Tomato and Basil Sauce

This light tomato based sauce will add a hint of mediterranean cuisine to any dish.

It goes great with fried or grilled vegetables (e.g. zucchini and eggplants); seafood (mussels and shrimps) and meats; it also can be served as pasta sauce.

Sweet tomatoes are the best fit this recipe. If you prefer to remove seeds, choose pulpy tomatoes, it will be easier.

Boiled Cauliflower with White Sauce

Adding a sauce will make almost any food more interesting, that is why sauces were invented after all, and they are good not only with meats. Vegetables may use some sauce help as well.

So here it goes: cook boiled (yes simply like this!) cauliflower and pour white sauce over it – you will get delicious dish, not a boring vegetables.

I came by this simple recipe while looking though old cook book released probably even before I was born (ironical enough its title translated from russian is “Modern homemade cuisine”) and I liked it. I think, you will find some more recipes adopted from this book later in this blog.

Wine, Butter and Capers Sauce for Fish

Rich sauce prepared from shallots cooked with white wine, butter and capers and seasoned with fresh chopped dill. It suits for any kind of fish whatever it is boiled, fried or grilled. Goes good with salmon (see Salmon with Capers and Dill Sauce recipe), cod, tilapia and other fish which you would usually serve with butter sauce of some kind.

If you are trying to get more liquid sauce use more wine or add more shallots otherwise. If you don't like texture of cooked onions - increase shallots frying time and cook them with wine longer.

Ready sauce can be stored in the fridge, but it should be served warm, just make sure when you reheat it to remove sauce from burner before it starts boiling.

Meatballs with Carrot-Tomato Sauce

Russian meatballs (or “tefteli” how they are called in Russia) are prepared from ground beef and rice mix and cooked under some kind of sauce. They usually have big size (1 or 2 meatballs is enough for a serving).

This is a recipe for “tefteli” my mom uses: big meatballs, dipped into flour, then fried over in some oil and cooked with vegetable sauce (carrots, tomatoes, onions and dill) until ready.

I've modified recipe a bit to use freshly pureed tomatoes instead of tomato paste. However, if you don't have fresh tomatoes under your hands, you can use canned tomatoes or tomato paste diluted with water.

Boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes are usually the first choice of side dish for tefteli for me, boiled buckwheat or pasta work good too.

Ketchup and Mayonnaise Mix Sauce

This is the easiest recipe for simple cocktail sauce which makes a great addition to boiled shrimps, or fried meat or chicken main dishes. I even serve it as a side sauce for russian meat dumplings (pelmeni).

You can vary amount of each ingredient to taste: if you like ketchup taste more – add less mayonnaise; add more garlic if you want to make sauce more spicy; also fresh parsley can be replaced with cilantro.

Cream of Mushroom Sauce

I think that is one of the easiest cream sauces to do, but it is also a bit heavy due to usage of whipping cream as a main ingredient.

Personally I think the taste this sauce completely worth working out those extra calories later on. But it is for you to decide: try substitute cream with smaller amount of half & half to make it a bit lighter if you wish.

Cream of Mushroom Sauce is perfect addition for potato-based dishes: potato dumplings, potato pancakes or simply boiled potato; it will also benefit grilled or fried chicken meat or roast beef; as well as it can be served as a pasta sauce.

Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce

Cabbage rolls (stuffed cabbage) dish is very popular food in Eastern Europe. No wander you can easily find cabbage rolls among traditional recipes in cuisines of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania and many others countries.

Making of cabbage rolls from the scratch (including grinding meat, boiling and separating cabbage and then preparing them one by one) would take some time, so it is better if you start cooking in advance. However you can leave prepared cabbage rolls in the oven with heat turned off for up to 1 hour, so they stay warm if you want to postpone serving.

This recipe describes step-by-step process of preparing cabbage rolls in tomato-dill sauce. Enjoy the taste of traditional dish of Eastern European.

Tzatziki Sauce

Tzatziki (can be spelled as tzadziki or tsatsiki) is yogurt and cucumber cold sauce of Greek cuisine.

It can be served separately as a dip or with meat entrees as a sauce. It is perfect addition for the gyros or souvlaki.