I'm Just Here for the Food (39 page)

Tilt the pan so that the sauce collects at the base of the wall and spoon it onto the meat, not on the side. Don’t pour straight from the pan, because you never know when some brown bit on the bottom was actually a burned bit, which won’t dissolve as readily as its unburned pan-mates. Spooning will prevent you from delivering burned crunchy things to the platter along with an otherwise perfect sauce.

Gravy

If the food in question is a large roast—a pork loin or a turkey, for example—a gravy might be appropriate. (My general rule is that unless the critter gets carved after cooking, gravy just wouldn’t be right.) Gravy is a starch-thickened sauce. Traditional American gravies are based on either meat drippings or milk, thickened with starch. The word gravy comes from the Latin
granatus
or “full of grains.”

The easiest way to make gravy is to take advantage of what is in the pan when the roast comes out of the oven: fond and a fat that’s full of the flavor of the food you just took out of the pan. Of course, if the food in question was dredged in flour before being sautéed or pan-fried (you’d never dredge a food destined for searing, would you?) then you are already in possession of a basic roux, which you must take advantage of.

Choose Your Starch

Starches make great thickeners. When individual starch granules meet up with hot liquids, they break open, releasing long chains of glucose. If there’s enough of them, they tangle up and trap liquid, thickening the sauce. But some starches work better than others in different applications.

Root starches, such as potato starch, arrowroot, and tapioca, thicken at relatively low temperatures, so although they’re great for pie fillings and clear glazes, they thin out at higher temperatures and don’t fare well when stirred. Therefore, they are not the wisest choice for gravies. That leaves flours and cornstarch. One advantage of using flour is that it starts to thicken before reaching a simmer, and if you keep it on a very low simmer the sauce will become smoother. Wheat starch is the most sauce-friendly starch, and the lower the protein the better. That means that cake or pastry flours work best—the resulting gravy will smooth out in half the time. All-purpose flour, a kitchen cupboard staple, is fine too, but don’t use bread or whole wheat flour. And remember, sauces thickened with flour continue to thicken a bit as they cool, so don’t make them too thick to begin with.

Cornstarch comes from the endosperm (the central portion) of the corn kernel. It’s commonly used as a thickener and because it has the tendency to form lumps, is typically mixed with cold water to form a paste before being added to a hot mixture. Sauces thickened with cornstarch will be clear, as opposed to those thickened with flour, which will be opaque.

Roux Rules of Thumb

A roux isn’t picky about the liquid it thickens; it only cares about how much of it there is to thicken. Three tablespoons of all-purpose flour will thicken 1 cup of liquid. As far as fat is concerned, 2 tablespoons of fat to every 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour is a good rule to follow.

You can cook up a roux to suit your specific need. Varying in degrees of darkness—from white to blond to brick, depending on how long they’re cooked—roux can be quite different from one another. The darker a roux gets the more color and nutty flavor it’ll bring to a sauce. But the darker a roux is, the less thickening power it has. One ounce of white roux has the thickening power of 4 ounces of brick roux. Average roux cooking times are 5 to 10 minutes for white, 10 to 15 minutes for blond, and 20 minutes or more for brick.

Blue Butter

What all fashionable steaks are wearing this season—and for all the right reasons. It’s tangy, creamy, herby, and easy, all at the same time.

Application: Sautéing

Heat the sauté pan and add the oil. Sweat the shallot for 1 to 2 minutes then add the chile flakes to toast. (The chile is here to add a slight background heat. It shouldn’t be such a presence that the end result is spicy at all.) Add half of the parsley and toss to coat with oil then add the wine. Put the paddle attachment on an electric mixer and beat the butter for about 1 minute, then add the shallot mixture and the cheese and beat to combine. Add some black pepper and stop the mixer and taste to check the seasoning. If needed, add some more pepper and salt. (You may not need any salt, as blue cheese is pretty salty.) Fold in the remaining parsley, transfer the butter onto 4 pieces of waxed paper and roll into four logs. Put in the freezer to harden and then remove the waxed paper. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for use soon or store it the freezer for up to 4 months. Label the logs and production date using a permanent marker.

Yield: 1 pound blue cheese butter

Note:
A word on parsley: it’s grown in sandy topsoil, so it needs to be thoroughly washed. Wash it once or twice before chopping it and then put it in a container half full of water and stir it once. Then let it settle. Lift the clean parsley out of the water and squeeze to dry. There’s nothing worse than herb and sand compound butter.

