SAUCE!!!!

The Quinoa Is Strong In This One

by

This weekend’s breakfast needed some Asian flair. I was wanting to make a Thai hard boiled egg dish, but opted to poach some eggs instead! Served over some quinoa and fried shallots, and topped with spring onion and a little cilantro. I made a sweet and tangy Thai inspired lime sauce to serve over it. It made for a quinoa bowl I might have to make again in the future! If you ever want to make the sauce yourself just use:

  • 1/4 cup of lime juice
  • 1/4 cup of fish sauce
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar
  • 2 tsp of cornstarch mixed into a fine paste with water or lime juice

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with just enough lime juice or water to make a fine paste (about 1 tablespoon) and set aside. Mix everything else in a small saucepan until well combined and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium low, and grab the small glass bowl of cornstarch mixture to give it a quick stir before mixing it into the rest of the sauce. Keep stirring until sauce is thick enough to stay on your mixing spoon without running off.

I’ll have to think of what to use it with next; I still have quite a bit left from breakfast. It would probably taste good on some meats, or maybe mixed in with some hot chili sauce. I bet it would taste really good with some spicy ramen.

All of the breakfast

by

I pretty much have breakfast mapped out for the week. I made some eggs and sausage today with a spicy tomato three pepper sauce, sadly I was too hungry to take a picture. Then later on in the day I made some raspberry and cherry sauces to mix with the parfaits. I have two of them dressed with nutella, a thick, sweet and kind of tart cherry sauce and a crunchy mix of cocoa granola and caramel cashews, the other nutella one has a tangy raspberry sauce, cocoa granola and a three nut mix of praline pecans, honey roasted peanuts and caramel cashews. The parfait in the middle is probably the most innocent. It has a mix of matcha (sweetened with monkfruit), honey, pineapple, mango, strawberries, freshly grated ginger and a mix of honey and fruit granola with my three nut mix leftover from the other parfait.

On the left I made a homemade cherry sauce with frozen cherries, sugar, lime juice, cornstarch and vanilla extract. While the raspberry sauce is runnier and mainly consists of raspberry, sugar and lime juice. These also go nice on ice cream, or if you want to strain the seeds out you could serve the raspberry sauce in some soda, tea or a cocktail. I think the raspberry sauce might even be good for milkshakes or smoothies.

Sauce Bossin’ It

by

I woke up today and wanted to make a different kind of sauce for my weekly fancy-ish breakfast. I made a basic white sauce in one pan, and in another pan I fried the bacon, then I fried the onions in the leftover fat, added tomatoes, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce,  Italian herbs and a couple dashes of hot sauce for an added kick. Then I folded it into the white sauce and added smoked gouda. I was quite happy with the results, but I think in the future I might use a Sherry or Marsala, maybe even a type of Whiskey or Vodka to flavor the sauce. I also mixed the sauce with some noodles for lunch. The tea is also a special brew as well; Sweet Watermelon tea mixed with a Russian Herbal tea, both from the same friend! I’ve pretty much been drinking that all day. For extra sweetness I added a little lemon sugar. I like the flavor pattern, would probably taste good iced too.

Belly of zen

by

It’s been awhile since I’ve done much in the kitchen. During the holidays we were so pressed for time that we had to live on unsatisfying pre packaged food just to fill ourselves, but that hell is over or at the very least reduced. I bought a bunch of vegetables today and made soba noodle bowls with a cucumber salad and some pot stickers on the side. I would have made my own sauces but was sorely lacking in the soy sauce dept, fortunately I had my emergency Asian sauces to save the day!

It felt good to eat a healthier meal, plus its been so long since I’ve done anything Asian. Everything had the right amount of seasoning and spice to it.

Now to plot my next dinner menu…