Sauces can transform a dish, especially if you’re entertaining, says resident foodie Katy Hofstede-Smith.
Being able to entertain at short notice or on days when you’re really feeling like just putting your feet up with a take-away is so much easier if you have a few emergency sauce recipes to fall back on. Master these when you’ve got time, not people coming over for dinner and they’ll help you to transform an easy weekday dinner into something which feels a little more special.
Hollandaise has to be the ultimate go to sauce to master. The thought of making it may strike fear into most home cooks but once you’ve practiced a few times and found a recipe that you like it really is very simple and can last for a couple of days in the fridge. Best of all you can use it to transform an ultra simple starter such as poached asparagus (yes, asparagus season is finally getting closer!) or a ready bought dressed crab, which becomes a very special treat with some homemade hollandaise and crusty bread. As a sauce it is also incredibly versatile, add in a few chopped herbs to make a lovely sauce for fish, béarnaise for steaks and red meat or make with red wine vinegar and blood orange juice to pair well with duck and pork.
Learning how to make a really good meaty jus is also invaluable either as a base to be jazzed up with black cherries, blackberries or red currants or to be served alongside a simple roasted or pan fried piece of meat and vegetables. The key to a really good jus is good stock, and the key to easy entertaining is buying it. There are so many amazing fresh stocks for sale nowadays at either supermarkets or farm shops that there really is no reason for using the stock cube option when entertaining, you really will taste the difference and the depth and flavour of a good stock will rapidly transform your jus to a deliciously restaurant quality sauce.
Katy