on with a diet, there are still a gazillion things that you can eat a lot of and, more importantly, want to eat. Start with meat, fish, chicken, vegetables. There really are fun things out there that you can eat.
I have these outrageously easy, delicious and versatile sauces that will take even the blandest and most ordinary and dull foods to absolute lusciousness. I like and use them so often I call them my “magic” sauces. These simple accent sauces will take your tastebuds to new and very happy heights.
Each sauce should take you under five minutes to prepare. I kept the mayonnaise based sauce in my fridge for weeks because there is always something to use it on, and if I have it ready, I don’t need to stop to make a batch.
One has four ingredients and the other only three.
What is working for me is making the things that I eat taste better, be a little different each time I prepare the dish, and experimenting with flavors and foods that I enjoy, but in new ways. This does not have to be either hard or particularly time consuming. These tricks are not just for diabetics. I have been using most of them in my kitchen since I was a young cook.
Here are a few tricks I use to expand my menus and keep me and others from getting bored.
When preparing steak, chicken or pork I like to do a quick finish to the dish by making a pan sauce. I remove the meat from the pan and keep it warm. I add a little butter to the pan and some thinly sliced shallots. Stir them for not more than a minute, and deglaze the pan with a liquid. Take your choice of wines, sherry, brandy, chicken stock, beef stock and mushroom broth that is
leftover from rehydrating dried wild mushrooms. I let this reduce for two to three minutes, and if have some mushrooms on hand, toss them into the sauce to warm and spoon it all over the meat. The whole sauce takes very little time or effort.
REMOULADE SAUCE
Serving size: 2 tablespoons Net carbohydrates: 4 g
½ cup mayonnaise with olive oil 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon coarse grained mustard 1 teaspoon white wine or cider vinegar Mix together until smooth.
ROYAL CAPER SAUCE
Serving size: 2 tablespoons Net carbohydrates: 3 g ½ cup sour cream (Breakstones is my favorite) 1 tablespoon capers, ½ small shallot, minced
Rinse and drain the capers (if you don’t, the sauce gets too salty). Chop them together with the shallot. Combine with the sour cream.
STEAK WITH A CAPER SAUCE
Serves 2 Carbohydrates: 4 g per serving
2 6-ounce portions of steak (the best cut you can afford) 1½ inches thick Salt & pepper to taste 1 shallot or 4 scallions (white and light green parts only)
1 clove of garlic, grated or very finely minced
½ teaspoon dried tarragon 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon butter
½ cup dry red wine 1 tablespoon capers rinsed and drained
Mince half of the shallot or two of the scallions. Combine with salt, pepper, garlic, tarragon and ½ teaspoon of the olive oil. Rub on the steak. Refrigerate for 45 minutes up to 24 hours. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat a skillet to medium high. Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet. Add the steaks and cook for 4 minutes per side. Remove from the skillet and put into an ovenproof baking pan and place into the hot oven for 10-15 minutes (depending on desired doneness).
Thinly slice the remaining shallot or scallions.
After cooking the steaks to the desired doneness, remove from the oven and cover with foil to rest.
Reheat the skillet you cooked the steak in. When it is hot, add the butter and shallot or scallions. Cook until golden, add the wine and cook for 3-4 minutes to reduce by half. Add the capers. Pour any juices that have gathered in the pan holding the steak to the skillet and combine. Plate the steak and spoon the pan sauce over the meat.