A Classic Dessert Sauce Made Easy - Crème Anglaise

Persimmon Bourbon Pudding on a bed of Crème Anglaise

You may have heard of the five mother sauces of classical cooking (béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, tomate), but the truth is there's a sixth missing from that list: anglaise.  While most sauces in savory cooking are based off of the five aforementioned classics, pastry's workhorse is the crème anglaise, or vanilla sauce, as it's sometimes called.  Meaning English cream in the French language, this custard transforms into some of your favorite desserts with very little manipulation.  Ice cream, crème brûlée, and pastry cream are just vanilla sauce with a couple extra steps.

With all this talk about what anglaise can be, I might not be getting across to you that this custard sauce is perfect as is for-- well, you guessed it-- a complimentary sauce to a dessert.  The recipe I show for the anglaise is simple, delicious, and doesn't require any extraneous or complicated steps you often see in other recipes.  Much like the other mother sauces, crème anglaise is a blank canvas to flavor and transform into the application most pleasing to you.

Roasted Curried Cauliflower

This short video post isn't just about giving you a delicious recipe for cauliflower, but a foolproof model on how to roast cauliflower, no matter what the seasoning.

Chicken Chettinad Masala - Not For the Faint of Heart

Although, I am a big fan of Indian cuisine, I'm not much of a fan of Indian restaurants (at least here in America).  First of all, most of them run buffets during lunch, which may be the only time you can get to them.  The quality of food on a buffet always takes a hit because of the large quantities prepared, and necessity to hold the food at a particular temperature to assure safety dries it all out.  Have you ever had tandoori chicken from a buffet that wasn't as desiccant as the Thar?  I know I haven't.

Additionally, the food served at most restaurants in America fails to deliver truly aromatic and flavorful dishes one expects from the Indian subcontinent for two reasons:

1.  Spices are expensive and Indian food uses a lot of them.  For this reason, a lot of restaurants cut back on the amount they use to reduce costs.  Your vindaloo might taste like ketchup, and your roghan josh will arrive to your table a deep red color from the paprika they used in place of the pleasantly piquant Kashmiri chiles, which create a burnt orange hue, not ruby. 

2.  Your curry is probably drowned in heavy cream!  Even if you aren't ordering korma or chicken makhani, the kind proprietors of your local Indian establishment have caught onto the fact that Americans love creamy, fatty foods, so they started throwing it into everything they make, further muting the essential spices.  

The solution to all of this is to make your own Indian food at home.  Desi people are a huge immigrant group in the U.S. and worldwide (England, the Caribbean, Spain).  Chances are there's an Indian or Desi grocery store near your humble abode.  This means you can get the necessary stuff to make proper Indian cuisine, probably saving money along the way, too. 

Dig into... Some Tonkatsu

Modern Japan isn't merely a country where East meets West.  The Land of the Rising Sun's story is more a case where East thought West was chou kawaii but after running through a couple different Western suitors (Portugal and Holland), East gave up on all foreigners and went totally asexual for a couple hundred years before that Chandler guy made them start airing Friends episodes in English... Yeah, that sounds right*.

Anyway, East finally settled on a handsome Western suitor who had the traits of a myriad of Western states, including Amurrica and Germany, to make 126 million homogenous children.  Here's where I tell you how this all relates to tonkatsu.

Two Techniques in One: Homemade Croutons and Breadcrumbs

There are three major benefits of making your own croutons and breadcrumbs at home:

1. You now have a use for stale or leftover bread.

2. Your croutons and breadcrumbs will be crunchier, healthier, and more flavorful than the store-bought variety.

3. Endless flavor combinations will keep you and your diners interested and satisfied.