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Prickly Pear Sauce Patricia's Cafe - by Pat McClelland 30 ea Prickly Pears 2 ea Lemons 1½ c Sugar 1 Tbs Vanilla ½ gal Water 1. Peel prickly pears and place in a large pot with the water, sugar, vanilla and halved lemons. 2. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer. 3. Simmer for about 2 hours. 4. Puree with a hand blinder. 5. Strain seeds and discard. 6. Refrigerate to cool. Prickly pears are in season but are hard to find unless you happen to live in a place like Arizona. Prickly pears are the fruit from the prickly pear cactus. They are a dark pink almost a purple color when ripe. If you wanted to make more of a jelly you could use some that are still a little green along with ripe ones. This adds more pectin. You might want to add some additional pectin as well. In Spanish they are referred to as Tunas and in Italy they are called fichi d’india. Peeling the tunas can be a bit painful if you don’t have some type of glove because of all the tiny spines. I use my gardening gloves that have leather. You could also use paper towels but you can still get some of the prickles. Use tongs to remove then off of the cactus. 
Hollandaise Sauce
Patricia's Cafe - by Pat McClelland 4 ea Egg Yolks ¼ c Warm Clarified Butter ¼ tsp Salt 1 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice ¼ tsp Tabasco 1. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and slowly whip in the butter with a wire whip. 2. Whip in the remaining ingredients, 3. Serve right away. Hollandaise sauce is a very delicate sauce but is worth the extra trouble to make from scratch. The powdered mixes don’t come close. To make clarified butter melt down a stick on low until only the fat is left. The clearer your butter is the better your sauce will come out. It is important to whip you sauce with a wire whip because the sauce can break with too much friction. It can also break if you add in the butter too fast or reheat the sauce later on. A trick used by many chefs if the sauce does break is to add in just enough cream to bring it back together. Hollandaise sauce can be used for many different things. You can also take it a step further and turn it into béarnaise sauce by adding in some tarragon and red wine vinegar. I love to eat good French fries with béarnaise sauce. Both sauces can be used on eggs, beef, chicken, seafood and veggies. Next weeks recipe I will be using the sauce with another favorite of mine. |
Gravy
Patricia's Cafe - by Pat McClelland Giblet Broth all Giblets 2 ea Bay Leaves ½ ea Onion 2 ea Carrots 2 ea Celery Ribs 3 qt Water Roux 1 c Flour 1 c Clarified Butter Gravy all Turkey Drippings as needed Giblet Broth as needed Roux to taste Salt 1. Place the giblets and water in a saucepan and simmer for at least 2 hours. Add water if needed. 2. In a skillet, combine the flour and butter with a whisk over medium heat until smooth and light brown. 3. Strain broth and remove the fat then place back into the saucepan. 4. Add the drippings to the broth and bring to a boil. 5. Add enough roux to thicken with the whisk and continue to boil. Be careful not to let it boil. 6. Add salt to taste. According to Fine Cooking you want to figure about 1/3 cup of gravy per person. With that being said you want to figure you will need all of your turkey drippings and enough broth from your giblets to make enough gravy. If you don’t have enough broth you can add canned turkey broth. This can be salty so be careful. You can change the flavor of your gravy by adding different seasonings. Such as thyme or rosemary. You can also make this a beef, pork, or chicken gravy by replacing the turkey drippings with the meat of choice drippings. For the broth try making it without the giblets. Roux is the key to making a sauce. It can also make it richer in flavor. The darker the roux, the richer the flavor. To do this you need to cook it longer but you need to continue stirring it. You don’t want it to burn. A light roux is typically used in white sauces and darker roux is typically used in darker sauces. To make clarified butter heat some butter until it separates then skim the foam from the top and discard the milk residue left on the bottom. If you have extra roux, it can be kept at room temperature until need for another wonderful sauce or soup you make. |