Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry ranks first among berries in terms of the number of beneficial properties. But not everyone likes its sour taste (when fresh). Therefore, you can prepare berry sauce, the recipe for which will be presented below.
Let's take:
- 300 grams of fresh or frozen cranberries;
- 200 ml water;
- 5-6 tablespoons of sugar;
- a quarter teaspoon of salt;
- 30 grams of butter.
And let's prepare:
- The berries are poured with water, salted, and sugar is added. Mix everything and put it on the stove.
- When the mixture boils, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- When the mass becomes thick, taste it without removing it from the stove: it may be necessary to add more salt or sugar.
- Also, without removing the saucepan from the stove, add a piece of butter to the berry sauce and, using a whisk, beat it into the total mass.
- Now the sauce is ready. All that remains is to remove it from the stove and let it cool.
Cranberry sauce is ideal for meat steaks.
Blackcurrant sauce for meat
We recommend this sauce for marbled beef. Light sourness, tartness and subtle currant aroma will perfectly complement expensive and refined Ribeye steaks, Filet Mignon or Chateaubriand steak. Currant sauce for meat can be prepared from frozen berries. Melt butter in a frying pan. Do this over low heat. Pour in white or red wine and add a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add currants and cook for another 10 minutes. At the very end, add some chopped mint and black pepper. Puree the mixture with a blender and, if you have time and desire, grind the resulting sauce through a sieve. This wine and berry sauce is ideal for juicy baked roast beef or tender Filet Mignon steak. In addition, the sauce goes well with veal loin or liver - try it.
Cherry sauce
The cherry berry sauce recipe is suitable for juicy beef and poultry dishes. For example, baked duck with a cherry top is just a dream, and not only for housewives.
Ingredients:
- 300 grams of cherries;
- a tablespoon of sugar and starch;
- 400 ml water;
- 20 grams of greens - parsley or cilantro will do;
- 2 tsp. cognac or vodka;
- ground pepper and salt to taste.
Preparation:
- The cherries are washed and then “halved,” thereby freeing them from the seeds.
- Place the prepared berries in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- As soon as the contents of the pan boil, add sugar to it. Reduce the heat and simmer the cherries, while mashing their pulp with a fork.
- The greens are washed and finely chopped.
- While the cherries are stewing, dilute the starch in water in a bowl, and then add strong alcohol.
- Add greens to the saucepan, cover with a lid and simmer for a couple of minutes, no more.
- You can stop cooking at this point. Once the sauce has cooled, it is served as an addition to meat dishes.
For this sauce it is better to take sour berries. The taste of the sauce will be sweet and sour, which is perfect for juicy meat.
Tkemali: the most popular plum sauce
Tkemali is rightfully the leader among fruit sauces
Products:
- Sour plum – 4 kg
- Water – 200 -250 ml
- Salt - 4 tsp
- Sugar - ~8 tbsp. l
- Ground coriander - 4 tsp
- Pepper mixture - 2 tsp
- head of garlic
- Bunch of greenery
How to cook:
Rinse the plums thoroughly with running water. Be careful not to get wormy or rotten fruits. Place in a large saucepan or basin. Add 200-250 ml of water, cover with a lid and place on moderate heat until they crack and the peel begins to come off. The main thing is that the plums do not boil too much.
Transfer the softened plums in batches to a sieve or colander. Now they should be rubbed with a masher, separating the seeds and skins. Place the resulting puree on low heat and add salt and sugar. If the plum is sweet, then it is better not to add sugar right away, but to do it at the end, having first tasted it and decided whether it is needed.
When everything has dissolved, add coriander, which gives this sauce a unique aroma. Then - a mixture of peppers. For lovers of hot seasonings, you can add a little more ground red pepper.
Boil the sauce for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Peel the garlic and squeeze into tkemali. Wash the greens, dry with a towel and chop finely. Add to the sauce and mix everything well.
Take a sample. You can add salt, sugar, garlic or pepper at your discretion. Pour the hot sauce into pre-sterilized jars. Add a teaspoon of sunflower oil on top. This way the sauce will be stored better.
Leave to cool, wrapped in a blanket. Tkemali is ready. It is better to store the sauce in a dark and cool place.
Tkemali - plum delicacy
Georgian tkemali sauce is made from plums. It turns out so tasty that some people eat it with spoons straight from the jar.
