SAUCES

 

Some Texas cooks would rather disclose their secret fishing hole than share their barbecue sauce recipe. Not us. We’ve borrowed from friends, learned from family members and asked for secrets. From tangy barbecue sauce to sweet glazes with a hint of jalapeño, we often add a sauce for interest to our meats or other dishes. You’ll find yourself experimenting. Your outcome will improve as you add, subtract and improvise.

Jalapeño Marmalade Sauce

When the jalapeños get dark, the sauce sets up and tastes best. It can be used on any kind of meat dish.

1 15½-ounce jar orange marmalade

1½ cups pineapple juice

1 jalapeño, diced

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

In a small saucepan, empty the jar of orange marmalade, rinsing the jar with pineapple juice. Add jalapeño, cornstarch and confectioner’s sugar. Stir with wire whisk until cornstarch and sugar are dissolved. Bring to boil, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer until pepper turns dark, about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve hot over meats.

Sometimes degree of hotness needs to be adjusted with more or less jalapeño, to your taste. Just a good bite of pepper is what you want.

Yields 3½ cups

Jalapeño Raspberry Sauce

Doris Cauble’s favorite sauce— raspberry, with jalapeño added to enhance it, works well with many main dishes.

3 cups fresh red raspberries

1½ cups of mango nectar

1 jalapeño, diced

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Cook raspberries with 1 cup juice until tender, about 5 minutes. Add remaining juice, jalapeño, cornstarch and confectioner’s sugar. Stir with wire whisk until cornstarch and sugar are dissolved. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until pepper turns dark, about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm over poultry or pork.

Yields 4½ cups

Jalapeño Peppers

Red Bell Pepper

Tart Honeyed Sauce

This can be used on pork, game hens, chicken breasts, chicken halves and even on dove and quail. Double this recipe for one side of pork ribs. When doubling the recipe, do not double the Tabasco because it sometimes makes it too hot.

½ cup Burgundy wine

½ cup pineapple juice

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons prepared mustard

½ cup honey

1 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce

Mix all ingredients in stainless bowl.

Yields 2 cups

Red Chile Paste

This paste is great on grilled corn or on a cracker if you really like “hot.”

6 dried red chile peppers, anchos or New Mexico

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups sourdough bread, torn

Boil red chile peppers in water 15 minutes. Remove stems and chop. For more heat, leave in the seeds; for less, remove seeds before chopping. Remember you can always add heat, but it’s hard to cool it down. In a blender, combine chile peppers, red bell pepper, garlic, oregano, paprika, cumin and salt. Chop for 30 seconds. After all is chopped, add vinegar and olive oil. Blend while adding bread pieces.

Yields 1 cup

Red Chile Butter

Use for basting steaks, chicken or pork. It’s really good tossed with fresh pasta.

1 pound butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

½ cup West Texas Basic Red Chile Sauce, recipe page 120

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix butter, black pepper, salt and West Texas Basic Red Chile Sauce in blender. Pour into container and cover. Store in refrigerator for up to two weeks.

For a variation, substitute ½ cup chopped fresh basil for the chile sauce.

Yields 2½ cups

Red Chile Butter

Green Chile Sauce

This sauce can be used as a smothering sauce for burritos, enchiladas or it can be spooned into tacos.

¼ cup olive or vegetable oil

½ cup chopped white onion

4 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon cumin

½ cup chicken broth

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon garlic salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 pound green chiles, roasted, peeled and diced (See page 138.)

In heavy saucepan, brown onion until tender. Whisk in flour and cumin. When mixture begins to brown, slowly whisk in broth and milk, stirring constantly. Add garlic salt, black pepper and green chiles. Purée all in blender. Warm and serve. Store refrigerated for 3 to 4 days.

Yields 3 cups

Green Chile Sauce

Green Chiles

West Texas Basic Red Chile Sauce

We use our “Basic Red” so many ways—in Chile Colorado, over enchiladas, over meatloaf, over scrambled eggs, heated with grated cheese for an awesome chile con queso— and more.

10 to 12 dried New Mexico chiles, stemmed, seeded and rinsed

4 or 5 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons oregano

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup olive oil

4 tablespoons flour

Cover chile pods with water and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes, reserving liquid. Transfer pods to blender and add garlic, cumin, oregano and salt. Purée, adding reserved liquid to make a smooth paste. Heat the olive oil, add flour and brown. Add chile paste. Add reserved liquid as needed to make gravy. This may be refrigerated for up to one month.

