Tag: sauce

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Ad Hoc’s Chocolate Sauce

Ad Hoc chcolate sauce

This has to be a quick post today, as we have a bunch of stuff we need to do outside the home. So, forgive us if it seems abbreviated.

Ad Hoc chcolate sauce
Shiny sauce is smooth sauce.

This week, we need to bring a dessert to a dinner meeting. We knew about it far in advance, giving us plenty of time to decide on what to make. With the heat of summer, we decided to bring the ingredients for ice cream sundaes. Now, we know we could run out and buy the stuff, but it’s not too bad to make some of the ingredients in the kitchen. Let’s run down what we need. Ice cream: Check, we’ll make Triple Vanilla Ice Cream. Fruit sauce: check, how about Cherry Compote? Nuts: check, simply chop some peanuts. Whipped cream: ah, you caught us, we bought a can of the squirty kind. Chocolate sauce: check, this recipe.

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Cherry Compote

cherry compote
cherry compote
Very cherry!

One of the things we like best about new cookbooks is looking at the “basics” section. Perhaps you might find that odd, because these are the simplest and most rudimentary recipes in the book. Things such as pie crust, vegetable and meat stocks, vinaigrette dressings, or mayonnaise; the very basic things that we use day in and day out. Did you think, instead, of the fancy, difficult recipes, that will wow everyone? While we like those, too, we’re often more impressed with these simple basic recipes, and with good reason.

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Fennel Oil

tomato soup with fennel oil
tomato soup with fennel oil
These bright-colored herb-infused oils add something extra to ordinary meals!

Yesterday, we mentioned that we had our Primavera Risotto with Fennel Oil, and that the fennel oil was really an optional ingredient. Oils like this are really there for the color and show; they don’t add too much flavor, but, we do make them from time to time, mainly when we have some herb in abundance. So, this past week, when we picked up a huge fennel bulb with fronds attached, we knew fennel oil was going to be in the works.

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Mornay Sauce

whisking Mornay sauce
whisking Mornay sauce
Cheesy and smooth!

Mornay sauce? That sounds fancy! It does sound fancy, but, really, it’s nothing other than a Bechemel sauce with cheese added; a cheese sauce, in other words. Now, we’ve done that any number of times; sometimes we mention it while we’re describing how to make a certain dish — most often macaroni and cheese of some sort — but, we’re sure that sometimes we just blast right through the recipe without pointing it out. So, why are we writing this up as a separate recipe?

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Scratched Sour Cream

sour cream

If you are like us, you probably have some heavy cream left over from the various treats that you made for the holiday season. Now, what to do with it, what to do with it? Hmm. What’s made from cream? Of course, sour cream! Don’t just let the cream sour, that probably won’t work, but the following instructions will.

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