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Lately I’ve been writing about sauces because a good, homemade sauce is like the bow on a present – it adds a finishing touch. Here’s my recipe for “Savory Sauce”, my all-time favorite. This rich, creamy, tangy and salty sauce is jam packed with umami flavors (which is just another way of saying “savory”). Sometimes, I’ll eat a couple of tablespoons straight from the bottle — it’s that good. This versatile sauce compliments roasted vegetables, potatoes, salads, beans, rice, chicken, shrimp, noodles and you can even use it as a dipping sauce for bread.

Usually, I write about recipes that use ingredients commonly found at any grocery store, but this one’s an exception. You may need to visit a health food or gourmet store, or order the ingredients online. The upside? These specialty items have a long shelf life. The stars of this show are tahini (sesame seed butter), tamari (a Japanese soy sauce alternative), white balsamic vinegar and nutritional yeast. I don’t know why on earth folks call it nutritional yeast which sounds kinda’ yucky if you ask me. The stuff is delicious though; sometimes I eat it plain, all by itself. In my opinion, the name for nutritional yeast should be “savory golden flakes”. Doesn’t that sound more appetizing?

Savory Sauce

⅓ cup nutritional yeast flakes
⅓ cup tamari
⅓ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
⅓ cup white balsamic vinegar
⅓ cup spring or filtered water
3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp tahini
1½ cups vegetable oil

In a blender, combine all the ingredients except the tahini and the oil. Add the tahini and blend, then add the oil ½ cup at a time and blend some more. I store my sauce in a Crown Royal bottle and it keeps in the fridge for a couple of months. Use high quality neutral oil such as grapeseed, avocado or refined coconut oil.

The other day, I cooked some black beans. I put the beans and the liqueur (that is a fancy word for the liquid they are cooked in) in a bowl, added a couple of tablespoons of Savory Sauce and topped the beans with some salsa, chopped green onions and grated sharp cheddar cheese. This made a delicious, instant soup. I impressed myself! This dish will definitely go in my “SOS” recipe box. SOS recipes are the things I make when I am too tired to cook or even eat.

When I have a homemade sauce on hand, I can whip up something delicious to eat in a pinch. They are like magic wands in my fridge, always ready to turn humble ingredients into extraordinary treats. Savory Sauce delivers joy in every mouthful and adds a twirl of flavor to every bite!

My column last week was about Cowboy Rob’s delicious barbeque sauce and this week it’s about his mustard sauce, made from a family recipe that’s about a hundred years old. It’s easy to put a meal together when you have a few homemade sauces in the fridge.

Rob’s recipe is simple; there is no need to cook it, just dump and stir. I blended the ingredients and the sauce was a pale yellow. But within ten minutes, the color had morphed into a vibrant, goldenrod yellow. The color was so pretty that I wanted to paint a whole room that color or find fabric that matched and make a dress. I tasted the sauce and it was good, but nothing to write home, or a column about. The instructions said “Let sit for 24 hours” and while it sat, I kept peeking as if it was a beautiful piece of art.

I tasted it the next morning and during the night, Little Miss Mustard had dressed up in finery and gone to the ball. The flavors had indeed melded and the hot caused an intense sensation up in the nose which is a bit of a thrill, you know. The next evening, the sauce was even better. The color stayed vibrant and was still incredibly beautiful.

I put the sauce on a fried egg sandwich made with pita bread, and for a moment, I was at a five star restaurant (sorry, French’s, you’ve just been retired). Then I cooked some shrimp and it occurred to me to mix the mustard sauce with the barbeque sauce I made last week. Wow! That was one of the best sauces I’ve ever eaten, bar none. In fact, the sauce was so good I stood at the kitchen counter and ate it like it was a main course and not a condiment, before I told myself that was not very ladylike and stopped. The zippy duo had it all – tangy, savory, sweet, salty, sour, hot and bitter flavors. The sauce made a pork chop blossom. I even put it on ramen noodles. This mustard sauce goes with Rob’s barbeque sauce like salt goes with pepper. That’s fusion happenin’ in the kitchen!

