Sauces

Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe - pork not included
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Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

This is a simple homemade recipe for sweet and sour sauce. Sweet and sour sauce is used primarily for chicken or pork dishes, but can also be used for fish as well.

This recipe seems a little bit simple, and isn’t 100% authentic, but it is a delicious sweet and sour sauce you can make in about ten minutes.

Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe - pork not included

Pork not included.

Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

To make about two cups of sweet and sour sauce you will use:

  • Three quarters of a cup of sugar
  • Two thirds of a cup of water
  • A third of a cup of white vinegar
  • A quarter cup of soy sauce
  • About a tablespoon of ketchup
  • And about two tablespoons of corn starch

To make more sauce, just multiply the ingredients. Don’t worry too much about being exact with your math. Minor variations taste pretty much the same, anyways.

How to Make Sweet and Sour Sauce

Bring a saucepan to medium-high heat and start combining ingredients.

It’s usually easiest to combine the water, vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup and corn starch first, and slowly stir in the sugar. It’s quite a bit of sugar and you want to make sure it fully dissolves to ensure your sauce ends up delicious.

While you’re stirring, your mixture should gradually come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, slightly reduce the heat. Continue simmering until it starts to thicken.

The cooking time should only be about five to seven minutes, but going a bit longer is okay to get a thicker sauce.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Sauce

  • You can substitute out the white vinegar for rice vinegar if you want to get all fancy and authenticy, but most people prefer the familiar taste of white vinegar.
  • Don’t worry if the sauce continues at a rolling boil when you reduce the heat during the cooking time. It doesn’t end up “burnt” unless you really, really overdo it. The higher the temperature while you simmer it, the quicker it cooks. Bringing it down a bit further is probably the best plan, though.
Brown gravy on mashed potatoes and stuff
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Easy Beef Gravy Recipe

There are two ways to make beef gravy. With beef drippings or with beef bouillon. This recipe uses beef bouillon, which is the more accessible and easy to make version of beef gravy. It is also commonly called “brown gravy.”

Brown gravy on mashed potatoes and stuff

(For a more authentic homemade gravy check out this recipe for a “from scratch” beef gravy.)

Easy Beef Gravy Ingredients

For this recipe you will need:

  • beef bouillon
  • flour
  • butter
  • and water

There’s not much more to it. Optionally, you can include an onion, very finely chopped. You can also add some salt, but it’s not really all that necessary since bouillon cubes are so salty to begin with.

How to Cook a Simple Brown Gravy

Bring a cup and a half of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add three or four teaspoons of beef bouillon, a quarter cup of flour, and a quarter cup of butter. If you choose to use an onion or any other optional ingredient, add it at this time as well.

Whisk thoroughly until there are no chunks of flour or butter and allow the mixture to return to a slow boil. Reduce to medium heat.

Let the mix simmer at low to medium heat for five to ten minutes, or until the mixture has thickened.

Tips for Making Easy Beef Gravy

  • If you like thicker gravy, let it simmer for longer. If you like thinner gravy, don’t let it simmer as long.
  • If you choose to add an onion or a garlic clove or anything “chunky,” it is usually best to chop it as finely as you’re able to.
  • For a more authentic gravy, check out this recipe for a homemade beef gravy made with beef drippings. You probably don’t need a more authentic gravy if you’re using it for something like french fries, though.

 

Teriyaki Marinade
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Making a Simple Teriyaki Marinade

Teriyaki marinades can be used for a variety of recipes. Teriyaki sauces and marinades were originally meant to be used for fish recipes, such as teriyaki salmon, but in the Western world it is very common to use them for other meat dishes such as chicken.

This recipe is not exactly “traditional” and is meant to be a simple version of a teriyaki marinade. There are more traditional, authentic recipes available. This particular recipe is meant to be easily made with ingredients most households should already have.

Teriyaki Marinade

Soy sauce is basically the only real ingredient, anyways

Teriyaki Marinade Ingredients

You will need:

  • Soy sauce
  • Brown sugar
  • Fresh garlic
  • Black pepper
  • Optional: Cinnamon or cayenne pepper

How to Make a Simple Teriyaki Marinade

In a large bowl, combine a third of a cup of soy sauce with a third of a cup of water. Add a tablespoon or two of finely chopped garlic. Add about half a teaspoon of black pepper.

A small pinch of either cayenne pepper or cinnamon should suffice, but you can add more if you want your marinade to have a bit of a “kick.”

Place whichever meat you choose into the mixture, cover it, and marinate in the fridge for as long as possible. Two hours would be considered a safe “minimum,” but a bit longer is usually better.

Tips for Making a Teriyaki Marinade

  • Try using orange juice instead of water for a citrus flavor. This option is best used for fish dishes.
  • While neither cayenne pepper or cinnamon is completely necessary, this recipe benefits from using one or the other specifically because it is such a basic recipe for teriyaki.
  • When using a marinade, longer is typically better. It is typically best to prepare your marinade the night before you plan on cooking your meat. This gives the marinade proper time to work its magic.
Beef Gravy
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How to Make Homemade Beef Gravy

You can’t just buy some powder or a can of gravy and call it gravy. That’s not gravy. Use this recipe for homemade beef gravy to make potatoes or most meats into a fantastic version of the same meal.