Software :

1 teaspoon olive oil
3 tablespoons minced shallot
Pinch of chile flakes
3 tablespoons minced parsley
(see
Note
)
2 tablespoons white wine
¾ pound unsalted butter, softened
¼ pound blue cheese at room
temperature (Saga, Maytag, or
Stilton are all good)
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt, if needed

Hardware :

Sauté pan
Electric mixer with paddle
attachment
Rubber spatula
Waxed paper
Plastic wrap
Permanent marker

Compound Butters

Either of these butters can be used as cooking fats, or sauces—or just melted on a steak. You can substitute any herbs to make the herbed butter work for just about any application.

HERBED COMPOUND BUTTER

Application: Sautéing

Heat a sauté pan and add the oil; add the shallots and sweat for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until almost dry. Toss in the parsley and remove from the heat. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer and attach the paddle. Beat the butter for 1 minute, then add the shallot mixture and season with salt and pepper. Mix to blend and taste; adjust seasoning. Fold in the basil. Transfer to 4 pieces of waxed paper and roll into 4 logs. Freeze to harden, then remove the waxed paper. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Label the logs and production date using a permanent marker.

POACHED GARLIC COMPOUND BUTTER

Application: Poaching

Place the garlic in a small saucepan and add just enough oil to cover the cloves. Heat over a low flame (do not allow the oil to “boil”), until the garlic is caramel brown and soft, about 20 minutes. Drain off the oil and reserve (see
Note
). Allow the garlic to cool to room temperature. Place the garlic and the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and blend, using the paddle attachment. Add the wine, salt, and pepper, then wrap and store as described above.

Yield: 1 pound compound butter

Note:
The reserved garlic oil can be saved for other uses. Store in the refrigerator for no longer than 1 month.

Software For Herbed Compound Butter:

1 teaspoon olive oil
4 tablespoons minced shallots
¼ cup white wine
2 tablespoons finely chopped
parsley (see
Note
)
1 pound unsalted butter, softened
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons basil cut into fine
chiffonade

For hed Garlic

Compound Butter:

3 heads of garlic, broken into cloves
and peeled
Vegetable oil
¾ pound unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons white wine
Kosher salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Hardware :

Sauté pan or small sauce pan
Electric mixer with paddle attachment
Rubber spatula
Waxed paper
Plastic wrap
Permanent marker

Clam Sauce (White)

Best served with linguini—and a great crusty bread for soaking up the sauce.

Application: Steaming, Sautéing , Simmering

Rinse the clams under cold water to remove any sand or mud. Commercial clams are usually pretty clean, but it’s still good practice to wash them. Pour the wine and clam juice into the pot and set the basket in it. Place the clams in the basket in as even a layer as possible. Turn the heat to high and put the lid on the pot loosely or the liquid will boil up and over. Keep your eyes on the pot. Once the liquid is creating steam well, remove the lid. Using tongs, pull the clams out and transfer to a large bowl as they open. Once they’ve all opened, remove the pot from the heat. Strain the liquid and reserve for use in the sauce. Pull the clam meat from the shells.

For the sauce: Heat a small sauce pan and add some oil. Sauté the onion and garlic until fragrant. Add the wine and cook until almost dry. Add the reserved liquid and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Toss in the parsley and cheese. Finish by stirring in the poached garlic compound butter and clam meat.

Yield: enough sauce for 4 servings of pasta

Software for the clams :

40 littleneck clams
½ cup white wine
1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice
For the sauce :
Olive oil
½ medium onion, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
¼ cup white wine
1 cup reserved liquid from
steaming clams
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon
Poached Garlic Compound Butter

Hardware :

Heavy pot with lid
Steamer basket
Tongs
Large bowl
Fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth
or coffee filter
Small sauce pan
Wooden spoon

Clam Sauce (Red)

Most of the red sauces you come across in restaurants are something like Manhattan chowder poured over pasta. This one is more like a fresh tomato pan sauce with clams—best with angel hair pasta.

Application: Steaming, Sautéing , Simmering

Prepare the steamed clams following the method described on the opposite page.

For the sauce: Heat the sauté pan and add the oil. Sauté the garlic briefly, until just colored then add the chile flakes. After just a second, the oils in the chile flakes will be released—look out though, chile flakes can burn in a hurry. Add the tomatoes and cook until just softened. Add enough of the reserved liquid to make the sauce a consistency you like. Season with salt and pepper, add the herbs, then bring the sauce together by stirring in the poached garlic butter. Add the clam meat.

Yield: enough sauce for 4 servings of pasta

Software :

40 steamed littleneck clams
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
Pinch of chile flakes
3 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded
and diced (about 1 cup)
About ½ cup reserved liquid from
steaming clams
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh basil, cut into fine
chiffonade
1 tablespoon oregano, leaves only
1 tablespoon
Poached Garlic Compound Butter

Hardware :

Sauté pan