Welcome to Hot Stuff, a judgement-free and enthusiastic place to increase your level of comfort in the kitchen, diversify your recipe and ingredient knowledge, and fall in love with the creative expression of cooking.
Think about the best thing you ate recently. What was it that made it really sing for you? If I had to wager a guess, I would say that it was one thing: the sauce. Yes, sometimes the meat is seasoned perfectly or the vegetables cooked juuust right, but more often than not, a meal’s success lies in its sauce.
Sauces are essential. They are incredibly versatile and can be complex or very simple. I think that they often get overlooked when people start cooking for themselves, because it feels like yet another thing that you have to try and wrangle. I mean, this is the beauty of Ranch dressing: it comes pre-made, ready to enhance almost anything. The same can be said of your preferred brand of hot sauce.
But, like I said, sauces are essential. They elevate your home cooking skills in a way that few other things can. Potatoes undercooked? Well, at least that sauce was good. Pasta overdone? Who cares, I’m mopping up the sauce with some bread.
Personally, I think the sauce umbrella is vast, and covers everything from pasta sauces (tomato or cream based) to dips, spreads, dressings, syrups, reductions, jellies, condiments and marinades. I maintain that having a few sauces in your repertoire will ultimately make it easier to cook for yourself, and more fun, too.
An Ode To My Sauce Roots
I owe a debt of gratitude to Beth Moncel, creator of Budget Bytes. If you follow me on IG, you know that I make Budget Bytes recipes and sing their gospel all the time. It’s worth reading up a bit on Beth, because I love the approach she takes to cooking. IMO, few people are working to make home cooking as accessible as she is!
It was a Budget Bytes recipe that launched my fascination with making sauces: Spicy Sriracha Noodles. It’s a quick noodle stir fry recipe, and the sauce is just 3 ingredients: equal parts soy sauce, sriracha, and brown sugar. I couldn’t believe how DELICIOUS these three pantry staples became when mixed together as a sauce.
For me, these are the most rewarding moments of cooking — realizing that I have exactly what I need to make something incredible.
Expanding Your Sauce Horizons
It is, dare I say, FUN, to make sauces. There is a pretty basic formula for building them:
NEUTRAL BASE + ACID + SWEET + SALT + HEAT
If this sounds familiar, then congrats on having watched Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix. (If you haven’t, you must! Samin Nosrat is a treasure!) You can add or subtract elements to your taste, your ingredient availability, or the kind of recipe you’re making. Truly, this is the only math I get excited about.
(I just feel like Samin would like GPG!)
NEUTRAL BASE:
Greek yogurt
Mayo
Tahini
Sour Cream
Milk (dairy or non, including all the variations, like heavy whipping cream, etc)
+ ACID
Lemon juice
Lime juice
Any kind of vinegar
Tomato paste/sauce
Mustard (fully a Djion gal at heart, but they’re all good)
+ SWEET
Brown sugar
White sugar
Maple syrup
Agave nectar
Honey
+ SALT
Salt
Soy sauce
+ HEAT
Sriracha
Garlic chile sauce
Frank's Red Hot sauce (my love!!!!)
Any hot sauce
Chopped jalapenos (or any pepper, really)
Crushed red pepper
Cayenne pepper
+ WILDCARD
Pesto
Avocado
Butter
Olive Oil
Garlic (roasted is best for sauces)
Fresh herbs
Any kind of dry spice
Water (to help thin!)
I make anywhere from 2-4 sauces a week, because I live at Sauce Palace where I am the Sauce Queen. But truly! Once you start experimenting, you will only be able to see possibilities. Saucibilities.
Also, a good thing to note is that most sauces taste better if the flavors have some time to meld together. If you can make a sauce in advance and throw it in the fridge, all the better. If you don’t plan that far ahead (relatable), then at least making it and setting it aside before you start cooking the rest of the recipe is a great place to start.
Where To Start Your Sauce Journey
The easiest place to start is with no-cook sauces, and by that I meant you just blend a bunch of shit together and then drizzle or pour it over your food. Adding heat can be a tricky element, so it’s good to build your comfort level with cold sauces first.
Homemade Sushi Bowls I make some variation on this at least twice a month. The sriracha mayo will become a staple in your life, and the dressing on the rice is NON-NEGOTIABLE.
Wontons In Chili Garlic Broth Whether or not you make the wontons to go along with this (although they’re delicious) this is an incredibly easy base for literally any noodle dish.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts Bowls This creamy Dijon dressing is another favorite of mine that ends up in my regular rotation all the time — even if you are just roasting a bunch of random veggies, this will elevate and unify them.
Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl While Minimalist Baker is actually on my shit list because her recipes are some of the most complicated and expensive things for literally no reason (deep breath, Hayley), this one is legit. The tahini-based sauce is very good and very simple.
Moroccan Spiced Sheet Pan Tofu And Sweet Potatoes I have made this at least four times by now and I never get sick of how GOOD IT IS! The sauce is absolutely divine, and the last time I made it I actually used an immersion blender to really mix it up and it was great!
Pesto Mayo I don’t have a link for this because it is literally just pesto + mayo mixed together in the quantities of each that you prefer. This will become something that you can spread on any wrap or sandwich and it will make you feel very fancy!
Next time on Hot Stuff, we will dive into the sheer joy of hot sauces. I mean like, temperature-wise, not spice-wise. I’ll talk about the beauty (and pain) of making a good roux, and the shortcuts and substitutions I use.
Have a cooking question? Send it on over to goldplatedgirls@gmail.com and it could be incorporated into the next installment of Hot Stuff.