Don't cringe and talk about how gross this must be until you've tried it. People tend to not believe this if they see me making it, but they love to eat it. This sauce is sort of barbeque-ish in nature, and is very inexact. I never make it the same way twice. Vary it according to your mood. Add something that you only suspect may work. For proper preparation, put on some sort of dance music like Bossa Nova or Tango. No Polkas, unless you really have to. Give your guests the choice of Gerwurtztraminer or Pale Ale and watch them furrow their brows. Reassure them. (Either works with this sauce really well.)
In a skillet, fry either chicken breasts or pork chops in your choice of olive oil or butter. If it's pork DON'T OVERCOOK IT. But use the thick boneless chops if you can get them. (Since I tend to put my pork in a warming oven at about 200 degrees after I brown it, I also tend to leave it a bit underdone so that it finishes cooking after I set it aside. People get all weird and squirmy about underdone pork, but don't freak out. If it's pink and soft in the middle when you serve it, it's okay. If it's COLD, then you'd better put it back on for a minute or two. On the other hand, if it's like a hunk of corkboard, there's nothing you can do. Sorry. I hate overdone pork. Oh, wait; you're still waiting for the sauce recipe [smacks forhead with palm of hand]. Right.) Set whatever you've cooked aside. (I think we've covered THAT.) To the skillet, add whatever lubricant you've been using and the shallots, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and cooking them for just a couple minutes. Add the beef broth to the skillet maybe a few tablespoons at a time and continue to loosen the brown stuff off the bottom of the pan. If you're using olive oil, keep the heat lower to reduce splatter and forearm burns. (By the way, you probably won't be using the whole can of broth, but you can store the remainder in a small tupperware to cook with later.) When it's all sort of a unsightly brown liquid mess, add enough ketchup to cover the bottom of the pan. Since ketchup sets up kind of thick on the bottom of the pan, this may be more than you anticipate. Do not panic. Add about three tablespoons of molasses. Stir it all in. Add about a tablespoon each of curry powder and chili powder. Stir it all in. Grind a generous amount of black pepper across the top. Stir it in. (The above process should all be effected with the pan hot enough to make the sauce bubble some, but not enough to reach a full-rolling ketchup boil; otherwise, the molasses will start to carmelize and you will have a clean-up job to talk about for the rest of your life.) At this point, taste the sauce and adjust it with any of the foregoing ingredients according to your mood, or adjust with cayenne pepper, cumin, Tabasco sauce or, if you're feeling kinky, fresh peaches (which should not be added if you're using the piquant family of spices I just mentioned. But it works. Really.). Put the sauce on the plates and add the prepared meat. Garnish with a tiny, tiny bit of cilatro or, weird as it may seem, fresh fruit. (You'll get the idea. This stuff almost always goes over well. If it comes off badly, email me, we can talk about it.) Serve this with what you would consider close to standard barbeque fare. Or maybe cold, boiled red potatoes with olive oil and rosemary. Have some Zinfandel for sure, especially if it's from Cline. If it's warm weather, continue with the pre-meal suggestions and try a Gewurtztraminer or an ale. As ever, Bon Appetit! P.S. If you try this, please drop me a line and let me know how it came out. Also tell me about which wines you selected. |