Sauces

Tomato and basil sauce/ Napolitana sauce

This sauce can be used as a simple pasta sauce, as base sauce for many dishes and is great as a pizza sauce.

• 1 medium/ small brown onion (finely chopped)
• 20ml oil
• 425gm tin crushed tomatoes
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1/4tsp Thyme
• 2 Tbs fresh basil (coarsely chopped)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2 Bay leaf
• 1/4tsp sugar (optional)+

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the chopped onion stir and cook (sauté) until transparent looking. Add the tomatoes and all the other ingredients. Bring the sauce to the boil, and then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for ½ hour.
*If the sauce reduces too much add a bit of water.
+ Tomatoes are sometimes a bit acid, so the sugar counteracts the acidity to give the sauce a more natural flavour.



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Mayonnaise

The Blurb:Mayonnaise is a cold emulsion sauce. When all the ingredients are mixed together they form an emulsion and the oil and vinegar will not sepparate.
Mayonnaise is one of the basic sauces that can be made into many other sauces, such as Cocktail/seafood sauce or Tartare sauce. Or you can experiment and make your own tantalizing taste sensation. I like adding a bit of Wasabi paste, some Kikkoman soy sauce and a touch of garlic or/and fresh ginger, which is great on fresh oysters.

My mayonnaise has more mustard than a lot of recipes but the difference in flavour speaks for itself. It goes great with hot potato chips/ French fries and will make a world of difference to your fav' potato salad.

• 8 egg yolks
• 40 ml white vinegar
• 1 Tbs Dijon mustard
• 1 L oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 50 ml hot water

Place all the ingredients except the oil in a bowl and whisk together. Slowly add the oil while whisking continuously until all the oil is incorporated. Season the mayonnaise with salt. Add the hot water and whisk in. The hot water will help to stabilise the sauce.

*If the mayonnaise becomes too thick when adding the oil, add a little more vinegar or some hot water, then keep adding the rest of the oil. The worst thing which could happen is the sauce breaking (separating). This can occur if you add the oil too fast or the sauce becomes too thick and you don't add a bit more water or vinegar.

To fix the sauce after it breaking, first put a Tbs of boiling water in a new bowl. Give the broken mayonnaise a good whisk and then add spoonfuls of the sauce to the bowl with the hot water, whisking continuously. Add all the broken sauce and then finish the sauce as per the recipe.

Aioli

Aioli is great on fish, chips or any other fried food. Use it instead of mayonnaise for that added garlic flavour

• 6 egg yolks
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 50 ml white vinegar
• 1 tbs dijon mustard
• 2 tbs crushed garlic
• 750 ml vegetable oil
• 50 ml hot water
• salt

Place all the ingredients except the oil in a bowl and whisk together. Slowly add the oil while whisking continuously until all the oil is incorporated. Season the mayonnaise with salt. Add the hot water and whisk in. The hot water will help to stabilise the sauce.

Coctail sauce

The Blurb:This is one of the most well known variations of mayonnaise. This sauce is great with oysters and prawns. I even put it on sandwiches. You may have had cocktail sauce before but this one has a little bit of extra Zing to it. Use fresh Mayonnaise if you have the time to make it. Otherwise buy a good "Home style" Mayonnaise.

• 2 Tbs tomato sauce/ ketchup
• 4 Tbs Mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs cream
• 1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp brandy (optional)
• 2-3 drops Tabasco sauce
• a squeeze lemon juice or lime juice

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Taste the sauce and add a bit more of any of the ingredients if you think the sauce needs it.

Tartare sauce

This sauce is the other well known variation of mayonnaise.

• 1 tsp chopped capers
• 1 Tbs chopped gherkin
• 1 Tbs chopped parsely
• 100 ml Mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients together. Great with any sort of fish, but usually served with fried fish.

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