Master Sauce

For those of you whose minds tend toward the gutter, this has nothing to do with kinky sex.

Master sauces are a great culinary idea that have been around since at least when Marie Antoinette lost her head. The ones I’m most interested in these days are Asian.

That Ming guy on PBS not only sizzles on the screen, he’s got good ideas. Nothing I like more than a cute (humpy?) brain-child.

One basic master sauce that everyone should have in their cupboards (if they want to stake any claim to being civilized) is ginger syrup.

It’s really easy to make, and you don’t have to throw anything away except the peel.

Step 1: Find some good ginger. One good handful is enough.

Step 2: Find some good turbanado sugar. It’s the brown, unrefined, raw sugar. It costs more, but not that much. And it’s good for the soul.

Step 3: Peel the ginger and slice it thinly. Don’t dice or mince, as you won’t be able to get the bonus product that I will tell you about shortly.

Step 4: Put a bunch of your soulful turbanado sugar (measure to taste, but at least a couple of cups in a small sauce pan) with water.

Step 5: The most boring. Wait for the water to boil.

Step 6: When the water starts to boil, toss in the ginger slices.

Step 7: Wait some more. Go watch TV, feed the cats, take out the trash. Just whatever you’ve been putting off all day.

Step 8: When what’s in your sauce pan becomes a sort of viscous goo, turn off the heat.

Step 9: Remove the ginger slices.

Step 10: Coat cooked ginger slices in even more turbanado.

Step 11: Cook coated ginger slices in a 300 degree oven for about 1 hour or until deliciously crisp and gooey.

Step 12: You’ve already been done. Use the ginger sauce to cook baby carrots, flavor rice, make a fruit salad or even put in tea. Eat the ginger candy that comes out of the oven. (I shouldn't have to tell you that part.)

Finally, a 12 step program that doesn’t involve belief in a higher power. At least not any higher than a good stove.

Enjoy. Create. Experiment. Enjoy the ideas that comes from a humpy (yes, he is humpy, I've decided) Chinese-American.

(Shannon doesn't care if I desingate someone as "humpy", by the way. He does the same thing himself. But we both know who we're going to bed with tonight. No harm in looking, though.)

The sauce would be great on chicken, I think, but I haven’t tried that one yet. Or a fruit salad. Or even oatmeal.

Gotta run. I think we have some oatmeal in there somewhere, so. . .

I’ll keep you posted.