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By Renee Hopkins 

Sauces create new palettes of flavors.

In food as in life, creativity is often best expressed through contrast, through the exploration of the similarities and differences that lie at the intersecting points of two very different things. Often in cooking, the intersecting points of flavor and texture happen like alchemy in the sauce.

So sauces are often the palettes a chef uses to create new flavors. This can happen by evolution from the expected to the not-so-expected. And it can happen by revolution, as when a chef creates new flavors by subverting diners’ expectations of what sauces are and how they can be used. The history of sauce contains both evolution and revolution. Witness, for example, the revolutionary shift 25 years ago away from the flour-thickened sauces of classic French cuisine and toward the use of moderate amounts of cream, butter, and egg yolks to thicken a sauce.

According to the book Sauces: Classic & Contemporary Sauce Making by James Peterson (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991), the “sudden mass discovery” by Paris chefs of beurre blanc sauce (basically made by whisking cold butter into hot liquid) in the late 1960s may have started, or at least hastened, the demise of floured sauces from French restaurants.

Now, in the ever more health-conscious ’90s, sauces are evolving as chefs eschew cream, butter, and egg yolks in favor of lighter ingredients.

Executive chef Gregory Carso of Chicago’s Metropolitan Club says, “A lot of that — eliminating cream — has to do with our way of life. We don’t need the richness of butter as a binding agent in a sauce.”

Natural reductions — “cooking down” a sauce to make it thicker — are more popular, says Carso. Today’s chefs will also substitute buttermilk or skim milk for heavy cream, or use nonfat sour cream or yogurt to bring a more velvety feel to the sauce.

Sauces work in two ways, according to Carso. They bring out flavors of the accompanying food and they offer contrasting textures, tastes, and looks.

As Carso says, “Chicken is chicken, and what makes it stand out is either marinade or the sauce that accompanies it.” You can take a plain, steamed, chicken breast, dip it in a barbecue sauce, and “change the very makeup of the chicken breast,” he says. “You can fool the senses by having a sweet and sour type of sauce, or go spicy and sweet at the same time, or use other combinations of sauces that would contrast and yet complement each other.” Too many sauces, or too many different kinds, in one meal, are disorienting and heavy; too few sauces or contrasts, and the resulting meal is bland.

In fact, according to Carso, the very place where professional chefs have their fun is in figuring out the interplay of sauces, the foods they should go with, and the order in which they are served. “We have this big kitchen and we are like scientists in a lab, mixing things in beakers and test tubes.”

And, he says, home cooks should get in on the fun. “It’s part of the experimentation of cooking, but the average person is intimidated to try sauces, to experiment. It’s easier to buy a book, put it all together, follow the method.”

But, “a recipe is a nice base, just a guide. Like a golf swing, there’s a fundamental method, but then everyone has their own niche or comfortable position that fits their body style.”

Executive chef Darryl Longo of the Buckhead Club in Atlanta, offers this suggestion: “Average cooks at home should maybe loosen up more. Just open the refrigerator and say, ‘I’ve got all this to make a soup or sauce.’ What’s the worst that could happen? If it doesn’t work, you throw it out and call the local pizza parlor.”

Yet, Carso says, don’t wait until the day you are entertaining guests to experiment with sauces. “Try it on your spouse, the cat, or the dog. But yes, definitely experiment.”

Classic French cooking defines basic “mother sauces” that provide a structure for experimentation: Espagnole, a reduced brown stock with a roux; velouté, a white stock with a white roux; allemande, a white stock with egg yolks added at the end; and béchamel, milk thickened with a white roux. In addition, tomato, hollandaise, and mayonnaise sauces also are often listed as basic sauces.

The cook can also try relishes, pureés, sabayons, vinaigrettes, and salsas. A good guidebook is the aforementioned Sauces, a James Beard Award-winning book that traces the history of sauces and offers exhaustive information and guidance for cooks wanting to brush up on techniques and experiment.

In the spirit of experimentation, Carso and Longo were asked to step through the creative process of deciding which sauce to present with a simple grilled salmon. Chef Carso: “Mushrooms and dill go with salmon, really bring out the flavor….I could make a light dill relish and serve it with a grilled portobello, with red and green peppers and tomatoes, or cucumbers and tomatoes with red onion. I could grill the portobello, slice and fan it out on top of the salmon, with a little balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil, and a bit of lime juice to bring it all together.”

Chef Longo: “With grilled salmon, I’d do a beurre blanc dill, maybe mixed with sherry or orange. You can throw anything in the beurre blanc. I’d have to see what kind of dessert follows the entrée. If you’re going to have a heavy dessert, you have to create a light sauce.”

Chef Longo also points out that the mix of younger and older members at the Buckhead Club allows him to present both traditional and more creative sauces. He personally prefers the “creative” sauces.

“I like the light sauces, the jus. We have a couple of grilled fish dishes on which we only use a light vegetable stock. Sometimes we do flavored light sauces [such as the beurre blanc], with just enough flavor to accent the fish.”

And while you experiment, don’t forget dessert sauces. At their most simple, they can be used to dress up plain bases such as pound cake, angel food cake, or ice cream. Chef Longo describes, “Basically we just make a simple syrup of water and sugar, add fruit, then cook that a little bit. We do have a basic raspberry sauce, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce — basic stuff.” As the grand finale, a dessert is often the most adventurous part of the meal. The mix of sauce and dessert can be a place where the creation of new flavors lies not only in  enhancement, but also in contrasts. In this spirit, Longo offers this suggestion for a highly creative dessert sauce: Chocolate mousse with a sauce made from passion fruit or pomegranate sauce. Now that’s a creative finish.