Old-Fashioned Mustard Sauce

4 tbsp dry mustard
4 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp all-purpose flour (I used cake flour)
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt
½ cup water and ½ cup distilled white vinegar

Mix the ingredients and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours, then refrigerate. I used S&B Oriental Hot Mustard powder. If you need last week’s barbeque sauce recipe, by all means please write to me – Isabel@isabelmontclaire.com. Thank you, Rob, for sharing your incredible recipes with us!

If you wondered where I’ve been for the past few weeks, the paper had public notices to print so it ran out of room for my column. To pick up where we left off, I was writing about my conversations with Rob Couture (his nickname is “Couche”) and his amazing collection of cowboy recipes. Rob spent a lot of time in cowboy cookhouses and knows all about simple down-home cooking.

I thumbed through the recipes in his wooden box and pulled out his barbeque sauce recipe. When I have a homemade sauce in the fridge, I can always make something delicious to eat, even if there is not much in there! And poof! Suddenly a ho-hum dish becomes a treat.

Rob’s barbeque sauce recipe looked interesting because it calls for butter; I have never seen a barbeque sauce recipe that uses butter. The next time I make this sauce, I will probably cook it in the crockpot for a couple of hours on low. Crockpots are handy because they eliminate the need for stirring; you add in the ingredients and just walk away.

Cowboy Couche’s Barbeque Sauce

1 cube butter
½ cup dried onions or 1 cup fresh, diced
8 tsp garlic powder
44 ounces Heinz ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and garlic and sauté on low and be careful not to scorch it. Mix the remaining ingredients and simmer on low for about an hour and stir every now and then, adding water as necessary.

Rob was very specific about using Heinz’ ketchup and I bought the one made with sugar, not corn syrup, because the sweetness of corn syrup tends to overpower the other flavors. I blended the sauce with my immersion blender at the end.

I was fascinated how the flavors melded together as the sauce sat on the counter for a few hours and the next day, it was even better. I must have tasted it 25 times which is half the fun of making your own food, plus the house fills up with such a lovely fragrance.

When the sauce was finished, I baked a potato, buttered it, added extra sharp cheddar cheese, sprinkled on bacon crumbles, topped it with green onions and covered it all with sauce. A delicious fast food dinner! The next day I added a couple of tablespoons of the sauce to a bowl of freshly cooked pinto beans and that was awesome, like instant baked beans.

Thank you, Couche, for this simple, savory and tangy recipe, the very best sauce! 

My friend, Rob Couture (his friends call him Couche), is a retired buckaroo. A buckaroo is a highly skilled cowboy. Rob worked on ranches for most of his life and our conversations often veer to the topic of cowboy cuisine. We both agree the best food is just plain and simple down-home cooking. Gourmet food is fine for city folks, but not buckaroo cowboys.

One day, Rob mentioned he had a box that contained about 1000 recipes. Since handwritten, handed-down recipes are one of my favorite things (next to actually making that thing), I asked if we could look through the box sometime. He agreed and we set a date.

After I saw the recipes, I felt like a pirate who had discovered a treasure chest. The recipes were alphabetically organized with dividers. Many recipes were from way back and on tattered paper written with faded ink; a few were over a hundred years old. Some were typed on an old-fashioned manual typewriter.

Recipes handed down from family members seemed like treasures that passed through generations of time. Some recipes were from friends who served him food that was so delicious, he just had to ask for the recipe. Some were clipped out of magazines and not tried yet (I will write about “Donkey Sauce” soon). Sometimes I asked him about the person who passed the recipe along, especially if it was handwritten. The stories added a lovely dimension and suddenly the recipe had a face as well as a name.

When we were finished with the first round, I asked Rob to write down a few of his favorites in his own penmanship. My mouth watered when I read his recipes for barbeque sauce, homemade noodles, dumplings and sourdough biscuits. All of them have a special “twist” that sets them apart from the ordinary, humdrum versions of the same recipe. Over the following weeks, I will try them out and write them up.

Near the end of our visit, he showed me a book titled “Trail Boss’s Cowboy Cookbook”. This cookbook was written in 1985 by the Society for Range Management, an international non-profit organization. This book had so many fabulous recipes from famous ranches around the world it made my head spin! Two recipes in particular stood out – Ronald Reagan’s macaroni and cheese and a Pit Barbeque for five to 600 people. If I could have only one cookbook, this would definitely be it. I ordered my own copy from Abe Books.

