Creating sauces - allergy problems

[neilrufc]

Hi again,

I love cooking sauses but am un-able to share them with my Wife as she has several alleries. The real nasty one is citrus - esp lemen and oranges. The next one is cheese. I need ideas on nice sauces that dont include cheese or citrus. She is not all that keen on spicey food either.

Any ideas would be great

Thanks

[GB]

Many sauces do not contain citrus or cheese. There are so many different kinds though so it would help to know what the sauce will be used for.

[neilrufc]

Hi,

It would be for steaks and fish - salmon

Thanks

[GB]

I nice compound butter would be a good way to go. Soften a stick of butter and then add in anything you like. Some good additions would be different herbs (parsley would be great for the fish), things like capers, or just about anything else you can think of. Mix it all together and then roll into a log and stick in the fridge to solidify. Then just slice off pieces and put on top of the hot steak or fish. As it melts you will have your sauce.

[XeniA]

GB's right on the money. For steak we love garlic butter -- same butter as the parsley butter GB just described, plus lots of chopped or mashed garlic. Chives would be nice too!

[Andy M.]

Try vinegars to replace the citrus in some sauces.

[auntdot]

Neilrufc, yep iterate there are many many many sauces that don't require cheese or citrus.

Just one thing, when one says a cheese allergy one can sometimes mean lactose intollerence and that would also include of course milk and cream.

That being said, none of the mother sauces require citrus or cheese (OK, some Hollandaise recipes do but you can just use vinegar). And beurre blanc is another sauce, that many might consider a sixth mother sauce, that does not require either ingredient.

And there so many sauces based on these that if you love sauce making you could saucier away for the rest of your life without ever having to consider tossing in a splash of lemon or some Stilton. And there are many sauces not based on the mother sauces. Google or find a good book on them. Read the paper, they often have great ideas. Or the mags from Sainsburys or Tesco have fine recipes.

The compound butter idea is great. But there are many other possibilities.

For example, for steaks and salmon, a Benaise sauce is a good choice.

Just one example.

A sauce can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

A bit of wine in the fond with some shallots, maybe some capers, a bit of chicken stock, reduce a bit, that kind of thing.

If you like to make sauces go for it.

Sorry for the rant.

[Sararwelch]

You could also do wine based sauces, tomato sauce, mushroom sauce - none of those require cheese or citrus.

[Robo410]

steak is delish with a pan sauce of wine and herbs, thicken with butter (or if butter is out, use a quality margarine or a little Wondra gravy flour or corn starch. Tomato paste also thickkens sauces)

Salmon is great with curry or peanut sauce (some contain citrus so read the lable) But it's easy to make your own with peanut butter, chicken or veg broth and rice vinegar.