Recipe of the Week: A Tale of Two Sauces...

Recently I have made two sauces I am very happy with. I couldn't decide which one was better or which I wanted to talk about more, so I decided both. Instead of focusing on the whole meal I will just talk about the sauces I created for the meal.

First up; Curry Sauce

I created this curry for a beef dish. Having never made curry before I did a good bit of research first even though I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do anyway. After looking at recipe after recipe I decided to just wing it how I wanted to anyway. Last, a lot of the "quick" curry recipes I found were based in mayonnaise, gross.

Anyway on to my curry, I like food to have a bit of spice but not be overly hot, I just don't enjoy it. I went with mild curry powder, but if you like it hot use medium or even hot curry powder.

Ingredients;
1 can coconut milk (1 3/4 cup)
1 1/2 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
1 tsp. yellow Indian mustard
1 tsp. salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon (no I don't have a real measurement)
2 Tbsp. minced onion (ish)
1 large clove of garlic (minced)
1 Medium splash of good white wine

In a small/medium pot bring the coconut milk to a slight boil. Add all ingredients. Stir until blended evenly. Bring back to a slight boil, Then turn down heat and let it sit for 20 minutes stirring every few minutes. It is fairly quick and simple, also quite delicious. I found it has a great initial flavor and just a little bit of heat that slowly creeps up.

Sauce #2; Sweet and Spicy Barbecue

Like many people I love barbecue. Today I decided I was going to make my own barbecue sauce. I have helped friends make their own sauce before. Again I did a bit of research before jumping right in but again I just could not find one I liked. I did find one that i really did not like which was equal parts ketchup and Pepsi, I understand why this would work but it just sems wrong to me. Very, very wrong. Jump right in I go...

Ingredients;

2 cups ketchup (use plain ketchup with as few additives as possible)
1 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. white vinegar (I think next time I will try white wine in place of this)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. papper
2 1/2 tsp. chili powder
2/3 tsp. cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon squeezed

Mix all ingredients into a small pot, stir and heat to a slight boil. Turn down heat and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.

I created this for use on several chicken drumsticks so it is quite a bit of sauce... You might want to cut all ingredients in half if just making a couple of chicken breasts or smaller meals. But, I found it to be a tasty and sweet sauce with just a little bit of heat.


"What I've enjoyed most, though, is meeting people who have a real interest in food and sharing ideas with them. Good food is a global thing and I find that there is always something new and amazing to learn - I love it!"
~Jamie Oliver