Stay tuned for Rob’s cookhouse recipes, just in time for summer barbeques, evening campfires and rodeo parties. Thank you, Rob for sharing your favorite recipes with me and my readers.

My book, the Joy of Plenty, is the story of how I learned that a pantry full of basic staple ingredients plus a few fancy extras were the keys to freedom in the kitchen. Sometimes a special, fresh ingredient arrives on the scene, much like a guest artist who accompanies a symphony. The special ingredient combines with the repertoire of food I already have on hand and orchestrates a dish that has symphonic flavor.

That ingredient could be fresh trout or salmon, just picked lettuce or . . . like last weekend, rhubarb. I opened my door to see a little pile of it sitting on my doorstep, a surprise from reader David Hudson. What to make? A crisp!

I started with a basic crisp recipe. Blend butter, brown sugar, oats and vanilla. I had just bought a bag of almond flour so I added that along with a few tablespoons of einkorn flour. Rhubarb needs a lot of sugar and in the interest of trying something new, I used a cone of panela sugar (a common ingredient found at Mexican grocery stores or in the Mexican section of a grocery store; the sugar has a lovely, complex flavor). I started to grate it but that was too tedious. So I put the cone in a pan with a little water and dissolved it into syrup. Then, I remembered Theresa’s fruit pie secret. Make a roux with flour and butter, then stir in fruit juice and thicken the pie with that. I cooked the roux, added apple juice to the sugar syrup and made a sauce. Next, I cut the rhubarb into small pieces and then remembered the blueberries and peaches in the freezer. I mixed the fruit with the sauce, Ceylon cinnamon and lemon juice. Suddenly, the thought of a nap lulled me, so, I napped! When I woke up, my first thought was “coconut”. I added a cup of toasted coconut to the topping and then, touché, my crisp felt complete. The following measurements are approximate; remember I was winging it! Tune into your senses and you can wing it too. You can make almond flour in the blender; just grind them up.

Healthful Fruit Crisp

Topping:

½ cube salted, softened butter
½ cup brown sugar
1½ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups oats
¼ cup flour

Filling

½ cube butter, melted
¼ cup flour
8 ounce cone panela, melted into syrup
½ cup fruit juice
6-8 cups fruit
2 tsp cinnamon
Splash of lemon

Bake at 350⁰ for an hour or until the crisp bubbles around the edges. Serve the crisp warm with cream and see how a guest artist can make your pantry shine. 

Wow, the world’s current state of affairs is like a roller coaster ride! We anxiously wonder what will happen next, as if a big bad wolf lurks around the corner. The world is also a sad place for many people now. Some probably feel shattered, like broken plates, when they learn the rug was pulled out from under them

The vortex of bad news can swirl a person down into an ugly trap if they are not careful. The fix for that is to consciously shift the focus to the bright side of life. It works! For example, the other day Jim said “Just look at all the things humans get to drink. The other animals only get water”. That statement struck me like a lightning bolt. I remembered when I worked at Murray’s Drug and I read the OLCC’s list of approved spirits. The list was eight pages long. Vodka, gin, tequila, whiskey, rum, brandy and liqueurs – everything you could imagine and more. The OLCC carries only a fraction of the spirits available in the world. Add to that list sodas, teas, coffee, juices, sparkling waters and milks, all in a wide variety of flavors.

Randal and I made a plan to make glazed donuts with a gadget I bought at a thrift store last week. I sorted through all my flavorings: maple, vanilla, chocolate, peppermint, lemon, almond, bacon (yes, bacon – it’s for barbeque sauce). Flavorings are just one category of all the foods we have available to eat.

My mind jumped back to the time I went to a trade show hosted by UNFI, the wholesale food distributor that supplies grocery stores. The show was in the Oregon Convention Center’s cavernous ballroom. Vendors brought all their wares and the selection was enormous. Take McCormick for example. Your local grocery store may only carry thirty items in their product line because that’s all the shelf space the store has. But I discovered McCormick’s entire product line included hundreds of foods. I visited a vendor who sold dozens of varieties of gourmet rice. Yes, dozens. The trade show was so over the top of the top it almost shook me out of my shoes.

