Chinese Duck Sauce

I was gifted a giant bag of plums last week, and with perfect timing. I have been wanting to make Chinese Duck Sauce for some time.

The recipe calls for a mixture of apples, pears, and plums.  Seeing as how I had so many of them, I decided to make this sauce solely with plums.

I chopped them up and added water, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and ground dry mustard to the pan.

The sauce cooked down for about 40 minutes and turned the most gorgeous shade of deep purple.

I am storing the sauce in a mason jar in the refrigerator. It will pair nicely with spicy dishes!

Sauce Puttanesca and Pasta Mediterranee

Today we made a quick and simple pasta sauce for lunch in its two variations: Sauce Puttanesca and Pasta Mediterranee. Both were so delicious and came together very fast!

Charlie minced garlic like a pro.

Diced tomatoes, tomato paste, a few sliced kalamata olives, and the minced garlic went into a pot.

Everything simmered for a while then I added some red chili pepper flakes and cracked black pepper. In this moment I realized there was no salt or onion in this dish.  A rarity!

Here's our pasta, all steamy and ready to get sauced.

I topped mine with feta cheese to make pasta mediterranee.  Charlie topped his with parmesan to make sauce putanesca.  And there you have it folks, two delicious afternoon pasta dishes!

Zippy Cheese Sauce

This was a quick and rich cheese sauce I made the other day to go with some steamed vegetables. The whole process took about ten minutes, which is part of the reason why there are no photos! I did manage to get a photo before packing my dinner up and heading to school, hence the Tupperware.  Zippy Cheese Sauce is very similar to the cheese sauce I made for Spaghetti Casserole. I added dry ground mustard and a little minced garlic to this version, which certainly added a nice zip.

Orange-Ginger Sauce

I made Orange-Ginger Sauce for another stir-fry extravaganza. This sauce was simple to make and used less cornstarch than the basic stir-fry sauce. I really like it! It was very spicy, which was my own fault, as I was a little to generous with my cayenne sprinkle.
I started with a simple bowl of cornstarch.

Then vigorously whisked in the following:
orange juice
garlic
ginger
soy sauce
orange zest
sherry wine
green onion
salt and pepper
And lastly, that dangerous sprink-a-dink of cayenne.

Until the sauce looked like this:

Then I chopped and cooked some delicious veggies:

Added the sauce, and had a delicious, orange and ginger meal!

Stellar Mushroom Sauce and Cauliflower and Carrots

Tonight I made Stellar Mushroom Sauce to spoon over pasta and Cauliflower and Carrots as a side dish.

The mushroom sauce reminded me of a vegetarian stroganoff. Very dense, creamy, and strong mushroom flavors. For this recipe, I used dried black mushrooms, button mushrooms, and shiitakes.

The mushrooms cook down with onion and dry sherry wine. I love the smell of sherry wine as it cooks on the stove! It smells rich and wonderful and reminds me of times my mom cooked with it when I was little.

After the mushrooms and onions cooked down, I added a little flour, garlic, black peppers, some residual mushroom liquid, and (the best part)... sour cream! Mmm. The pasta, mushroom sauce, and a sprinkling of parmesan were delicious. I picked out some of the black mushrooms, because they were a little too chewy for me, but overall, I liked it.
Instead of pan cooking this Cauliflower and Carrots recipe, I opted to roast the pan in the oven. I am glad I decided to do this, I actually had never roasted cauliflower before, but have seen funny people on TV do it. The veggies were roasted with olive oil and salt, then topped with fresh black pepper and freshly picked basil. Mmm! The carrots got really sweet in the oven, and the cauliflower was perfectly softened. Next time I will use less oil, but I was quite pleased with how this veggie dish turned out!

Broccoli Sauce

Ooooh baby, this Broccoli Sauce was some seriously good stuff. Though the name reflects an abundance of green trees, there were also many, many tiny tomatoes in the sauce.


After washing and halving the tiny tomatoes, I added broccoli, onion, garlic, kalamata olives, red pepper strips, and vegetable broth to the Dutch oven. The sauce was rich and hearty. I served it over linguine with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan on top.

Tahini Lemon Sauce

Tahini Lemon Sauce
Tahini, freshly squeezed lemon juice, garlic, salt, parsley, and cayenne!

Ricotta Gnocchi with Mondo Bizarro Sauce

Ricotta Gnocchi with Mondo Bizarro Sauce... that name is ridiculous, so let's just call it MB sauce. Traditionally, gnocchi is made with potato, but this recipe traded that out for ricotta. It made for a slightly bumpier texture of gnocchi. The MB sauce was similar to pesto, but had spinach and fresh tomato in it too. Overall, the dish was a little bland but thankfully shaky cheese and salt came to our rescue.

Rarebit

Dianna and I made Rarebit this week. Rarebit is a Welsh sauce made of butter, cheese, and beer. We dipped baked potato frites and green apple slices in the sauce. So delicious! It reminded me of fondue sauce and was easy to make!
Here is Dianna's super dope recipe:

Baked Potato Frites

You will need:
Potatoes
Olive oil
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Wash and cut potatoes into fry-sized slices.
3. Place on cookie sheet and douse with olive oil.
4. Make sure each potato is coated in oil and arrange in precise rows on cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and flip. (Helpful tip! If the potatoes stick to the cookie sheet, return to oven and bake for another 3 minutes or so, until they flip easily.)
6. Bake for another 15 minutes until brown thoroughly and potatoes are soft.
7. Transfer to eating vessel, sprinkle salt liberally over tubers, and eat!