Friday, June 20, 2008

That Cookbook Thing. Cooking with friends and Julia Child.

When you last saw That Cookbook Thing our group was wiping our collective mouths after eating great cheesy bowlfuls of Julia Childs Onion Soup. We've also added a couple of new members so this month I'm cooking with our fearless leader Mike, and Ruth, Mary, Deborah, Mary, Shaun, Elle and Kittie. This month's recipe was my pick, Sauce au Cari (Light Curry Sauce). I thought it might be fun to try a classic Julia sauce as one of our choices from the book. I don't have much experience with sauces past the usual gravy and tomato sauce. And I do love curry.

So you start by cooking 1/2 cup of finely diced onion in 4 TB butter over low heat. Sweat the onions for about 10 minutes.

Then add 2 to 3 TB of curry powder. I added 2 because the curry powder I have is pretty spicy. Cook for 2 minutes.
Then add 4 TB (which I think everyone agrees now is too much) and stir and stir for 3 more minutes.
Whisk in 2 cups of boiling milk, chicken stock, or fish stock. I used chicken. Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then whisk in 4 to 6 TB of heavy cream. My sauce was so thick I added almost double the cream. I would have added more stock, but I didn't have any extra. Season with salt and pepper and add lemon juice to taste. The stir in 1 or 2 TB butter.
Serve with chicken, fish, vegetables, turkey, or eggs. I served mine with chicken and crispy roasted potatos. The sauce was fantastic on both, but it was just too thick. Not only that, it made a ton! Even after eating the sauce every day with the leftover chicken and more potatos, I ended up throwing away more than half of it.

It was good though. I would make this again, but cut the recipe by at least half, maybe even a quarter, and would definitely make the sauce thinner with more stock and less flour.

So, sorry to those in our group who made the sauce and didn't like it. But hey, we tried. Please visit all the other bloggers in That Cookbook Thing, as listed above. And please make sure to visit Kittie's post - her take on the sauce is really something.

Cheers!

6 comments:

Ruth Daniels said...

Sara, even though I didn't love it, I'm glad I tried it. And perhaps if I add more curry to the leftovers, I'll like it more.

Loved your step-by-step photos.

Deborah said...

The pictures are awesome - since it's been three weeks since I made it, all of a sudden I want to make it again!

Shaun said...

Sara, darling ~ This was an interesting choice because I do not typically associate curry with French cooking. If nothing else, this sauce shows how one can add his or her own twist to a classic sauce (bechamel or veloute, here) to add another dimension to their dish. I also had mine with chicken.

Sara said...

Thanks Ruth!

Deborah - I want to try this again, with less flour and more stock. And then I'm going to try your coconut version.

Shaun - Great point! Thanks for joining us on this experiment.

Elle said...

I loved trying this! It's nice to have some sauces in your files to fall back on for a quick meal. And I'd definitely try it again, but with a fresher, brighter, homemade curry powder,

Good choice, and yours looks great--nice photos!

Laura Paterson said...

I really enjoyed making this sauce - it was nice to try something outside of my comfort-zone! Great choice!