The 21st Century Housewife's Blueberry Sauce

I developed this recipe a couple of Sundays ago, when I discovered that I had covered all the bases for Sunday lunch except dessert. Faced with serving a frozen store bought Blueberry and White Chocolate cheesecake that was hiding at the back of the freezer, I wondered how I could bring it up a level and make it a bit more special. A rather large package of frozen blueberries provided me with the inspiration I needed.

The best thing about this sauce is that as it uses frozen berries, cooked from frozen, so not only can you make it all year round but it is also great when you need something special at the last minute. It’s nice to know you have a recipe up your sleeve that you can keep all the ingredients on hand for. Of course, you can definitely make this from fresh blueberries, although I only needed a teaspoon or so of cornstarch when I tested making the sauce that way. (It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it!) The frozen berries give off more water so they need a bit more help to thicken, especially if you include the tiny alcoholic kick I like to add.

I used Ocean Spray’s newest juice, their Light Blueberry juice, the first time I made this but orange juice works just as well. The Cointreau or Grand Mariner could just as easily be brandy or Amaretto if you preferred, and of course the alcohol is purely optional and can be left out entirely.

I served this at room temperature with the cheesecake on the Sunday and it was scrumptious, and then I kept the remainder refrigerated. Monday night I warmed it gently for a few minutes and we had it over vanilla ice cream as pictured above. It took hardly any effort to put together but it looked and tasted pretty impressive - exactly the kind of dessert I like!

4 cups frozen blueberries

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons orange or blueberry juice

2 tablespoons Cointreau or Grand Mariner (optional)

1 tablespoon corn starch mixed with a little water

Bring blueberries, sugar and juice gently to a boil.  Turn back the heat a bit and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the Cointreau, if using, and cook a little more. Add the cornstarch and water mixture, stirring through thoroughly.  Cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Turn the heat to low and continue to stir and cook for a few minutes to cook away any taste of the starch. Pour into a heat proof container and allow to cool a bit.

Can be cooled and stored in the fridge for a day or so.

The 21st Century Housewife's Madeira Gravy

This recipe is inspired by my mother-in-law’s Madeira gravy but I’ve adjusted the seasoning and pared down the ingredients a bit so it is quicker and easier to make. It goes beautifully with roast beef or pork, and particularly with Beef Wellington (Boeuf en Croute). When I served it to guests for the first time recently they said it was so tasty they could have eaten it on its own with a spoon, and I confess I could have too.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, finely sliced

1¼ cups beef stock (made from a cube is fine)

2 tablespoons tomato paste or puree

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, finely chopped or ½ teaspoon dried

1 bay leaf

1 generous tablespoon redcurrant or cranberry jelly

1 tablespoons corn flour blended with 2 tablespoons cold water

½ cup Madeira wine

2 generous pinches of ground pepper or to taste

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and sauté the onion over medium heat until it is beginning to become translucent. Add the stock, the tomato puree or paste, the thyme and the bay leaf, stirring to blend well. Stir in the redcurrant or cranberry jelly, stirring until it is dissolved. Bring just to the boil, then turn back the heat to low and simmer for about fifteen minutes.

Strain the mixture through a sieve into a clean saucepan, discarding the onion and bay leaf.  Whisk in the corn flour and water mixture.  This will cause the stock to thicken fairly quickly. Cook, stirring constantly for a minute or so. Add the Madeira, a bit at a time, whisking constantly. Add a pinch of pepper and whisk it in, taste and add a bit more if necessary.

Pour into a gravy boat and serve alongside roast beef, pork or Beef Wellington.

My Grandma's Butterscotch Sauce

This is a great recipe to have at your fingertips. It tastes delicious poured over ice cream and makes amazing sundaes. I am told my Grandma served it with her carrot pudding, which is the stuff of legend amongst those who have eaten it, but as she sadly passed away before I was born I never got to taste it. I do however have the recipe, and I am looking forward to making and sharing it as part of my Family Food History and Recipe Project. For the moment though, I will just share this fantastic, easy to make sauce in the hopes that you will love it as much as I do!

