Many of us are time poor and no doubt have fallen into the trap of buying jars of ready-made or supermarket fresh sauces. The options are endless as you walk down the aisles, from hollandaise, tomato and barbeque sauce to the classic foundation sauce, stock.

What we may overlook is that ready-made sauces tend to be high in salt, sugar and other hidden nasties and that making your own delicious sauces at home can be effortless and quick.

Fiona Workman a nutritionist at Sydney Nutrition says:

“Store bought products are a great convenience but they’ll never replicate home-style cooking.  “Cooking from scratch means no hidden sugars, gluten or dairy-based additions. “Sugar provides no nutritional value, except energy, and table salt is implicated in high blood pressure and is not the best form of minerals for human consumption.

“Just like making your mother’s favourite recipe, cooking at home gives you complete control over what you consume, how it’s made and what it tastes like,” Ms Workman added.   Miele can help you produce restaurant quality sauces at home and more importantly control what you put into your meal and your body.

“There is a real sense of achievement when you master your own sauce at home. Miele appliances make cooking simple and easy, while also ensuring you know exactly what goes into your sauce, balancing flavours to your individual liking,” says James Barnes, Miele Culinary Expert.

Local, Seasonal, Quality.

There are many factors which influence the nutritional value and taste of foods.

“Purchased sauces for instance, are mostly manufactured year-round in industrial facilities. This means ingredients are not necessarily local or seasonal, so you are unsure of the vitamin and anti-oxidant levels,” says Ms Workman.

“Nor do you know where ingredients were sourced from, or their quality. Would you have picked those tomatoes at the greengrocer for your sauce?” says Ms Workman.

A beautiful tomato based sauce called Sauce Vierge ‘Virgin Sauce’ is a light fresh sauce, perfect with grilled meats, especially fish and chicken. It consists of a tomato concasse, peeled and diced tomato, slightly warmed extra virgin olive infused with crushed coriander seeds and a mixture of fresh herbs, most commonly basil, tarragon and chervil.

“Sauce Vierge is made simply in the Miele Steam Oven,” says Mr Barnes.  “Firstly, the tomatoes can be blanched at 100°C for 1 minute then peeled, rather than plunging into a boiling pot of water. Next, with precise low temperature control on Miele’s TempControl Induction Cooktop, the extra virgin olive oil can be infused with the coriander seeds without worry of overheating.

Finally, when the fresh herbs are added to the oil they will soften beautifully. Mixed with the blanched tomato and squeeze of lemon juice it is a fine sauce for summer BBQ lunches,” says Mr Barnes.

Cooking sauces using steam & induction

The foundation of many classic French ‘mother’ or base sauces is a stock. Whether it be beef, chicken or vegetable, making a stock in the Miele Steam Oven has never been easier. Let the flavours slowly infuse in the Steam Oven freeing up space on the cooktop.

Also with some sauces, you may be required to simmer for an extended period, to reduce and concentrate the sauce. Miele’s TempControl Induction Cooktops include a Simmer Setting that makes reducing a sauce easy.

“There is also a perfect setting for melting butter on Miele’s induction cooktops – setting 2 – this is lower than you will get on a gas cooktop – no fuss melted butter without burning the milk solids,” says Mr Barnes.

Crème Anglaise with Miele

Crème Anglaise or classic English egg custard requires your sauce to reach a certain temperature to thicken. “The thickening agent in the sauce is egg yolks. Egg yolks will begin to set/thicken at around 75°C. Go over 85°C and you will see the egg yolks begin to curdle; you will end up with a runny scrambled egg.

Traditionally it is cooked in a saucepan or bain marie, requiring constant monitoring and stirring. A crème anglaise made in the Miele Steam Oven allows you to effortlessly cook the anglaise at the required temperature without ever curdling the egg yolk. Foolproof and impressive,” says Mr Barnes.

Hollandaise Sauce with Miele

The same precise temperature control with the Miele Steam Ovens allow you to produce an inspiring Hollandaise sauce for your next Eggs Benedict.

“Rather than run the risk of over cooking your sabayon on direct heat, simply place the yolks and vinegar reduction in a bowl, place them into the Miele Steam Oven, set the temperature for 75°C for an appropriate duration, and voila a cooked sabayon ready for your butter to be whisked in,” says Mr Barnes.

*Fiona Workman is a clinical nutritionist, lecturer, food developer and corporate speaker based in Sydney. Fiona holds a Bachelor degree in Health Science, a Diploma of Nutrition, and a Bachelor degree in Commerce. She is a Professional Member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society and has been in professional practice since 2002.