Ideal for your next dinner party, barbecue or simply for a midweek treat.
Sometimes, a sauce is the difference between a good and a great dish. Actually, scrap that; a great sauce can lift the inedible to something truly delicious, we think. They’re that vital to mealtimes. Let’s face it; without gravy, your roast is just dry vegetables and meat. And bereft of ketchup or mayo, fish’n’chips is greasy, salty and one dimensional. There, we said it.
But what if we were to tell you that you could elevate your dinner times even higher, by making these store cupboard staples from scratch. You’ll never look at that shop-bought pesto in the same way again. With these sweeping, absolute statements in mind, here are 5 sauces and condiments which taste so much better homemade, IDEAL for your next dinner party, barbecue or simply for a midweek treat.
GENERAL TSO
If you regularly eat Chinese food, then you’re probably familiar with the perennially popular General Tso’s chicken. It’s a staple for nights when you do Chinese takeout, and even better at the source, from Peng’s Restaurant on New York’s East 44th Street. But if you want to eat an authentic version of this Chinese/American classic, the good news is this; you can make General Tso’s sauce at home, and actually, it’s rather easy to do.
The hardest part, some might argue, is collecting the appropriate ingredients. These include some rice wine and vinegar, dark soy sauce and sesame oil.
These are all easily available in supermarkets, but if you can’t find them, check out your local Chinese supermarket; they deserve our support right now. What’s great about making your own homemade version of this sauce is that you can actually store it for a long time, owing to the preservative power of the vinegar and sugar.
MAYONNAISE
If you have never tried homemade mayonnaise then you’re in for a treat; it’s just way nicer than the store-bought stuff, and can be edited and tweaked to suit your tastes, too. Homemade mayonnaise is also a lot healthier than that which you might buy from the supermarket because there’s no added sugar and you can also choose a better oil to emulsify your sauce with, too.
And you just need a few ingredients to make this famous condiment. They are usually pantry staples which you’ll have in the house anyway; egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and an oil of your choosing (the more neutral in flavour, the better, in our honest opinion).
While some make their mayonnaise by hand, with some serious wrist and whisk action, you can actually use your food processor, too. In just five minutes, you can have delicious mayonnaise ready for use on a variety of dishes.
PESTO
Pesto is another ubiquitous sauce whose flavour is night and day when comparing shop-bought to homemade. If you want to make your own recipe at home, all you will need is basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and olive oil. Some recipes will also call for pecorino sauce for that extra depth of flavour, and we’re down with the umami funk it brings.
To make your pesto taste better, make sure that you only use fresh garlic and that your pine nuts are lightly toasted. Of course, don’t just choose any olive oil; since it’s not going to see direct heat, extra virgin is best here.
And if you have wilting herbs or leaves in the fridge which look like they’re on the way out, you can turn them into a delicious leftover leaf pesto. Sustainable, resourceful and versatile, this sauce can be used with pasta, on pizza or as a sandwich condiment, amongst other things.
BARBECUE SAUCE
What makes barbecue sauce one of the best homemade sauces is that it can be tweaked in so many ways. With the addition of a few new ingredients, you can completely change your dining experience to suit yours and your guests’ taste, as well as the meat you’re pairing it with.
But woah there; let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you start customising your condiments, you need a solid grasp of the fundamentals. A good barbecue sauce will have sweet, salty, spicy, smoky and even sour flavours. Depending on where you are from, the sauce may be tomato, mustard or even vinegar based
A tomato-based barbecue sauce, for example, will usually use ketchup and from there a variety of other ingredients will be added. These would include brown sugar, spices, and more. You can experiment so that you can come up with your own concoction that would include your own secret ingredients. Should your tweaking turn up something delicious, it might even become a family recipe to be handed down the generations.
ALFREDO SAUCE
Last but definitely not least in our list of the best homemade sauces would have to be the alfredo sauce. This is another sauce that is so worth slaving (well, stirring gently, actually) over the stove for.
Alfredo sauce is great because you can create big batches and store the leftovers for use later down the line as a pasta or pizza sauce, or even on a casserole. This is such a simple sauce to make and requires very few ingredients; just butter, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese. Should you want to bring out your inner Gordon Ramsay, then you could then add more ingredients to the sauce, like nutmeg powder or smoked paprika.
Now that you’re a certified sauce queen or king, we’re looking forward to our dinner invite. Until then, bon appetit you saucy devil!