(For a quicker, simple gravy, check out this easy recipe for homemade brown gravy.)

Ingredients for Making Homemade Beef Gravy

  • Beef drippings. Beef drippings are just what’s left after making a roast. So you may have to make a roast.
  • Beef broth. I’d recommend homemade beef broth, but you can use the canned stuff if you’d like.
  • Corn starch

Beef Gravy

How to Make Homemade Beef Gravy

After you’ve made your roast beef, remove the meat from the pan and put it away safely. You should probably eat it at some point.

Pour all the juices in the pan into a large bowl. Let it sit for a bit. The fat will rise to the top as the juice settles. Remove as much of it as you can before proceeding.

Pour the beef drippings back into your roasting pan. Add two cups of beef broth and set the heat to medium. Use a wooden spoon to stir the drippings up and stir it around the pan. Mix the drippings and the stock as well as you can.

Add two tablespoons of corn starch to a small bowl. Add four tablespoons of beef broth to the corn starch and whisk it until you have a paste. Nothing crumbly, just paste.

If you add this to the drippings in the pan before getting it down to a clean paste you won’t be able to do it later.

Add the paste to the pan with the drippings and the additional broth. Whisk until everything becomes thick, smooth, and gravy-like.

Tips for Making Homemade Gravy

  • You can use wine in place of some of the stock. A lot of gravies for fancy meals incorporate wine. Use red wine for beef or white wine for poultry.
  • Ensure you remove as much fat as possible before proceeding. Even after you have finished making the gravy the fat will settle on top. It makes your gravy look terrible.
  • You can use bouillon in place of the drippings if you want a less authentic but more accessible gravy.
A bunch of fresh red cayenne peppers
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How to Make Homemade Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

Here’s the deal, you can’t actually make homemade Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. You can make a very similar cayenne pepper sauce, but it won’t be the same.

You don’t have a giant factory churning the stuff out, and you probably don’t have the time to age your cayenne pepper sauce, either.

This copycat recipe will be close enough.

A bunch of fresh red cayenne peppers

Frank’s Red Hot Sauce Ingredients

You’ll need:

  • A bunch of red cayenne peppers
  • Some white vinegar
  • A couple garlic cloves
  • Sea salt (preferably.) Regular salt will do if you don’t have any of the fancy stuff.

How to Make Hot Sauce

Wash your peppers and cut off the stems. Use a bunch. For the sake of this recipe we’re going to be using twenty.

Throw them in a saucepan and add about two cups of white vinegar, half a teaspoon of sea salt, and three chopped garlic cloves.

Bring everything to a light boil and reduce to low heat to simmer.

Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until the peppers are very soft.

Pour it all into your handy dandy food processor and blend extremely well. Super extremely well. Frank’s Red Hot Sauce is basically liquid, so make sure it’s completely smooth, and very thin.

And then pass the whole thing through a fine mesh strainer. (Or if one’s not available, a homemade paper towel strainer.)

Make sure you keep what the strainer pulls out, you can use it as an add-on for other hot sauce recipes.

Tips for Making and Using Hot Sauce

  • Because this hot sauce is loaded with vinegar you can store it in the fridge for an extremely long time. Many hot sauce recipes started out as a preservation method for fresh hot peppers.
  • Make lots, it’s good.
  • If you prefer a thicker, hotter sauce, try out this recipe for Homemade Habanero Hot Sauce. There’s also a slightly mildly version here, for Jalapeno Hot Sauce.
Caesar Salad
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Easy Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

To make a caesar salad properly, you should be using fresh cooked bacon, homemade croutons, and a homemade Caesar salad dressing. You can get restaurant quality food and it won’t cost you any more than the “salad in a bag” approach.

Check out the bottom of this page for complete instructions on how to prepare the perfect Caesar salad.

This homemade caesar salad dressing recipe uses anchovies. If that makes you squeamish, feel free to leave them out.

Simple Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing Ingredients

You will need:

  • A bunch of fresh garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon juice
  • An egg
  • Fresh Parmesan cheese
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Fresh ground pepper. Like in one of those big pepper thingies.
  • And optionally, some anchovy fillets

How to Prepare Caesar Salad Dressing

There is surprisingly little preparation in this dressing. You won’t even really be cooking it.

First things first, you need to measure out your ingredients.

Take four to six garlic cloves and chop them up finely. Chop six anchovy fillets, and coddle an egg. (Egg coddling is basically a light poaching.)

Combine your garlic, anchovies, and egg in a food processor or a blender. Add the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of freshly shredded Parmesan, and two teaspoons of worcestershire sauce.

Finally, add a quarter cup of olive oil and grind in as much pepper as you think you would enjoy.

Blend, process, whatever.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least fifteen minutes before serving.

Tips for Making Caesar Salad Dressing

Combine with homemade croutons and perfectly cooked bacon when making your caesar salad.

Don’t make more than you need. Even after coddling, the egg is practically raw. Use all of the dressing when you make it. Don’t try to store it for extended periods of time.