Italian Bread Dipping (Oil) Sauce

Restaurant-style sauce with olive oil, Italian herbs and balsamic vinegar perfect for dipping your favorite crusty bread. Mix it up with your favorite herbs and add a spicy kick, if you like, to create your own flavor blend.

When I was still living in the Philippines, there was one Italian restaurant that I frequently visited with my family and friends. It's called Italianni's and they now have several branches all over Metro Manila as through the years they have become so popular. Can you guess what made them so well-loved?

Easy Peanut (Satay) Sauce

Use smooth or crunchy peanut butter to make this easy and tasty Peanut (Satay) Sauce. Serve this as sauce or dip for grilled meat or toss with some noodles for an Asian-inspired dish.

In the Philippines, like in Indonesia, Thailand and many other parts of South East Asia, chicken or pork cooked on a grill is pretty much the typical street food. In every community's street corner you will never miss a barbecue stand. Even in the tiniest villages, you won't miss the aroma of freshly grilled meat. Of course a favorite accompaniment to grilled meat is the Peanut Sauce.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

I love cooking with spices. I just love the intense complexity in flavor that a little dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or my favorite cardamon can add to a dish. When I decided to make some condiment for Thanksgiving, I thought it had to be cranberry sauce and a spiced one, too.

30 Minute Beef and Franks Spaghetti Meal

This post is is sponsored by Prego® Sauces. All opinions are mine alone. 

Ready in 30 minutes, this Beef and Franks Spaghetti Meal with only 5 main ingredients is the perfect dinner solution for busy moms. With ground beef, hot dogs, vegetables and a rich Italian sauce served over pasta, a delicious weeknight family meal has never been easier.

Easy 2-Ingredient Raspberry Coulis

We had a meeting for our Young and Marrieds group yesterday and I made a no bake chocolate cheesecake as my dessert contribution. It was made with 70% dark chocolate so it was intensely chocolaty and much-loved by hubby who is a huge fan of dark chocolate and I have been a recent convert of his. :)

Homemade Sweet Tangy Barbecue Sauce

I grew up in a small island in the Philippines called Marinduque. Our island is a little far away from Manila or other big cities. If you wish to go to the city in another province you have to ride the ferry or a big passenger outrigger boat. The nearest one would take you at least 3-4 hours to reach and that is by sea and certainly not for the faint-hearted and those prone to sea sickness. We're a little isolated that way. While we have small grocery stores in the various towns, our beautiful island has yet to be graced by a modern and big supermarket that you normally see in the big city.

Pasta with Tuna in Creamy Tomato Sauce

When I was in Manila, my sister cooked a yummy tuna pasta with a creamy sauce and the other day I suddenly had a strong craving for it. I looked around our pantry shelves to see if I still have some canned tuna lying around. Thankfully, I found one. Unfortunately though I didn't have any mushrooms to go with my pasta. I thought I'd have to find a way somehow to make a yummy and creamy tuna pasta without mushrooms.

Yummy Cranberry Cheesecake

Last year for the holiday season, I made a No Bake White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake as part of the 12 Cakes of December series. I joined 11 other food bloggers and we each took turn to make cakes that we felt best represented the season. I wanted a truly festive and lovely cake so I chose to make a cheesecake with cranberries - since cranberries have a deep red hue which of course is the color of Christmas. Besides, I truly love cheesecake!

Ricotta Meatballs in Creamy White Wine Sauce

Today I felt like a contestant in that popular show from the Food Network - Chopped. I had some left-over ingredients which needed to be used up but they seemed to be an odd assortment. Initially, I felt like it would be weird to merge them in one dish, much like in Chopped (though perhaps not as extreme) where contestants are supposed to come with a yummy dish using a medley of ingredients which you don't normally put together. That was my challenge for the day - how to use in one dish a few pieces of sun-dried tomatoes, a little wine, two types of cheeses and ground beef.

Mushroom Sauce

Mark and I love mushrooms. We have it twice a week, either for breakfast with eggs or at dinner  combined with some chicken or beef. Sometimes I use it with other vegetables too but for this particular recipe, it is the queen.

This is a lovely sauce that perfectly complements chicken. I am imagining chicken scallopini as I write. If I have chicken breast at hand, I grill or pan-fry the meat and when it’s cooked, I either mix it with the sauce or just pour the sauce on top of it and have it over pasta or rice. Comfort food that’s sure to please everyone (unless you hate mushrooms!) J


Ingredients

A little olive oil (about a teaspoon)
1 tbsp butter
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 8oz package mini-Bella mushrooms, chopped
¼ cup dry White wine
1 cup cream 
Ground nutmeg (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste


Procedure

In a saucepan or sauté pan, melt the butter with a little oil. Sauté the garlic briefly, just until aromatic, about 1 minute or less. Add in the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have released all its liquid about 5-8 mins.

Pour in the white wine. Increase the heat and reduce the wine to about half. Lower the heat and stir in the cream.

Cook until the sauce  has thickened (when it begins to coat the back of the spoon). Season with a dash of nutmeg and a little salt and pepper.  

Pour the sauce on the chicken and serve over rice or pasta.  

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Velouté Sauce

A velouté sauce, pronounced [və.lu.te], along with Tomato, Hollandaise, Béchamel, and Espagnole, is one of the sauces of French cuisine that were designated the five "mother sauces" by Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century, which was a simplification of the "Sauce Carême" list of Marie-Antoine Carême. The term velouté is from the French adjectival form of velour, meaning velvety.

In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been previously roasted), such as chicken, veal or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux. Thus the ingredients of a velouté are equal parts by mass butter and flour to form the roux, a light chicken, veal, or fish stock, and salt and pepper for seasoning. Commonly the sauce produced will be referred to by the type of stock used e.g. chicken velouté. (Source: Wikipedia)

Velouté sauce is often served on poultry or seafood dishes, and is used as the base for other sauces. It is basically a gravy.

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups chicken stock or broth
Salt and Pepper

Procedure

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.

Stir in the flour and cook by stirring for about 1 minute or until the  butter and the flour are incorporated/mixed.

Gradually, stir in the stock.

Add salt and pepper. Continue to stir until all ingredients are fully mixed in. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes or until it has reached a good consistency.

Makes about 2 cups.