Tag Archives: sauce

May 23, 2012 · 9:06 am

Sauce on the Danforth: Craft Beer, 1920’s Cocktails and Music

I’ve been walking by the old location of Classy Nails wondering why they couldn’t stay classy (oh Ron Burgundy!) and what the little teeny sign above the liquor license application meant, “sauce” it said.

Now it is a a HUGE sign.  Which seems like good progress.  Something to be excited about.  I found the LinkedIn page for “MichelleB” who is supposedly opening the lounge and here is what it described our new east end bar as:

An East-End Toronto Lounge with a Victorian-Goth Bordello-Chic Design.
We offer:
– fresh hand made pasta with your choice of Sauce
– a vast selection of Craft Beer on Tap and in Bottle
– an array of 1920’s inspired cocktail offerings
– Top shelf Tequilas, Bourbons, Scotches & Vodkas
– music, music, music… you never know who you’ll hear

Conveniently located steps from Greenwood Station.

(which it is, it’s between Greenwood and Monarch Park, just east from Bomb Wellness and west of Gerry’s grocery).  For those not in the hood, it is between Greenwood and Coxwell subway.

This comment on Chowhound cracked me up:

“Ha, I think there’s a few places on the Danforth doing the Victorian-Goth-Bordello thing without knowing it! “

Still–craft beer, top-shelf tequila?  1920’s cocktails?  Bring on bordello-chic.  Opening in August.   www.sauceonthedanforth.com

Here are the latest photos!  http://www.sauceondanforth.com/pictures.htm

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February 10, 2012 · 8:00 am

Toast Post: Welsh Rarebit

See--there's veggies--totally healthy meal.

If it were up to me, melted cheese on toast would be acceptable sustenance for snacks and meals alike.  In fact, forget the melting part;  toast, butter and the sliced fromage will do just fine.  But others (grumpy family members) don’t agree that simply swapping aged cheddar for Oka is a “whole new meal.”

So here’s my lazy solution, Welsh Rarebit, also known as Welsh Rabbit, is essentially a savory melted cheese sauce, poured over toast and then broiled and browned.  (Yes, in the UK cheese sauce can be a main course.)

The name originated as a tongue-in cheek reference to a meat-less meal made from whatever was left in the pantry or one could afford.  So I will lean on tradition and call this a perfect, well-rounded supper—ideal for the Sunday night “Oh God, is tomorrow Monday?” blues.

Traditionally made with cheddar, you can swap in any cheese on hand (that’s the point I believe) but I’m going to go with Lancashire (for tanginess) and some Oka (for the nutty, fruity quality) in this recipe.

Welsh Rarebit (one of many versions)

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp Dijon mustard

½ cup Guinness beer

¾  cup cream  (less for a thicker sauce)

1 ½ cups shredded cheese (1 cup Lancashire, ½ cup Oka in this case)

salt  (adjust to taste , some cheeses are saltier than others)

fresh ground pepper

8 slices toasted sourdough or rye

Method

  1. In a medium pot over low heat, melt the butter until foaming subsides. Add the flour and whisk it in until you form a smooth past (a roux).  You do not want the roux to brown at all.

 

  1. Take the roux off the burner and cool slightly (so will not splatter) when you add the mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  Whisk until smooth and then back on medium-low heat add the beer.

 

  1. Now add the cream and whisk until the sauce thickens, this will take a couple minutes.  You don’t want this to boil, if it does just lower the heat.
  2. Pull the sauce off the heat and slowly add the cheese.  It should melt easily, (if you need to you can throw the sauce back on the heat for a minute as you stir).  Set aside, keep warm.

  1. Season to taste.
  2. Turn on your broiler or preheat the oven to 500°F (260° C).
  3. Toast the bread until crisp (to avoid sogginess once cheese is added)
  4. Put the bread on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Pour the sauce over each piece.  Broil until browning slightly (1-2 minutes).

  1. Allow to cool slightly -so it can be handled- and serve to salivating dinner companions.  (Don’t forget to drink the remaining beer!)

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK

chatteringkitchen.com, who first generously posted this as a guest blog this week–do check her out.

and also mention Mr. Cardwell who wrote a comment on the Fromage Fort post asking me to do a little testing and come up with a recipe.  I took inspiration from this great Welsh Rarebit link he sent from The Guardian.

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September 16, 2011 · 1:34 pm

My tomato bowl runneth over

My bounty

I have four tomato plants in my backyard.  I used to plant six but that just caused grief.  They got big, they intertwined, they bent over in despair.  I was too overwhelmed to help them.  Those tomato “cages” are not easy to put around a 4 foot plant with a tomatoes growing on it.  (I suppose putting it on when it was a small seedling would be easier).

