All Entries Tagged With: "Sauce"
Happy Planet Natural Sauces
Disclosure
This post is written with sample sauces provided by Happy Planet. Happy Planet sent us 12 packets of sample sauces. We are not paid for this post.
As you well know, Suanne and I get quite a number of companies asking if we wanted to try their products. We are picky about what we want to write about because it is simply impossible to review everything that comes our way.
Mostly companies will just send us coupons but once in a while they will go the extra mile to ship us samples. Happy Planet shipped us samples of the their range Happy Planet Natural Sauces. There are altogether six types of gourmet sauces with tastes around the world which includes:
- Thai – Yellow Curry Sauce
- Spanish – Red Pepper Sauce
- Indian – Butter Chicken Sauce
- Bengali – Coconut Curry Sauce
- French – Mushroom Wine Sauce
- Japanese – Ginger Miso Sauce
We were quite surprised that Happy Planet took all the trouble to ship the sauces to us. We did not expect it coming in a large Styrofoam container but soon realize the reason why. It is because unlike a lot of other sauces, Happy Planet’s sauces are made with fresh, natural and organic ingredients. There are no preservatives in the sauces and so it needs to be constantly refrigerated.
Happy Planet sent us a total of 12 packets of sauces and each of them is meant to serve 2-3 people. So that was a LOT we had. We decided to share this with Whitney and Ken’s family by cooking dinner together so that we can try a few of the sauces at one time.
Happy Planet’s Natural Sauces are easy to make and versatile. They sent us three recipes to go along with each of the sauces.
The beauty is that each of the recipes have just three easy steps. While the guys make guy talk and the boys execute head-shots on the PS3, the ladies whipped up the meal quite quickly in the kitchen. It seems to me like the most time consuming steps is the preparations.
The first one Suanne and Whitney used was the Japanese Miso Sauce. They could cook the Miso Sauce with Salmon Fillet, or Stir-Fried Tofu or Sauteed Chicken. They decided on Salmon.
Like I said it is just three easy steps. Step 1: Saute salmon fillets until cooked.
Step 2: Add sauce and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes.
Step 3: Serve with steamed rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
Simple! Even Ken and I could have done that ourselves but then we had bigger things to do … you know, things like figuring out why the HDMI cable does not send sound to the receiver, dishing the local politicians, moaning the lack of snow, where to buy pirated movies in Richmond … you know what I mean,right? Basically big stuff. LOL!
The Japanese Ginger Miso Sauce with Salmon Fillet is pretty good. We just love the texture of the crispy skin along with the savoury and … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Making Pizza from Scratch: Pizza Sauce (Part 2 of 5)
Carol and Margaret were incharged of making the Pizza Sauce in the South Arm Community Kitchen for seniors. This recipe is adapted from Gourmet. It makes about 2 1/2 cups of Pizza Sauce.
Ingredients
- a 28-oz can crushed tomatoes in puree (about 3 1/2 cups)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a large non-reactive saucepan, bring the tomatoes puree and oil to a simmer.
- Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes or until the sauce is reduced to about 2 1/2 cups.
- Season the sauce with salt and cool to room temperature.
- The sauce can be kept in the refrigerator, covered for 5 days.
Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce
Updated on 4th Aug 2009
Thai House Restaurant curry sauce is available at Safeway, Choices, Save On Foods and Urban Fare.
All instructions and video are available at www.thaihouse.com/curry
A source from the Thai House Restaurant Group told us that the sauces took about 9 months of research and development and is made in Thailand. In order to make true authentic sauces, the recipes were revised with changes of ingredients about 12 times.
Ben picked up some Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce from Costco sometime back. There was this demo table which was promoting the Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce. They served the curry sauce over rice which makes it very appetizing to Ben and my boys.
The Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce is sold in a pack of 4, two in yellow curry and two in red curry. The pack of 4 costs $8.99 which makes it about $2.25 each.
I tried out the yellow curry sauce first. All you need is some boneless skinless chicken and some sweet peppers. The cooking instruction is so simple that even Nanzaro can do it. All you need to do is to cut the chicken and peppers into bite size pieces.
Cook the chicken with the sauce until the chicken is cooked. Add in the peppers and cook for another minute or two.
Serve the chicken curry with steamed rice and a side dish of vegetables. I find that the Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce is too mild for us. I remembered it tasted more intense at the demo. Perhaps, the chicken has diluted the intensity of the sauce. We prefer it to be more spicy hot. Nevertheless, this is a very convenient product.
Sambal Nasi Lemak
Ben picked up this ready to serve Sambal Nasi Lemak from Smart & Save to try out. We simply love spicy food and nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk) is very simple to prepare.
This package costs around $2 plus and it serves 4 to 6 persons as printed on the package. All you need to do is to heat up the sauce and it’s ready to eat. This sauce is great as condiment for curry laksa and prawn noodle.
