Sometimes I am fascinated with how quickly food is transformed from its entirety to something unidentifiable. What I love is when you can taste all the wholes that went into a concoction, no matter how deformed, or reformed (I'm an optimist) it becomes. In my travels, both nationally and internationally, I've noticed every place has a sauce. One unique to the location: super versatile in flavor, put on everything, so robust, and there you are left with an overwhelming feeling of "daaaaaaanng," for lack better words. The best ones of these sauces I've had are quite simple to make. Its a little bit of a few things, squished together or blended, with some salt. And, although the taste is something totally new and exciting, you can distinguish the flavors of the once whole parts.
Some of my most memorable of these sauces are so sharp in my mind. In the Andes, there's this sauces that ranges from yellow to green, kind of creamy, super sharp with floral spicy yellow peppers, garlic, sometimes peanuts, sometimes milk, and always full of wild mountain herbs. It tastes like all of these things individually, but it also tastes like the Andes, or at least the rural parts and all their aromatic splendor. Whether you eat it on choclo, cold potatoes, or anticucho, its amazing and its everywhere. In southern france I ate aioli on a lot of things: bouillabaisse, french fries, sandwiches. The ones made with olive oil were so rich, and yet you could taste the egg, fresh oil, garlic, and lemon. That too tasted something like the landscape. I hate mayonaise, but I absolutely loved that. And the Virgin Islands! Where every roadside stand has gatorade bottles full of vinegar with a hole poked in the top, stocked with whole scotch bonnet peppers, garlic, and wild oregano and thyme. Three drops on your pattie (pa-té as its pronounced) or goat curry is almost too much, and yet, the individual flavors permeate the entire plate and there's an instant party in your mouth. And of course, every taqueria has a salsa that's perfect, even if it's different every time. Or that fish sauce concoction you put on Vietnamese noodles. Or even good ol' french onion dip. There, I said it.
My friend Kate taught me one of these recipes. The other one is a bastardized veggie pate I had one when I was twenty. There's a million other sauces I would add here, but maybe they'll come later. Basically, these two are fantastic as condiments for many things (veggies, bread, sandwiches, one's good for tacos, etc). They both have a fairly similar treatment, where you stick everything in the food processor or poke it with the immersion blender and its done. I'll include some variations, too, as nothing is every repeated indentically in my kitchen.
Winter Pate (Mushroom, Beet, or Savory)
2 cups chopped assorted mushrooms or 1 grated beet or 1 stalk of celery, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
1 grated carrot
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 c wine, optional
1/2 c cashews, walnuts, or pecans
soaked in hot water
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste (more than you think)
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, or whatever is laying around), optional
*** for beets and celery option
First, pour some boiling water over the cashews to cover them. They can soak while you do everything else. Next, rough chop the mushrooms, and put them in a hot (medium high) DRY pan. Now walk away. Don't touch the mushrooms for 7-10 minutes. You can get your other ingredients ready now. After 7 minutes you can check to see if they are toasting by picking up one piece of mushroom and looking for browning. If its not there, don't touch the rest. Give the 3 more minutes. After that, right about when they begin to show a bit of smoke, stir them up. They will have lost a lot of volume and sound like you are stirring rubber bands. Stir them for a minute, then scrape them to one half of the pan and add the oil, carrots, garlic, onion, and herbs to the other half. Now, if you don't have mushrooms, and you opten for beet or celery, you ***START HERE (everything in the pan at once). Just let them sit undisturbed for five minutes. This will develop some caramelization on the bottom while you find some old wine. Stir the veggies again, this time incorporating the mushrooms, until everything is soft and browned. Next, throw in the wine, which will quickly evaporate, or don't, your preference. Put everything form the pan into a food processor bowl or immersion blender vessel (I use a mason jar). Add the cashews, lemon, salt, pepper, and 3 tablespoons of water and whizz it till its smooth. I let mine go for a few minutes to whip in a little air. Scrape it down once.
Voila! Where'd everything go? Don't worry, its all there. So savory, warming, and rich. Oooo-wee!
4 juicy lemons or limes, squeezed
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 onion or 2 scallions
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 c cashews, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds, soaked in hot water
1 jalapeño, without seeds, optional
salt to taste
This one is so easy. Soak the nuts or seeds before you do anything else. Everything goes in the food processor or the immersion operation (see the jar above). Add a tablespoon or two of water to thin it to the consistency you wish (I do thinner for dip or sauce and a bit thicker for bread). I whip this one too for a super smooth finish. It's an awesome sauce for roasted or grilled veggies or meats and raw ones, too! So versatile. Oh, Baby. What a transformation!
No comments:
Post a Comment