The French say: "You can learn how to cook and fry, but only the chosen ones can prepare sauces."
Sauce is a specially prepared complex liquid seasoning for meat, fish, salad, side dish, which is designed to emphasize and sometimes change the taste of the served dishes. It is hard to imagine modern cooking without ketchup, mayonnaise, tomato paste or gravy. Even the simplest side dishes made from vegetables and cereals, seasoned with sauce, turn into culinary masterpieces.
Potatoes are often used as a side dish: boiled and fried, baked and stewed, mashed potatoes and fries ... What sauce should I prefer for potatoes?
What are sauces
Sauces are prepared on the basis of broths, sour cream or milk, butter or vegetable oil. Very often, flour is used to give the sauce a texture. To give a specific taste to the sauces add mushrooms, capers, olives, vinegar, lemon juice, tomato, onion and other components with a pronounced taste. For aromas, garlic, herbs, various peppers and seasonings are included in the sauce.
According to the method of preparation and use, sauces are divided into cold and hot.
Five fundamental sauces are distinguished from all the variety, transforming which, the chefs create their small culinary masterpieces.
Sauces Basics:
- white sauce - bechamel;
- brown based on broth - espaniol;
- light sauce on a white broth - velut;
- hollandaise sauce and mayonnaise - emulsin;
- a mixture of vinegar with oil (vegetable) - vinaigrette.
For potato dishes, you can cook a wide variety of gravy and sauces. There are some rules for applying them. For example, hot liquid sauces are suitable for boiled potatoes, and thick thick ones for french fries.
In any case, the cook chooses the sauce for potatoes, guided by their taste preferences. Below are some recipes for dishes with potatoes, which are easy to prepare in the home kitchen.
Sour cream sauce
Sour cream sauce is usually prepared for boiled potatoes. To prepare one of its options for one kilogram of potato requires:
- butter - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- milk - one and a half glasses;
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- sour cream - 1/2 cup;
- lemon juice - 1 spoon (teaspoon);
- parsley - 1 bunch;
- white pepper - to taste;
- salt to taste;
- granulated sugar to taste.
Wash the potatoes thoroughly, peel and boil.
Bring the milk to a boil.
Melt butter in a stewpan, add flour, fry. Then pour milk into the mixture, and, stirring constantly, cook for about ten minutes.
Remove the prepared sauce from the heat.
Cut the boiled potatoes into slices.
In a warm sauce add sour cream, pepper, salt, granulated sugar, lemon juice, potato slices. Mix everything carefully, put on fire, heat (do not boil!).
Before serving, a dish with potatoes in sour cream sauce is sprinkled with pre-chopped parsley.
Cream sauce
Potatoes in a creamy sauce - a simple dish, cooked easily and quickly.
For 1 kilogram of potato you need:
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- butter - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- milk - one glass;
- salt to taste;
- garlic - two to three cloves or to taste;
- greens (chives, dill, parsley) - to taste;
- ground pepper (black, white, red) - to taste.
Wash the potatoes thoroughly, peel, cut into cubes, put to boil (salt with water) for about 10 minutes.
Chop the garlic.
Grind butter with flour.
Boil milk.
Pour water from a pot of potatoes, add milk and continue to cook over low heat, stirring gently.
Two minutes before cooking, pour the mixture of flour and oil, pepper, garlic into the potatoes. Continue cooking until potatoes are cooked.
Sprinkle the dish with chopped herbs before serving.
Mustard sauce
Baked potatoes in mustard sauce - a fragrant and tasty dish that is available to any hostess.
To prepare it, you need:
- potatoes - 1.2 kilograms;
- butter - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- sunflower oil - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- grain mustard - 100 grams;
- lemon - 1 piece;
- garlic - 3-4 cloves;
- salt - 1 spoon (tea);
- a mixture of dry herbs to taste.
Peel and chop the garlic using a press.
Wash the lemon, grate the yellow part of the peel on a grater (get the zest), squeeze the juice out of the pulp.
Melt the butter and cool slightly.
In a container, mix melted butter, mustard, sunflower oil, zest and squeezed lemon juice, garlic mass, salt and herbs. Mix well.
Wash the potatoes, peel, cut coarsely into slices, pour the cooked mustard sauce. Mix everything thoroughly.
Preheat the oven.
Lightly grease the baking dish (or baking sheet) with sunflower oil.