The next time you get grumpy when the headlines flash chaotic, angry vitriol across the screen, stop for a moment and notice all the excess. It’s a privilege to live here on Mother Earth and in the western world. We are so accustomed to our incredible bounty, it’s easy to take it for granted. The next time the big bad wolf headlines make you anxious, just wink, turn around and walk away. You’ll be glad you did!

Last week I continued my baking jag, thanks to my friend Don who gave me five pounds of einkorn wheat and a cookbook titled “Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat”. The baked goods I made were so delicious that even though the grain is obscure, I wanted to write about it.

Einkorn is the world’s oldest wheat and traces back to the end of the Stone Age, about 12,000 years ago. All modern day wheat descends from wild einkorn. The wheat isn’t grown on a large scale which is why you probably haven’t heard of it. The grain has less gluten, more nutrients and definitely more flavor than regular wheat.

Don also gave me a basic bread recipe (from the Ancient Baker on YouTube) that looked quite simple so I tried it. And I have an embarrassing confession; I made it twice and each time I made mistakes. The first time I inadvertently added too much water and the second time, I forgot the oil. Then I had to add the oil in after the bread had been mixed. But the bread forgave me was still delicious. This makes me think this recipe is foolproof and would be great for beginners and children who want to make bread. The loaf has a crumbly, cake-like texture so it’s perfect for toast that’s covered with butter and jam and eaten with a fork.

Einkorn Bread

1 cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
¼ cup honey (or, ⅛ cup honey and ⅛ cup molasses)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cups einkorn flour (400 grams)
1 tsp salt

In a bowl, combine boiling water with cold water until a thermometer reads 120⁰. Keep one cup, add the sweeteners and the yeast. The yeast will get foamy; when the foam completely covers the surface of the bowl, add the olive oil. Pour the liquid into the flour and salt. Mix with a big rubber spatula. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about an hour. Put into an oiled loaf pan and let it rise again. Bake at 375⁰ for 30 minutes.

I was puzzled because I weighed the flour and 400 grams was four cups, not three which goes to show you how much variation there is in flour. If you can, weigh the flour. You want the mixture to be a thick batter. You may need to add more flour or water. I used a cat heating pad to speed up the rise.

Obscure as the grain is, it can be found at health food stores and of course, on Amazon. I love its robust and nutty flavor! Thank you, Don, for the introduction.

Last week I wrote about my encounter last September with retired wheat farmer John Campbell and his girlfriend, Dee Mozingo, at the Painted Hills Festival in Mitchell. I was fascinated with the organic Sonora wheat kernels I bought then ground in my flour mill. The kernels made unusually delicious baked goods so I became curious about these people who grew this wheat on half an acre in their backyard. So the three of us met at the Truck Stop Café in Madras and I peppered them with questions.

John showed me a video of the old-fashioned threshing machine he pulls with a 1937 John Deere model A tractor. Then he showed me a lovely video of the threshing machine being pulled by three plow horses at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Moved, I almost cried (I do the same thing when I see the Budweiser Clydesdales in parades). To know how the wheat was harvested made me appreciate it even more.

I asked John and Dee what they make with their flour and Dee texted me a copy of John’s biscuit recipe. I tweaked the recipe and they turned out like a cross between biscuits and scones (biscones!). The reason this recipe works is because it calls for flour made from soft wheat, like John’s. The buttermilk and soda react to make the texture tender and flaky, too. Don’t forget to freeze the butter or you will end up with dense biscones and then you will think I don’t know how to bake!

Whole Wheat Biscones

1 cup cake or other soft wheat white flour (you can use all-purpose but they won’t be as tender)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup unsalted butter (if you use salted butter, decrease the salt to ½ tsp)
¾ cup cold buttermilk

Mix the dry ingredients. Freeze the butter, grate it and mix into the flour until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk and mix with a rubber spatula until the dough sticks together; it will be crumbly. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and fold it over like a letter once or twice; do not over handle. Roll or pat into a circle ½ inch thick. Cut into wedges and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake 12 – 14 minutes at 425⁰.

Next week I will tell you how to get some of this amazing flour and about the upcoming “Plowing Bee” event on April 12 at the Casad Family Farm on the Agency Plains just outside of Madras. If you go, maybe you will meet John and Dee!

