WFMW-Being Saucy

As our cooking options here are limited (no refrigerator, no stove, no oven, just an electric skillet), as is our grocery budget, it has been a stretch of my imagination to provide variety of flavor in our food. This is especially important to dh, who is quite the carnivore, when most of our home cooked meals these days lack any meat!

As stated in previous posts, my primary flavorings are curry powder and soy sauce. I have also recently acquired mustard, catsup, brown sugar, salt, and mayonnaise. From these options, I need to create variety in our diet and dining experience. Here are two sauces that I have found successful (dh wants me to make them again):

Make-do Pink Sauce
(serves 3)

3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 T cream
1 packet of catsup (like you get at fast food restaurants)
salt to taste

Saute the onion and pepper in a little cooking oil until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, and about 1/2 cup of water. Bring it to a boil and then let it all simmer until the tomatoes fall apart and start looking like tomato sauce. Then add the cream. Stir it in until the color of the sauce is even. You can add more cream later if you want. Experiment with what you like!

At this point, the sauce should smell kind of like cheese. If you taste it, it will be close, but not quite right. Stir in the catsup, and add salt a little at a time, until the sauce tastes right.


Make-do Teriyaki Sauce/Marinade

1/4 c soy sauce
2 T brown sugar (white would probably work fine as well)
1 heaping tsp yellow mustard (not powder)

Combine all ingredients. I used this as a marinade for fish last night, and it was heavenly. Allow the fish fillets about 15 minutes on each side. I made two medium fillets, and there was plenty of sauce left over. So I used some of it in my Asian-style vegetable stir-fry (onion, green onion, cabbage), and poured the remainder over the fish, stir-fry, and rice as a sauce when I was done cooking.

For more tips, please visit We Are THAT Family for Works for Me Wednesday!