The nutritional value indicates the sodium is on the high side which I’m always on the look out. Nowadays, processed food usually has high fat and sodium that one must be aware of. It’s not only the calories that we have to watch out for.
I usually don’t serve the sambal on itself. I will cook the sambal with some caramelize onion which add sweetness and nutrition to the sambal.
The basic condiments for nasi lemak are hard boiled eggs, fried anchovies, roasted peanuts and cucumber slices. You may also serves the nasi lemak with some curry chicken or sambal prawns or squid.
I serve mine with garlic sausage and stir fried cabbage because I’m trying to clear my fridge of any perishable food as my vacation is just a few days away.
South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors
I had promised Minoo and Stella to visit the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors since it was established in January 2008. The South Arm Cooking Club meets on the second and fourth Tuesday. Unforturnately, Tuesday is my cake meet day with Polly because she is off on Tuesday. As all the cooking clubs are coming to an end in June for the summer break, I decided to cancel my cake meet in order to visit the cooking club for seniors on their first meeting in June. I was lucky as this will be the last meeting to cook for the club as they decided to go out for lunch instead of cooking for the last meeting.
It was a huge turn out that day. There were thirteen in the meeting including me, some had shy away from the photo session. The young lady at the far left, Stella is the coordinator for senior programs in the South Arm Community Center while the lady at the far right, Minoo is the coordinator of all the cooking clubs in Richmond.
The group made a scrumptious meal that day. We had Basmati Rice Flavoured with Saffron, Meatballs with an Italian Tomato Sauce, Spinach Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing, Sesame Baked Tofu and Baked Sweet Potatoes.
The group was divided into 3 groups to work on different recipes. Above are the salad and tofu groups.
The group here is working with the meatball recipe.
After labouring in the kitchen, the group is enjoying the food they prepared.
After lunch, the group is divided into two groups. One group is to divide the leftover food for them to take home.
While another group is in charged of cleaning up. This is team work. I truly enjoy this cooking club.
The meatball recipe we used is the one we made in the Gilmore Park Church kitchen.
Click on the link below for the recipe of the Italian Tomato Sauce we made to go along with the meatballs.
Shallot Pork Sauce
On the last cooking meet at South Arm Community Kitchen in 2007, Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is a very traditional Taiwanese dish called Shallot Pork Sauce.
The Shallot Pork Sauce is very fragrant as it has lots of shallots in it. The shallots are first fried to crisp and braised with the ground pork.
This Shallot Pork Sauce is great with noodles or rice. Kids will love this.
Ingredients
- lean ground pork
- shallot (use about 10 to 12 shallots for each pound of ground meat)
- dark soy sauce
- salt to taste
- sugar to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- water
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Beef Stroganoff
Nothing improves the taste of pasta more than a good appetite.
~ Italian Proverb
Ben went with me for grocery shopping two weeks ago and saw Stroganoff sauce in a bottle on the shelves. He asked that I try this out. The instruction on the bottle seems simple and does look like something that the boys would like.
Beef Stroganoff, in its simplest form, is simply tender beef with a mushroom and sour cream sauce served over noodles, or even rice. The current accepted history of this dish dates back to the 1890s when a chef working for Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, a famous Russian general, invented the recipe for a cooking competition in St. Petersburg.
I used egg white pasta to go with the Beef Stroganoff.
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (400ml) of Stroganoff cooking sauce
- 1 package (340g) of egg white pasta
- 1 lb sirloin steak
- 1 can of mushroom pieces
- cilantro for decoration
Instructions
 First of all, I bring a big pot of water to a boil for cooking the pasta. When the water is boiled, I put in a generous tablespoon of salt and add 3/4 package of the egg white pasta. The pasta has to be cooked for 10-12 minutes.
By the way, why do people put in salt when cooking pasta? Is that for taste or does it serve other purpose? |
 While the pasta is being cooked, I sliced the beef sirloin steak into strips of thin slices. We’ll sautee the beef and sliced beef will allow the beef cook faster. |
 Next, I heat 1 tablespoon of Canola oil in a frying pan over medium heat. The beef slices are added in and stir fried for about 5 minutes until they are browned. |
 After 5 minutes of frying, I pour the stroganoff cooking sauce over the beef. The sauce is made generally of of mushrooms, red wine, sour cream, beef paste and other spices. There was a strong smell of wine. |
 Although the stroganoff sauce already has mushrooms in it, I added a can of mushroom pieces to add texture to the dish. |
 The sauce has to be simmered on low heat for another 10 minutes or until the meat is fully cooked and the sauce has heated through. |
 The pasta should be ready before the sauce is done. This recipe makes 4 servings. |
This is a very simple and fast meal to make — it took me just 20 minutes. I know I am going to make this more often. The guys loves this a lot. I might try this with other types of pasta, noodles and rice.
