Making sauces?

[amy1985]

AAnyone got any tips on how to make sauces, and more specifically, how to take them from a bunch of mixed up liquids to something with more... saucelike texture? I know you can add cornflour but I'd love to avoid the calories if I can. I've been experimenting lately and I'd love to be able to stop being such a slave to recipe websites.

The idea would be something like meat with a sauce and vegetables (I tried to make a bolognese sauce and a chicken stirfry sauce last week, neither of which worked particularly well)

 

[Emerald1]

You could use some of the food you're actually cooking to make a sauce. For example with a meat and vegetables meal, you can take some of the cooked veggies that you've made so far and put them in a blender/food processor until they are like mush (or a thick sauce) then pour it into a sauce pan or skillet and add a liquid like broth or water. There you have a thick sauce with no added calories than you would have eaten anyway and you didn't even use flour to do it. Then on a plate put your meat, vegetables and new vegetable sauce (poured on your meat?) ^_^


I've done this to thicken soups when I didn't want to use flour or corn starch. I would take half of the pot of soup, blend it up then pour it back in the main pot. The whole pot of soup would then be thick and hearty.


*It only works well when the food you want to blend is already cooked. It will turn out a bit differently if you do it when they are raw. But it will still be ok if you cook them after that.*


I hope that made since.