Chipotle Mayonnaise

  • 1 cup mayonnaise (see below)

  • Chipotle powder to taste

  • 1 tablespoon each red and green pepper, finely diced (for color)

  • 1⁄2 teaspoon cilantro, chopped

  • Juice of one-half lime

To prepared mayonnaise, add chipotle powder, peppers, cilantro, and lime juice. Stir to mix thoroughly and adjust seasonings to taste. Makes one cup. Good combination for poultry and hearty fish such as snapper, swordfish, mahi mahi, or other fish that won’t fall apart at a touch.

Mayonnaise: Use a fat-free or low cholesterol store-bought mayonnaise, or make your own using a recipe that calls for cooked instead of raw egg yolks. A recommended source is Sauces by James Peterson.
Executive chef Greg Carso, Metropolitan Club, Chicago

 

Cranberry Coulis

  • 1 (12-ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries

  • 1 cup granulated sugar

  • 2 cups water

Combine cranberries, sugar, and water in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes, until cranberries have softened and their skins have popped.

Remove from heat. Pureé immediately and strain. Bring back to a quick boil and then let sauce cool. Skim off any foam that has formed on the surface. Store coulis covered in the refrigerator, but serve at room temperature. If coulis is too thick after it has cooled, thin with water. Makes approximately 3 cups. Serve with pound or angel food cake.
Executive chef Darryl Longo Buckhead Club, Atlanta

 

Sherry Orange Beurre Blanc

  • 1 shallot, chopped

  • 1 cup dry sherry wine

  • 1 cup fresh orange juice

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 4 to 5 black peppercorns

  • 1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature

  • Salt and pepper to taste

Combine shallot, sherry, orange juice, bay leaf, and peppercorns in saucepan over medium heat. Reduce until approximately 3⁄4 of liquid is gone.

Reduce heat to low and add whole soft butter by whisking in a little at a time, making sure each addition is completely incorporated before adding more. Continue until all butter is used and season with salt and pepper. Makes approximately 2 cups. Sauce should be served warm, not hot or cold, with grilled salmon, shrimp, or scallops.
Executive chef Darryl Longo Buckhead Club, Atlanta

 

Bourbon Sauce

  • 6 egg yolks

  • 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar

  • 3⁄4 cup bourbon whiskey

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 1 1⁄2 cups heavy cream

Whip the egg yolks and sugar together until just combined. Whisk in bourbon. Place mixture in double boiler over simmering water and whisk constantly until mixture has thickened to ribbon stage (when you let mixture drop from a spoon, it falls in a thin ribbon). Remove from heat and continue to whisk until mixture cools. Add vanilla.

Whip heavy cream just until thickened to a very soft consistency. Stir into yolk mixture a little at a time. Adjust consistency of the sauce as desired by adding unwhipped heavy cream to thin, or whipped heavy cream to make it thicken. Serve cold or at room temperature on plain pound or angel food cake, berries, or fruit tarts. Makes 4 cups. Bourbon sauce may be stored covered in the refrigerator for three or four days. If sauce separates, whisk until it is combined again.
Executive chef Darryl Longo Buckhead Club, Atlanta

 

Apple and Chicken Jus

  • 1 1⁄4 cups strong chicken stock

  • 3⁄4 cup apple cider

Blend and simmer over low to medium heat until mixture is reduced by one-half cup. Season with sage if the stock was not too strong at the outset. Season with salt and pepper, or maybe a hint of clove and nutmeg, to taste. This sauce can be served with chicken, turkey, pork, duck, or game birds such as quail or capon. Makes 1 cup.
Executive chef Greg Carso, Metropolitan Club, Chicago

 

Oven-Roasted Garlic and Fennel Marinara

  • 5 cloves of garlic

  • 3⁄4 cup prepared marinara sauce (see below)

  • 1 cup fresh fennel

  • 1 cup fennel seed

  • 1⁄4 cup olive oil

  • 1 ounce red wine

Roast garlic until tender. Sauté fresh fennel and fennel seed in olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, marinara, red wine; adjust seasonings. Makes one cup. Good with pasta, fish, poultry, meat, and vegetables.

Marinara Sauce:
Use store-bought marinara or make your own. A recommended  recipe can be found in 365 Easy Low-Calorie Recipes by Sylvia Schur and Vivian Schulte (Harper Collins Publishers, 1990).
Executive chef Greg Carso, Metropolitan Club,Chicago

 

Warm Thai Tomato Vinaigrette

  • 1 teaspoon red pepper chili paste (often available at Asian supermarkets)

  • 1 1⁄4 cups V 8 Juice

  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil

  • 1 teaspoon water

  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce

  • Splash of curry powder

Blend all ingredients over medium heat until combined and slightly thickened. Adjust seasonings. Makes one cup. The Metropolitan Club currently serves this sauce on a grilled, chilled vegetable napoleon pastry. Chef Carso says you can also use it on chicken, Asian salad with oriental vegetables with baby greens and warm chicken breasts, grilled lobster tail, or tuna layered over the top. He also suggests you toss this sauce at the last minute before serving it with angel hair or rice noodle pasta.
Executive chef Greg Carso, Metropolitan Club, Chicago

Writer Renee Hopkins has been writing about food for more than 15 years.