Sauces Made From Scratch

It is really rare for Mark and I to have a store bought sauce in the house - I love making homemade sauces instead because it fills the house with wonderful smells, allows us to control what ingredients are going into our diet and they can always be made well in advance and frozen.  We end up with a bunch sitting in our freezer when I make a batch of whatever sauce we want and, in a pinch.

I have high blood pressure so, for me, it is very important to keep the salt intake low and both Mark and I try to keep our weight in check.  The last thing we want to do is spend money on clothes because ours have stopped fitting.  There are much better things in life to spend our hard earned dollars on...

Today I am going to share with you my recipe for my home made meat sauce which I made a batch of just last week.  I may even throw in my cheese sauce recipe at the bottom although I don't have any pictures of the cheese sauce at the moment.

I think the part I love the most about making home made sauces like this is the prep pulling everything together - browning the meat, chopping up the tomatoes, tasting it to adjust the seasonings, etc...all of these steps are a chance to add flavour, play with the final outcome and create something truly satisfying.

For this batch of sauce I used field tomatoes for the recipe but Plum tomatoes work just as well.  Pretty much any type of tomato that looks good in the supermarket that is a reasonable price will work for this recipe.

I like to add a little bit of lemon zest to the tomatoes - it lifts the flavour of the beef and the tomatoes and gives it another dimension.  If you do not have a zester itself, take a vegetable peeler and peel off a couple of large strips of lemon peel and then finely cut them into strips like below.

I do recommend using extra lean ground beef when making this recipe - lean or medium ground beef throws off too much fat I find and then you'll be draining that off for what seems like forever instead of making your sauce.

Once this has started to come together, it is time to add the liquids.  I use a combination of red wine and low sodium beef stock when I make this sauce along with a few other seasonings.  It is this combination that makes the house start to smell so yummy, especially since once you have added this in, you just let the mixture sit and work its magic for a couple of hours.

Homemade Meat Sauce

4 (large)               Field tomatoes, chopped into chunks

1 (large)               Lemon, zest and juice of

2 tsp                      Salt, divided

2 tsp                      Pepper, divided

3 lbs                       Extra lean ground beef

3 tbsp                    Greek seasoning

3 tbsp                    Onion flakes

3 tbsp                    Sundried Tomato & Herb seasoning

1 ½ cups               White wine

¼ cup                    Worcestershire sauce

8-10 dashes        Hot sauce (I used Tabasco)

2 cups                   Red wine

7 ½ cups               Low Sodium Beef Broth

Start by chopping up your tomatoes into large chunks and put them aside into a mixing bowl.  Next, zest your lemon and then cut the lemon in half to squeeze the juice out.   If you do not have a zester, take your vegetable peeler and cut off strips of lemon peel and then chop into small slivers.  Add the zest to the tomatoes and then squeeze the juice of the lemon over the tomatoes.  Add 1 tsp each salt and pepper to the bowl and then toss the tomatoes and lemon in the salt and pepper.

Now it’s time to brown the ground beef.  Add all of the ground beef to a large stock pot and cook it over medium heat until completely browned.  Drain the fat from the meat and return the meat to the stock pot. 

Return the meat to the heat and add the rest of the salt and pepper as well as the Greek seasoning, Onion flakes, Sundried Tomato and Herb seasoning, White Wine, Worcestershire sauce and Hot sauce.  Cook for 5 minutes and then taste the meat to see if there is enough seasoning and flavour to it. 

Adjust the seasonings as necessary and then add in your tomato mixture.  Put the lid on the pot and lower the heat down to medium low.  Let it cook and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the tomatoes start to break down.

Now add in your red wine and beef broth.  This is why you need to have a large stock pot as, at this point, there is going to be a lot of liquid.   Turn the heat up to medium high, cover the stock pot with the lid once more and let this go.  Check on it every 30-45 minutes and give it a good stir but it is going to take about 2 hours for a lot of this liquid to reduce.

Once the sauce is ready, I divide it between freezer proof containers, let it cool down to room temperature and then put it away in the freezer.

Makes 10 cups

As an alternative – if you want to hold aside some of this sauce and keep it going for another 30-45 minutes at the same heat and keep it going until all the liquid is gone.  This makes an amazing topper on nachos or for tacos when all of the liquid is gone.

This was taken when the sauce had reduced by about half.  If you look at the orange line near the top of the stock pot, that was where it originally started.  Now, like I promised earlier, I am also going to share my homemade cheese sauce recipe with you.  When I make this next I will take some photos and share them with you here.

Made from Scratch Cheese Sauce

2 tbsp                    All purpose flour

2 tbsp                    Margarine

PINCH                   Salt

PINCH                   Pepper

3 cups                   Milk

1 ½ cups               Low Sodium Chicken Broth

6-8 dashes          Hot sauce

1 cup                     Parmesan cheese, grated

2 cups                   Swiss cheese, shredded

2 cups                   Old cheddar cheese, shredded

In a large saucepan, combine the flour and margarine over medium heat and stir until butter is melted and completely incorporated into the flour.

Add salt and pepper.

As the roux is just starting to brown, with a whisk, stir in chicken broth and milk. 

Stirring constantly, let this mixture come together and start to thicken, about 5-7 minutes.

At this point, switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon.

Add in the cheeses in the order listed, stirring after each cheese is added, until it is incorporated fully.

It is important to stir this regularly so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.  The sauce is ready when it is thickened and coats the back of the wooden spoon.

Makes 4 cups