Recommendations for best cooking sauces please...

[RationalBrain]

This is a kind of anti-gourmet thread. I love cooking but don't have the time mid-week (or actually, even at the weekend these days). I have recently discovered the joys of cooking sauces (eg sausage casserole). Namely the ability to get tea ready and in the oven in the 10 mins whilst the DCs are having their tea and not fighting, put them to bed, and come down to dinner nearly ready. Fab.

But, we've tried some pretty horrible ready sauces as well. Fatty, or salty. Or both.

Any recommendations for good ones? Or alternative recipes that can be prepped in 5 mins and bunged in the oven for about 45 mins and won't spoil if the children are being a pain to put to bed?

For sauces, I tend to go with frozen stock portions, a can of chopped tomatoes and maybe some added garlic, seasoned to taste. I find the ready made sauces too salty as a rule. Or too sweet.

For a creamy sauce I dump in Philadelphia type cheese [classy]

Frozen stock a good idea, although chopping up garlic could be too much like real cooking for what I had in mind!

Classy is what this thread is all about

Maybe this was the wrong board to ask this on, since its not about real food!

You can buy garlic paste

Mmmm, the garlic paste always has a funny aftertaste to me. And yes, I know you don't eat it straight from the tube, before you crack any jokes!

The only one I ever buy ready made are the Pataks curry sauces. For most casseroles and pasta dishes etc. I use a lot of passata. For quick mid-week suppers I'm less likely to be doing anything heavy-duty or 'oven-bunging' and more likely to whip up a Spanish Omelette on the hob or something grilled with a salad. Last night it was grilled Chicken and Pepper Kebabs, ready in 15 - 20 mins.

ooo yes, pataks, I think jamie oliver recommended them in one of the many unused cook books I have.

I can always do with more curry in my life...

Oh really, I always use it. Do you keep it in the fridge?

valium - yes, but maybe it stays there too long (think months not weeks)

Waitrose sell bags of frozen chopped garlic!

You can buy garlic in jars too - that might have less after taste you fussy whatsit!

Seeds of Change - theirs are lovely.

Waitrose sell frozen chopped, garlic, shallots and various herbs. Also a soffrito mix (chopped onions, celery, carrot etc) in fresh veg section. Other supermarkets prob do similar

I know you can use a food processor but good for days when you really CBA! Bung it in with chopped toms or creme fraiche and have start of something.

Yes, you've worked me out, I am both fussy and lazy. A fatal combination

I was going to post about waitrose frozen garlic, shallots and herbs but gladyoucame beat me to it! I also chop up red onions and freeze ready to use in a sauce. So if you don't have to chop onions or garlic then tomato sauce takes 2 minutes to make.
I also add sundried tomato paste as a secret ingredient in my tomato sauce which is really tasty.

Cheese sauces - you can use mascapone cheese and/or creme fraiche with lots of grated cheese instead of making a roux.

Curry pastes plus a tin of coconut milk makes a nice thai curry sauce.

Right - a silly question here...

If a recipe says to simmer something for eg 15 mins (for example thai curry), can I just put it in the oven instead? And is there any rule of thumb for how long (eg would it take about double the time)? That way it can be cooking whilst I'm upstairs with the kids.

(can you tell that the time in between the kids going to bed and us collapsing going to bed is not very long, so we need to make the most of it?!)

You could but simmering does a few things... one is that a simmer is just shy of a boil, so it cooks the food from below and reduces the sauce as steam escapes. Oven heat is from all sides, tends to be gentler and, to achieve a simmer, you have to cover the dish or it will go crispy on top. Something simmered in a dish in the oven, therefore, won't reduce the same as something simmered on a hob so you have to start with a little less liquid and cook for a little longer.

I'm with Cogito on Pataks curry sauces and also if you get tomato passata from tesco you can get it with garlic & herbs. A real cheat is chicken breast or salmon with sweet chilli sauce poured over then bunged in oven (I cover with tin foil) serve with salad or rice, sweetcorn, peas.

I'm all for fussy and lazy! Yes to all of the above, especially the Waitrose frozen spices and herbs. We regularly have Thai curry with frozen veg and Quorn, a tablespoon of red curry paste and a tin of coconut milk. I simmer gently on the hob and cook rice in the rice cooker. Another similar favourite is jerk curry.

I buy the Thai paste that comes in plastic tubs in the 'special' aisle of Sainsbury's, Tesco or Waitrose. The jerk curry curry comes from the 'ethnic' aisle of our local Tesco Extra. Always worth a search as the stuff is much cheaper, especially coconut milk. It's also less bland as it's not blended for the typical British palate which I find too salty and sweet.

But if you want life to be easier, I would recommend all of you eating together as then you only cook and wash up once. DD now seven has been eating the above since she was weaned.

Ah, all of us eating together, that holy grail! Dcs are still a little too young to wait until dh gets back from work, and dd1 has allergies to dairy and egg, which I'm unwilling to cut entirely from our meals until I need to. So another few years yet before we can eat together in the evening. It would be way easier though.

Thanks for all the tips, am planning a Malaysian curry for tonight. Mmmmmm.

Lloyd grossman sauces are really good Imho . Bolognese is a have, as is his dhansak one- bung in slow cooker with lamb , very tasty.

yep another vote for lloyd grossman here, and the 'thai taste' green curry paste.

Was going to suggest Lloyd also.

For curries try 'The Spice Taylor' - they're made by Anjum Anand - her recipe books are brilliant and when I've been short of time for a midweek meal I've used her ready made curry pastes and sauces and have been v impressed. I know they sell them in waitrose - not sure if other supermarkets sell them?