Put the potatoes with the sauce in the form (on a baking sheet), put in the oven to bake at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for about 40 or 50 minutes.
Ready potatoes are covered with a delicious golden crust. Serve the dish hot.
Chicken Sauce
Chicken sauce with potatoes is a full-fledged dish, which is a thick sauce with a side dish.
For 1 kilogram of potatoes the following products will be required:
- chicken fillet - 700 grams;
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- carrots - 1 piece (large);
- ground black pepper (or other spices) - to taste;
- salt to taste;
- sunflower oil - for frying;
- fresh greens (dill, parsley) - to taste.
Rinse the potatoes thoroughly, peel, cut into large cubes, cook.
Rinse the chicken fillet, cut into pieces, fry with a small amount of sunflower oil until the liquid evaporates completely.
Rinse the carrots, peel, grate on a coarse grater.
Add grated carrots to the fillet in a pan, continue to fry until the vegetable is ready.
Add the flour to the fried chicken and carrots, mix well and fry a little.
Transfer the prepared mixture with chicken to a pan with already cooked potatoes (do not drain the water in which the potatoes were boiled!), Add pepper (or other favorite spices), salt. Sauce well, but mix gently, continue cooking for about another five or seven minutes.
Chicken sauce with potatoes is ready. Sprinkle with chopped herbs before serving.
Chicken and Mushroom Tomato Sauce
Mushrooms go well with potatoes and are often added to sauces.
In order to prepare a sauce with potatoes, mushrooms and chicken, you will need:
- potatoes - 1 kg;
- mushrooms (champignons, chanterelles, honey agarics or any other) - 200 grams;
- chicken fillet - 400 grams;
- carrots - 200 grams;
- greens (dill, celery, parsley) - to taste;
- salt to taste;
- garlic - 4 or 5 cloves;
- sunflower oil - for frying;
- ground black pepper - to taste;
- seasonings (hops-suneli or other herbs) - to taste;
- water - 800 grams;
- tomato paste - 6 tablespoons (tea).
Rinse the potatoes, peel, cut into cubes, put in a saucepan and simmer with a small amount of sunflower oil for about 10 minutes.
Rinse the chicken fillet, cut into small cubes.
Wash, peel and chop the carrots.
Put chicken fillet in a stewpan with potatoes, mix and continue to fry. Next, add carrots, mushrooms to the filet and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add tomato paste to the stewpan with vegetables and chicken, pour water. Mix everything well, continue to simmer until cooked.
Dish with salt, pepper, put chopped garlic and seasoning a few minutes before cooking.
Potatoes in tomato sauce from mushrooms and chicken are ready. Before serving, the dish is decorated with chopped herbs.
French fries sauces
A lot of adults and almost all children love french fries with different sauces.
To enjoy this dish, you do not have to visit fast food restaurants, you can please yourself and your loved ones by cooking it at home.
It is easy to prepare french fries from the frozen preparation bought in a supermarket. But the sauce for french fries requires the following products:
- sour cream - 200 grams;
- mayonnaise - 200 grams;
- garlic - 5 or 6 cloves;
- salt to taste;
- greens - to taste;
- soft cheese to taste.
Peel and pass the garlic through a press or finely chop.
Grind greens. Grind cheese on a grater.
In a container, mix mayonnaise and sour cream, add garlic, herbs, cheese, salt. Mix everything very carefully. Refrigerate the mixture for forty minutes.
The sauce is ready.
Universal potato sauce
For all types of potatoes you can offer a thick original sauce "Universal", it is very simple to prepare from a small set of products:
- sour cream - four spoons (tablespoons);
- cottage cheese - 200 grams;
- garlic - 4-5 cloves;
- walnuts - 2 tablespoons (tablespoons);
- greens to taste.
Put cottage cheese, sour cream, walnuts, garlic and herbs in a bowl. Mix everything well with a blender. Put the resulting mixture in the refrigerator for 30 or 40 minutes. The sauce is ready to serve.
Conclusion
Sauce is an accessory that gives the finished original taste, color and smell to the dish.
Potato sauce can give a simple vegetable an unforgettable and unique taste.
Do not neglect sauces. They are easy to prepare at home, and dishes from simple and familiar will turn with their help into small culinary masterpieces.
Experiment, find your tastes, diversify your diet with sauces.