Today I finally wrote a column I have wanted to write for six months. The words finally percolated up into my keyboard and now I am writing about . . . the magical organic Sonora wheat berries I bought at the Painted Hills Festival in Mitchell last September.

The festival features vendors who make, grow or raise local products. I wandered around and stopped in front of a table piled high with Ziploc bags filled with five pounds each of wheat berries and whole wheat flour. I struck up a conversation with John Campbell, the person who grew it. I learned he was a retired farmer and had grown half an acre of the wheat on his property in Prineville using old-fashioned farming methods.

I was so pleased to have a bag of locally grown grain to grind up in my flour mill. When I milled it, the first thing I noticed was its color. Although the flour was whole wheat, the berries produced a fine, fluffy white flour. Waffles were the first thing I tried. The batter behaved differently than the waffles I made with ordinary all-purpose flour. When I stirred the batter, it was spongy and stretchy and moved as if it was charged with electricity. The waffles were delicious and had a crisp, crunchy crust and a tender center. Then I made pancakes and the same thing happened; the centers were soft and the exteriors crunchy. The flour made a lighter baked good than those made with standard whole wheat flour. All the baked goods had a rich and nutty flavor. Touché! I had found the best of both worlds in this flour; the nutrition and substance of whole wheat and the lightness of refined flour.

I was curious about the folks who grew this wheat in their backyard. John’s girlfriend, Dee, gave me her card at the festival so I rang her up. We agreed to meet at the Madras Truck Stop Café and I planned to pepper them with questions.

We met a couple of Fridays ago and hearing about how John grew the wheat captivated me. The variety is naturally drought resistant. He said the soil was very dry last year, yet the wheat still produced a plump berry in spite of it. Sonora is an old wheat variety and isn’t “new and improved”.

I’m out of space so stay tuned for next week’s episode. Then I will tell you more about our chat and give you a recipe, too. And tell you how to buy some of this summer’s upcoming harvest. You can also meet up with John at the Painted Hills Festival in September.

Even though we live in a remote area and don’t have a “restaurant scene”, there is no shortage of good food here. Last Friday I was filled to the brim with joy when the Baptist Church in Fossil hosted their first annual Beast Feast Wild Game Sportsmen’s Potluck Dinner. Those who had access to wild game brought their favorite dish. Others brought a dessert or side dish. The event was the brainchild of Tina Adams and Wade Bissonnett who had envisioned the gathering about a year ago.

Jerry and I went together. He brought golden mushroom spaghetti made with deer and elk meat using his mother’s recipe (if you would like the recipe, please e-mail me – it’s simple and easy). As we went through the door, I spotted two tables of raffle prizes and beautiful table decorations which created a festive atmosphere.

We found seats then wandered over to the tables of food. Cards printed with the name of the dish were placed in front of the corresponding bowls, pots and platters. Among them were pineapple ginger teriyaki duck; buffalo bacon pasta salad, buffalo meatballs, elk enchiladas, chili, sausage and meatballs, wild turkey gravy and potatoes, smoked salmon mousse, smoked brisket and tri-tip . . . and many more! Numerous side dishes, homemade breads and biscuits and multiple cheesecakes, pies and cakes filled the tables. Guest Pattra Standiford stood in line behind me and pointed out the authentic Thai panang curry she had made with chukar.

Even if I had taken only a sample of each dish, I would have been stuffed, so I had to decide what to eat. I limited myself to the smoked salmon mouse, chukar curry, elk enchiladas, buffalo meatballs, Jerry’s spaghetti and the wild turkey gravy and potatoes and a smattering of salads. Leaving room for dessert didn’t even cross my mind. Clearly all the food had been prepared with a great deal of love and some of it was quite sophisticated, especially Jennifer Mortimer’s.

My first bite was the chukar curry. To say the dish was out-of-this-world delicious would be an understatement. The salmon mousse was fabulous, so much so that I tracked down the cook, Glenna Lange. I asked her for the recipe which I will write about soon. I had seconds and dessert too. Well, I’m walking home, why not?

The next day I pondered on how fortunate I was to attend such an extraordinary dinner. Royalty probably doesn’t get to eat like this! To be at table with good friends and incredible food is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Thank you, members of the Fossil First Baptist Church, for your generous contribution to our community.