Good sauce makes the most of a meal

Sep 6 2008 by Sheila Benson and Sean Millar, Liverpool Daily Post

WHETHER you’re an amateur cook trying to hide the dryness of that over-cooked chicken, or a professional chef whipping up a perfect bearnaise, a good sauce makes a good meal.

Perhaps the easiest option for a sauce is to add fresh herbs and spices to melted butter. This can be used to add flavour and succulence to almost any meat or fish with pleasing results. Not all sauces are of the runny variety, here are a couple of "butters" and some seasoning for you to try at home.

This Coriander and Chilli Butter is delicious, the zesty coriander contrasting beautifully with the heat of the chilli.

You will need 250g (11oz) of unsalted butter, a handful of freshly coriander, 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped, 1 tbsp of lime juice, 2 tsp of salt and 1tsp cracked black pepper.

Place all the ingredients in a food processor for about 30 seconds. Remove, wrap in tin foil and roll into a sausage shape. Place in the freezer for 45 minutes. To serve, roll back the foil and cut into slices 1cm in width.

Another flavoured butter we love is blue cheese. Simply blitz 250g (11oz) of unsalted butter and 125g (5oz) of blue cheese in a food processor, with a pinch of black pepper. Try this on a beef burger and we assure you they will never taste quite the same again.

Another way of enhancing your grilled meat, fish and poultry is with a homemade seasoning or rub. Here are some ideas to experiment with.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken is always delicious but this recipe we found a couple of years ago nears on the sublime.

To make about 110g (4 oz) you will need 2 tbsp onion powder, 1 tbsp of dried chives, 1 tbsp of dried thyme, 1 tbsp ground all spice, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tbsp dark brown sugar, 2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp grated nutmeg, and ½ tsp ground cinnamon.

Simply combine all the above ingredients and mix thoroughly. Using about ½ tbsp per serving, rub the spice mixture into each portion of meat four hours before cooking. If you are using a rub to marinate your meat it is doubly important that your pan or griddle is hot. The heat will toast the spices and give them the authentic flavour you’re after.

A second spice rub that you maybe familiar with is Garam Masala. It’s readily available in supermarkets these days, but making your own can be so rewarding. The main ingredients lose all their definition in the shop-bought varieties.

You will need 3 tbsp cardamom pods, 2½ tbsp cumin seeds, 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 1½ tbsp black peppercorns, 1 tbsp cloves, 2 tsp of ground cinnamon and 1 tsp of grated nutmeg.

Begin by lightly crushing the cardamom pods and using a sharp knife, scrape the small black seeds from the shell and then discard the husks. Toast the cardamom seeds along with the cumin, coriander, peppercorns and cloves in a dry pan, over a hot heat, until the cumin begins to pop and the coriander seeds turn a deep brown.

Transfer them into a mortar and pestle and grind into a powder. Be sure that during the process you bend close to the spices and inhale: the smell is almost intoxicating.

Use about 2tbsp per serving, rub into pork chops about eight hours before cooking, chicken breasts four hours before, prawns two hours before and fish no more than 30 minutes before, so as not to over power its delicate flavour.

Hopefully these recipes have given you some new and surprisingly simple ideas and once you have mastered these why not invent some of your own combinations?

* Sheila Benson and Sean Millar are at The Side Door, 29a Hope Street, Liverpool. Tel: 0151 707 7888.