"sauce" news and stories

Can't wait for peak season to enjoy summery berries and succulent fruits? Use frozen fruit to make a quick sauce.

The maker of Castle Sauce, a distinctively tangy steak sauce -- fashioned after a beloved local condiment that vanished from the Greensboro, N.C. scene in 2007 -- believes he's come even closer to replicating the original product.

Relying on chemical analysis and "a little bit of common sense," Dwight Thomas recently revised his recipe to include a still-secret missing ingredient. "We now have it pretty much dead-on," Thomas says. "I had forty-some people at my house and only one could tell the difference."

Thomas' guests probably weren't just being polite. Greensboro residents are connoisseurs of the ketchupy, mustardy blend that got its start in 1929 at the Boar and Castle, a burger joint popular with teenagers. "It was a necking place, to be honest," Thomas recalls. "If you got there in time to get a spot under the wisteria, you spent all night there."

Enchiladas. Photo: purdyinblue, Flickr.

Enchiladas are arguably the most comforting of all Mexican entrees. Perhaps that's because they most closely resemble a casserole -- with protein, grains and vegetables all baked together and topped with delicious, flavorful red sauce and a layer of melted cheese.

Whether filled with beef, pork, chicken, fish, cheese, beans or any combination of those ingredients, enchiladas can often be complicated dishes, like these with homemade sauce and fresh cilantro from Flickr user purdyinblue. But the Mexican one-pot meal is also a great way to feed lots of people with very little effort, especially if you use a Dorito-encrusted recipe from the likes of Emeril Lagasse... or Charlie Gibson, depending on who you ask.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Shrimp cocktail. Photo: No Recipes.

While shrimp is delicious on its own, deep-fried or sautéed with pasta and butter, it it seems to pack the most flavor -- and color -- when served as part of the classic shrimp cocktail.

Pleasing to the eyes as well as the palate, this single shellfish from No Recipes is dipped in an Asian-inspired twist on the staid red cocktail sauce, combining the usual fresh tomatoes and tomato sauce with Thai sweet chili and fish sauces, lime juice and wasabi. It sounds so good, we're tempted to try to pluck the perfectly pink crustacean straight off the screen.

[Via No Recipes]

I'll never forget the first roast bird I made, when I had a friend over for dinner. I threw the balsamic roast chicken on the table, added the sides, and she asked me: "There's no sauce?" The question seemed foreign. Strange. Sauce? I grew up in a family where roast/baked/broiled meats were served as-is. Maybe once and a while we'd try out a saucy recipe, but it certainly wasn't a staple. I felt bad, and had nothing I could offer her save bottled bbq sauce or ketchup. At the time, I hadn't yet delved into the world of gravy.

If this has ever happened to you, or you find yourself scouring the Internet trying to find a good or different sauce recipe, check out this collection of sauce recipes at Nikibone.com. This page is chock full of saucy possibilities, but what I like most about the page is the diversity of flavors -- from my beloved wasabi to asiago, champagne to turmeric cream. The list offers flavors you wouldn't necessarily expect, and is a great jumping point for further saucy shenanigans. At the very least, it's a whole slew of tasty options on one small page that saves surfing time!