Summer Fresh Berry Steak Sauce

They say a good steak doesn't need any steak sauce. For the most part, that's true. There aren't a lot of options out there for a great steak sauce. The sauces are usually based on a brown-sauce style and include malt vinegar as one of the main ingredients. I usually only use salt and pepper lately and follow the Serious Eats philosophy for salting steaks at least 50 minutes before grilling. In addition, I love their Importance of Resting Meat  article as well.

Last week, I was out for dinner and I normally don't use steak sauce but the steak didn't have much flavour. So I had some HP sauce which is a British brown sauce-style steak sauce and it really didn't add much to the steak. So I'm sharing one of my favourite recipes. It's been modified from this recipe.  It's so simple yet so good.

Summer Fresh Berry Steak Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pint raspberries, washed and dried
• 1 pint blackberries, washed and dried
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup GF Worcestershire sauce ( US- Lea and Perrins or Canada-Heinz London Style)*
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 20 drops hot pepper sauce ( or more to taste. the longer it sits, the hotter it gets, I use Frank's Red Hot)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1.  In a saucepan over medium heat, combine raspberries and blackberries and cook down for approx 10-15 minutes until berries have liquified and lost their shape. 
2. Strain berries through a fine mesh wire strainer until you have all of the berry juices that you possibly can. You will have a lump of thick berry residue in your strainer after this.                   
3. In a saucepan over high heat, blend berries,  brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, cider vinegar, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes, or until thickened.               

I pour this into a few old sauce jars and it makes about 3-4 cups.
*Ensure you are using a Gluten Free Worcestershire Sauce. Look under SAUCES for Lea and Perrins and Heinz which will be the London Recipe version.  Both are gluten free depending on where you are.

Slowly cooking berries down

Pour into strainer/sieve and press berries through. Scrape underside of mesh occasionally.

The remains

Nearly a cup of puree

Made over 1 3/4 bottles of sauce

Usually I buy a nice large tenderloin and cut it into smaller pieces to freeze or buy thick 16 oz steaks at the butcher and this sauce just compliments the beef so well. Sometimes, the heat of the sauce increases over time as you store it. It's perfect since berries are in season and it's the best time of year for grilling a nice juicy steak.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye, Like a Big Pizza Pie...

That's Amore...

Once upon a time, I used to make pizza. Thin crust, spicy oil, zesty pizza sauce, loads of mozzarella cheese and heaps of pepperoni. I loved my crust. It was thin and crispy yet enough dough to support everything.

I have a great recipe that I use for pizza dough that I use from one of Carol Fenster's cookbook. One time I forgot which recipe I used and ended up using Annalise Robert's recipe which was also pretty good.

One thing hasn't changed though. The pizza sauce.

I've never really been a fan of the ones you can buy in the store and they can't really be stored properly for long periods after they have been opened.

For tonight's sauce, I kept the sauce really simple. I could have added many more flavours but I was going for a certain style. Classic pizza shop with properly positioned pepperoni!

Easy Pizza Sauce

• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 6 oz can water
• 1 tsp agave (can use honey or sugar if you like)
• 1 TBSP each dried basil and parsley
• Freshly ground pepper and salt

Empty the tomato paste in a bowl. Fill empty can with water and add to tomato paste. Mix slowly to incorporate. Add agave, basil, parsley, salt and pepper and stir to combine. 

On other occasions, I will add rosemary, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and/or red chile pepper flakes. Whatever you like, add. It's just the simplest, easiest sauce recipe you'll find!

Check out my Gluten Free tomato paste!

Mixing in the water

Add your spices

GF Patisserie Pizza Crust

Check out all the herbs!

GF Cheese!

 I used to buy this cheese and it didn't have the GF symbol on it like over 800 Wegman's products. The ingredients list looked fine but there was no disclosure on the package. I was happy to see the GF Wegman's mark on the packages I bought today. 

Oven - 450F for about 10-15 minutes until nicely browned, bubbly and crispy.

I spread on wax paper and freeze, then break into smaller pieces and place in a freezer bag

How good does that look?

 By the way, at Wegman's today, they had a display of Italian sauces and pastas out in the front hallway and That's Amore was on a constant loop. It's still in my head!