2½ cups brown sugar
½ cup butter
¾ cup corn syrup
¾ cup light (single) cream or half and half

Put the brown sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil slowly, stirring constantly. Let it boil for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage. This is 235 - 240℉ or about 112 - 115℃ on a candy thermometer. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, just do as my Grandma did and just drop a tiny amount of syrup in cold water. The mixture is ready if a small soft ball forms in the water.

Remove from the heat (this recipe is truly vintage - if you look at the photograph of the recipe you can see my Grandma actually wrote “remove from fire” here!) and slowly stir in the cream. Allow to cool slightly, stir and serve.

The 21st Century Housewife's© Easy White Wine Sauce

For some reason I had never made my own white wine sauce until a few weeks ago. I don’t know why I was intimidated by the idea of it, but for some reason I thought it must be really complicated. Then I tried out my own version and I can promise you, it’s really not difficult at all.

I started out with the usual butter and flour roux, and then just added stock, white wine and some cream to make it special. Since then I’ve been using this sauce really regularly. It goes beautifully with chicken, pasta and fish - particularly salmon. It’s also good poured over vegetables, and it’s easy to make it vegetarian - just use vegetable instead of chicken stock.

Use good white wine for this sauce - it doesn’t have to be expensive, just tasty. You can use whatever herbs suit the dish. When I made the dinner in the photograph I flavoured the white wine sauce with just a pinch of oregano and garnished it with parsley, but you could use dill, tarragon or just about anything you fancy. Or let the simplicity of the sauce shine through by just leaving it plain. The stock has seasonings in it anyway.

For a really special treat, you can substitute champagne for white wine to make a champagne sauce. It tastes amazing, and as you only need 1/2 cup, there will be plenty left to drink!

This amount of sauce should serve about four to six, or dress four to six servings of meat, fish, vegetables or pasta.

2 generous tablespoons butter
2 generous tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup white wine
about 1/4 cup light (single) cream or half and half

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and allow the mixture (which is called a roux) to cook for about a minute. Gradually whisk in the stock, allowing the sauce to thicken between each addition. Whisk in the white wine.

The sauce should be fairly thick at this point, so gradually add the cream, a bit at a time (you may not need it all or you may need a little more) until you get the sauce to a nice, pourable consistency. If you want to add any herbs or flavourings, now is the time to do so. (I always go carefully, and only add a bit at a time because this sauce tastes so lovely it only needs the barest minimum of enhancement.)

That’s it, the sauce is ready to serve! Pour over fish, chicken, vegetables or stir into pasta and enjoy.

The 21st Century Housewife's© Balsamic Brandy and Onion Sauce for Beef

This is a fantastic sauce for beef, whether it be fillet steak or Salisbury steak! (For anyone who is not familiar with Salisbury steak, this is a very popular dish in North America made of seasoned ground beef and shaped into an sort of oval shaped patty to resemble a steak.) I developed this sauce on Friday night to serve with some sirloin steak I got from our wonderful butcher and it was received very warmly by my tireless recipe testers (my husband and son). It really is delicious, and very, very easy to make, transforming a fairly ordinary steak dinner into something wonderful - or turning a hamburger patty into something very special indeed.

For enough sauce for three to four servings, you need:-

1 generous tablespoon butter
1 large onion
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 to 3/4 cup canned beef consomme or beef stock

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté gently for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and stir through.



Pour the brandy over the onions and very carefully light the alcohol with a match. Allow to flame for a few seconds and then carefully blow out the flames.

Add about 1/2 cup of the beef stock and stir in. Turn the heat up to high and allow to reduce, stirring fairly regularly. If it thickens too much, gradually add a bit more stock, but keep the mixture fairly thick by keeping the heat high.



Lower the heat to medium, stir again and serve over your steak.