Although I never made it on to Masterchef Canada, while I was waiting to hear back from them, I wanted to practice some of the basics of cooking, and that means sauces! Fortunately living with chefs meant there were all sorts of great cookbooks hanging around. As part of expanding my knowledge of the basics, I dug into one of my room-mate, Nathan’s cookbooks – “Sauces” by Michel Roux, which this recipe is derived from.
This sauce is a great way to use up those fresh garden tomatoes, and is super versatile, as you will see in my next few posts!
Tomato Coulis
Ingredients
- 150 ml olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 60 g shallot finely chopped
- 1 small bouquet garni leek, bay leaf, thyme, & parsley
- 750 g ripe tomato
- 1 tbsp tomato concentrate
- 1 pinch of sugar
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a pot of boiling water, add tomatoes, boiling for about 10 seconds, before removing and running under cold water. This will make them easy to peel.
- Peel tomatoes, remove seeds, and chop.
- In a sauce pan, warm olive oil on medium heat. Add your garlic, shallots and bouquet garni. To make the bouquet garni, take a piece of leek, a bay leaf, 3-4 sprigs of thyme, a couple parsley stalks, wrap them in the leek, and tie together with cooking string).
- After about 2 minutes, add the tomato, tomato concentrate, and sugar.
- Simmer until moisture has evaporated.
- Remove the bouquet garni, and puree the sauce with an immersion blender.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
- Sauce will keep for about 5 days, refrigerated.
This sauce is really straightforward, pretty hard to mess up, and can be stored for days, making it a great base for many dishes. I used it as a sandwich spread, as a sauce to pair alongside a meal, and a simple pasta sauce. It’s kind of like grown-up ketchup, but way more fun to say. Coooooo leeee. Sounds lovely, tastes lovely, and you should definitely check it out!
Bob
[…] getting started on this sandwich, definitely whip up some Tomato Coulis and […]