Yields approximately 2½ cups

New Mexico Chiles

Barbecue Mop Sauce

This mop sauce will keep refrigerated for up to one month. Use with beef, pork or cabrito.

½ gallon vinegar

4 cups water

1 pound butter

4 tablespoons dry mustard

4 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons crushed red pepper

4 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons chili powder

4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

4 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 whole garlic pod, with root end washed well

4 cups sliced yellow onions

Bring all ingredients to boil in large stockpot for 15 minutes. Simmer for 2 hours.

For a sweeter sauce, add 1½ cups of apricot preserves and 1 cup of crushed pineapple 30 minutes prior to serving.

Yields 8 cups
(with addition of preserves and pineapple yield increases to 10 cups)

Granddad Mickan’s Barbecue Sauce

Mr. Mickan was a rancher from Copperas Cove whose family came to Texas in 1854 from Germany.

½ cup beef tallow

2 cups water

1 large onion

1 cup butter

1 lemon, sliced

2 cups catsup

½ cup Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon coarse-ground black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in stainless saucepan and boil slowly. Remove tallow and simmer 30 minutes.

TIP: Tallow is the fatty tissue or “suet” around cuts of meat…the solid animal fat.

Yields 6 cups

Cabrito Seasoning

This may also be used on venison or lamb.

½ cup black pepper

¼ cup chili powder

¼ cup salt

2 tablespoons cumin

1 tablespoon oregano

Mix all spices. Rub the meat with olive oil to help the seasoning stick to the meat. Coat meat 2 to 3 hours before cooking.

Yields 1 cup

Onions and Garlic

Green Chile Salsa

This salsa is a favorite served with chips or veggies at any gathering. We really like it on our eggs, hamburgers and most meat dishes.

12 fresh green chiles, roasted, peeled and chopped

2 fresh tomatoes, diced

1 large onion, diced

½ teaspoon garlic salt

½ cup Vinaigrette Dressing, recipe page 160

Mix all ingredients; refrigerate covered two hours before serving.

Will keep up to one week in refrigerator.

Yields 3 to 4 cups

Mango Salsa

This is mighty good with suckling pig or cabrito.

2 cups mango, peeled and chopped

4 fresh jalapeños, seeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

¼ cup lime juice

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Combine and let stand for 1 hour before serving.

Yields 2 cups

Texas Pecan Pesto

This is good made with basil or cilantro.

1 cup basil or cilantro leaves, packed

½ cup pecans

3 garlic pods

1 tablespoon lime juice or balsamic vinegar

½ cup olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, shredded

Add all ingredients, except cheese, to blender. Blend well. Stir in Parmesan cheese.

Serve with 1 pound of fresh pasta.

Yields approximately 1¼ cups

Pecans

Pico de Gallo

On the cowboy’s table, this dish is more important than catsup. They eat it on their eggs in the morning, as a snack with chips, alongside any meat that we serve, atop any Mexican food dish. It’s a must-have for any party, large or small.

2 cups yellow onions, chopped

4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

6 jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon salt

Chop onions and tomatoes. Discard stems and chop jalapeño peppers. Mix all ingredients with salt. Cover and refrigerate.

Adjust the amount of peppers according to the hotness of the jalapeños.

Yields 4 cups

Prickly Pear Jelly

Texas is blessed or cursed, depending with whom you speak, with acres and acres of prickly pear cacti. In the springtime, their lemony-green pads sprout vibrant yellow and orange-red blooms. Those blooms mature to red or deep purple “pears”— mature pears are covered with thousands of tiny prickles....so harvesting is not for the faint-hearted. But any harvester willing to wield long kitchen tongs, thick rubber gloves, and a bucket will be rewarded with prickly pear fruit that can be made into a lovely jelly.

3 cups prickly pear juice

3 cups sugar

½ cup lemon juice

6 ounces liquid fruit pectin

Pick two gallons pear fruit using kitchen tongs and long rubber gloves. Ripe fruit will give just a little when squeezed.

Put immediately into cold water for 5 to 10 minutes. Pare, using rubber gloves. Quarter pears, place in medium saucepan and cover with water. Boil on high for 5 minutes. Pour boiled mixture through cheesecloth to strain seeds. Combine pear juice, sugar and lemon juice. Bring mixture to rolling boil, reduce heat to medium, add liquid fruit pectin and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, or until mixture begins to thicken. Skim foam from top.

You may store in sterilized canning jars sealed with paraffin or simply refrigerate to use in a sauce.

Yields 3 pints