Tkemali is prepared from the following ingredients:
- kilogram of plum or cherry plum;
- hot pepper pod;
- 50 grams of sugar;
- 3 garlic cloves;
- 50 grams of dry or fresh cilantro;
- salt to taste;
- several sprigs of dill;
- ground coriander - 1 tsp.
How to do:
- The plums are sorted and washed, dried with paper towels.
- The seeds are removed from the fruits, and the berries themselves are twisted in a meat grinder or ground in a blender.
- Season with salt, sugar and place in a saucepan, cook on the stove for 8 minutes.
- Garlic, pepper, herbs, spices are ground in a blender or the same meat grinder.
- Place the prepared ingredients into boiling plum sauce, mix well and cook everything together for 2 minutes.
- Then a sample is taken. At this stage of cooking, it is best to adjust the taste of tkemali: add salt or sugar, spice, etc.
- This berry sauce is ideal for the winter. When hot, it is placed in jars, tightly rolled up with tin lids.
- All remaining tkemali sauce can be eaten immediately after it has cooled to room temperature.
Tkemali is a universal sauce that cannot spoil any dish. And for barbecue, this additive is better than store-bought ketchup.
Currant sauce
How to prepare berry sauce for meat using currants and strong alcohol? First, collect the berries (200 grams), and then follow the list:
- 50 ml cognac;
- 2 tbsp. l. soy sauce;
- 200 grams of sugar;
- 4 garlic cloves;
- a teaspoon of spicy adjika;
- a bunch of cilantro.
Preparation:
- Pour the washed and sorted berries into a saucepan or thick-bottomed saucepan.
- Next add cognac and sugar. With such contents, the pan is sent to the burner.
- Bring to a boil and, without reducing the heat, simmer for 5 minutes.
- After this, remove the pan from the stove, and beat the contents of the pan with a blender until pureed.
- While the puree is cooling, add chopped garlic and adjika.
- Pour in soy sauce.
- Bring the sauce back to a boil (5 minutes). Then remove and cool.
- It’s better if the currant sauce sits in the refrigerator for a day. When serving, add a pinch of chopped cilantro to the sauce.
For the winter, this berry sauce can be placed in sterilized jars and covered with boiled lids.
Fruit and berry sauces
Berry sauce is a great addition to various sweet dishes. However, ingenious experimenters of modern cooking are very fond of presenting it as a gravy for meat, poultry (duck) and fish.
Initially, residents of southern and eastern countries, who had an abundance of raw materials for this, learned to prepare berry sauce. In Russia, gifts from gardens and forests were harvested for future use and stored in cellars and ice chests.
Berry sauce belongs to the group of sweet sauces, but its sweetness almost always harmonizes with sourness. It can be sour, sweet and sour, sweet and even spicy. Typically, this sauce has a consistency similar to jam or jam.
Sauces often include not only a variety of berries, but also fruits that harmoniously complement them.
Additional components of the sauce can be very diverse:
- cinnamon and vanilla;
- lime, lemon or orange zest;
- pepper and cloves;
- mint and rosemary.
And this is not the limit - each chef brings something of his own to the dish. They use everything: natural and artificial honey, sugar, peppers, chocolate, cocoa, soy sauce, spices.
To obtain the required thickness, use potato starch or high-quality wheat flour.
The basis for fruit and berry gravy is often: fruit and berry purees (a mixture of them), wines, decoctions, fruit drinks or juices from apples, pears, plums, citrus fruits, raspberries, cranberries, cherries and others.
Berry sauce is usually made from fresh berries. But it can also be created from frozen or canned berries and fruits.
To make the sauce delicious:
- fruits and berries should not have signs of spoilage (mold, loss of integrity, abrasion, dried parts, unpleasant sour smell, long-term storage in unsuitable conditions);
- frozen fruits should not be defrosted several times and should not contain a lot of water (a microwave oven is not used for defrosting, the process should proceed naturally);
- the ingredients should be as compatible as possible, for example, applesauce is a universal addition to almost any sauce;
- in the spicy version, hot red chili peppers and garlic are used more often than others; you need to add them a little at a time, tasting after each addition.
Their beneficial properties for humans are directly dependent on the components of recipes. However, the amino acids, sugars, vitamins and minerals contained in any berries and fruits contribute to:
- strengthening the immune system and effectively combating infectious diseases;
- improve the functioning of internal organs and the correct transmission of nerve impulses from the brain to peripheral endings;
- regulate the functioning of the urinary system;
- stop the development of osteoporosis.