I always plant cherry tomatoes and this year I had two of the small round yellow tomato plants (upper left), one of the small green kind (upper right) and one of the lumpy yellow ones (bottom).

I wish with all my heart I remembered the names of the tomatoes–especially the lumpy yellow one as it they are so sweet I can barely stop eating them, even half-ripe.  I knew the names when I bought them and did not write them done.  “I will remember these names,” I thought, which is about the same as waking up in the middle of the night and thinking, “I will remember this dream”.

Four plants has provided a good crop for us.  We’ve been enjoying tomato salads all August and now with the branches full of ever ripening bounty I have been making tomato sauce.

not pretty but pretty darn yummy*

So here’s what I do when I get a bowl full (about 4-5 cups?).  I get out a large pan, sauté a finely chopped onion in olive oil and mash in some fresh garlic once the onion has softened.  Then I pour in the tomatoes and let simmer them until they pop, soften and release all their juicy insides.  I continue simmering  until the sauce thickens a bit and just season with a bit of sea salt.  THAT IS IT.

I always buy good pasta for these late summer meals and in this case I topped with whole milk ricotta which cut the acidity of the sauce and makes it even better.

I realized fast that I am much too lazy to blanche and peel cherry tomatoes but it actually doesn’t matter.  The sauce still tastes amazing.  It is such a perfect example of using simple, good ingredients.  And some mysteriously fertile soil at the side of our garage.  Our Macedonian neighbors are so jealous.

Tomatoes = Sauce

I am cooking up another batch today.  And thinking of my friend who started out the gardening season with a ridiculous amount of seedlings–300?  He’ll be laughing if it’s a long winter (but stressed right now as he spends the wee hours bidding on stockpots through ebay ).   And I think he’s much more likely than I to not make sauce with tomato skins in it.  Life it tougher for the perfectionists.  But if you’re really fussed you can strain the sauce through a colander which will catch most of the skin I suppose. Or just don’t eat at my house.

*that is my son’s hand ( in the photo)  stealing my food.  We had a talk, don’t worry.

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July 17, 2011 · 3:26 pm

Thanks for the ribs Pete Watson

Man, my camera was so sticky.

Nothing grilled, nothing gained as they say.  Five years after Pete Watson and his wife Lara gave us a Weber kettle grill for a wedding gift we finally made ribs on it. What idiots we were to deny ourselves the pleasures of grilling ribs on charcoal for sheer procrastination.

But we have gained, oh yes, we have gained.  Sticky fingers, kind of sexy, smoky smelling hair and the most envious aroma of deliciousness coming from any backyard in the neighborhood.   If only I had begun the process in the early afternoon as I declared I would, we could have actually had the ribs for dinner rather than the cold pizza we half-heartedly choked down waiting until the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender at 11pm.

Here is our talented little grill pre-show.

The kettle potential.

And then I bought myself some apple wood chips and though I could not get a coal chimney (sold out) I got some quick burning coal starter things which were quite effective as long I did not let my thought wander to the substances that made them so quick-burning.

My indirect heat set-up is almost ready.

I have the coals on one side and a drip-pan filled with water on the right.  I put a stainless steel box of soaked applewood chips on the coals just before I added the top grate and the the lid.

Ribs: rubbed, rested and ready.

Two racks of baby back ribs, about 2 lbs each.  I put a dry rub on them and left them for an hour at room temperature.  The rub had sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, celery seed, fresh back pepper and chili powder.  The recipe (BBQ Back ribs with Sweet and Sticky Sauce) came from the Saveur BBQ Issue (I know, what else, right?  I will branch out one day but once again not only were the magazine’s recipes lipsmacking but the stories of BBQ, coleslaw, baked beans, coals, tradition and rivalry were addicitive too!)

And while the ribs cooked between 225 F-250 F over 3 hrs  ( I actually found it hard to keep the heat below 300 F even adjusting the vents as much as I could) I made the sauce.  Honey, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, worcestershire, hot sauce, cloves……MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMessy.

Served with coleslaw and napkins.

And finally at 11pm, with the grill lit from the soft glow coming through the back door of the kitchen, I was able to pull off  shreds of the crispy rib-ends that were slowly caramelizing from their recent basting in sticky sauce.  And I ate them greedily, slightly out of site of my husband before he next opened the door to ask, “are they done yet?”.  And they were good.  Sigh with pleasure good.

Like Angelina Jolie, I am now a Pitt master.

And that’s why I want to thank you Pete Watson.

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