However, berry or fruit sauce when consumed daily can aggravate chronic gastric diseases, cause allergic reactions, and increase blood glucose levels.
For adult gourmets, the sauce is served cool. They pour it over meat or fish delicacies in a plate. For children, gravy from berries and fruits is offered with semolina or oatmeal, cottage cheese dessert and cheesecakes, pancakes and pancakes, with ice cream and biscuits.
Homemade sauce can be stored for no more than 2 days in a clean glass jar with a lid in the refrigerator. It’s even better if you don’t store it, but prepare it for once and eat it right away.
Gooseberry chutney
Gooseberry chutney is a berry sauce that can be combined with meat, poultry and fish. The combination is great, so try it.
We will need:
- half a kilogram of fresh gooseberries;
- 170 grams of brown sugar;
- 170 ml water;
- 1 onion;
- a teaspoon of fresh ginger;
- chili pepper - 1 pod;
- 150 ml of any vinegar;
- a pinch of salt;
- a handful of red and black currants for color.
- The berries are washed and dried. Cut each berry in half.
- The onion is peeled and cut into small cubes.
- The pepper, having previously been cleared of seeds, is cut into thin slices.
- Grate the ginger root to make a teaspoon.
- Gooseberries and onions are poured with water and sent to cook until soft.
- As soon as the gooseberries become soft, add all the other ingredients to the container where they are boiled.
- Simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens.
- Let the chutney cool. If desired, you can beat it with a blender.
- Gooseberry sauce can be served with dishes as soon as it has cooled. Or you can roll it up for the winter.
Berry sauce for lingonberry meat
Lingonberry sauce for duck is a classic of the genre, but nothing prevents you from preparing it for other types of meat. For example, with fried beef or baked pork. The berry sauce recipe with lingonberries is identical to the recipe with cranberries. The berries are covered with sugar and cooked until they begin to burst. Next add lemon and orange zest, as well as their juices. You only need a few drops of lemon juice. Although, if you are preparing fatty marbled meat, add a little more. For flavor, use nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Boil the sauce until thick, and then blend with a blender. Although it is acceptable to serve meat in berry sauce with whole berries.
Lingonberries for sauce
If you want to add sophistication to the cooked meat not only in appearance, but also in taste, prepare lingonberry sauce for it. Of what:
- half a kilogram of lingonberries;
- 250 ml water;
- 150 grams of sugar;
- 5 grams of starch (corn or potato);
- 100 ml dry white wine;
- a pinch of ground kritsa.
Cooking:
- The lingonberries are sorted, washed and placed in a pan.
- Pour half a glass of water into it and heat it on the stove until the berries begin to burst.
- After this, the berries are removed from the stove, cooled and ground through a sieve. The resulting puree is returned to the stove in the same pan.
- The puree is boiled with cinnamon and sugar until the latter is completely dissolved.
- Wine is poured. Cook until the volume of the sauce is reduced by 3 times. Don't forget to stir the brew.
- Starch is dissolved in water and added to the sauce. Cook for another 5 minutes, then remove from heat and cool.
Sea buckthorn sauce for meat
The tasty and healthy sauce is especially good with white meat: pork, chicken, turkey, rabbit. First, puree the sea buckthorn berries with a blender and rub the resulting mixture through a sieve. Add garlic crushed in a mortar to the sea buckthorn puree. For a more delicate taste, first bake it in the husk, and then grind it into a paste. Add a little liquid honey and starch diluted in water to the sea buckthorn puree. Cook for 3-5 minutes over low heat until thickened, remembering to stir the sauce regularly.
Spicy strawberry
Strawberry sauce with hot pepper is an amazing combination that will brighten up the taste of many meat dishes.
Take:
- 100 grams of fresh sweet strawberries (sour ones will also work);
- half tsp strawberry jam;
- 1 small pepper;
- a clove of garlic;
- 3 tbsp. l. lemon juice;
- several sprigs of cilantro;
- 2 tbsp. l. soy sauce;
- freshly ground pepper - to taste.
And prepare:
- Strawberries are washed and ground into puree. If desired, the puree can be additionally passed through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.
- Lemon juice, jam, soy sauce, and ground pepper are added to the strawberry puree.
- The pepper is cleared of seeds and turned into a paste.
- The cilantro is crushed and added to the pepper. The entire mixture is added to strawberry puree.
- Then chop the garlic and add it to the strawberry puree. Stir.
There is no need to cook the sauce. Therefore, it is consumed immediately after preparation.