Show off with simple sauce
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Visits to local farmers markets will tell you summertime is here. As we move deeper into the hot summer months, fruits such as peaches and vegetables such as tomatoes (technicallly a fruit) will be abundant. (Support local blueberry sales, if you can find them.)
Both those fruits, plus many others, are perfect for making coulis. Pronounced “koo-LEE,” this puree of veggies or fruits is a classic French sauce that originated about 600 years ago as a strained gravy, according to Alan Davidson’s foodie bible, “The Oxford Companion to Food.”
When I taught baking and pastry arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., fruit coulis were all the rage on the plated desserts my students and I sent to student dining rooms. A fruit coulis, usually raspberry, was on my class’ second day of a six-week curriculum (old-fashioned Southern caramel sauce was first). These sauces, made with fresh — not cooked — fruits or vegetables, with either simple syrup or stock depending on whether the sauce is sweet or savory, were high fashion in desserts and appetizers all through the 1990s. Maybe you remember South City Kitchen’s famous fried green tomatoes with goat cheese swimming in a pool of red pepper coulis?
The spunky sauce fell from fashion when American chefs moved from nouvelle to novelty after Sept. 11, 2001: As the country returned to more filling, homespun food, flavorful sauces like reductions became the sauce du jour. The subsequent movement to rediscover regional cuisines — bringing sauces such as gravy and brodo into use — has pushed this little sauce even farther from the spotlight.
But honestly, there’s really not a more flavorful, fun way to use the stock of fruits and vegetables you might have this summer. And a fruit coulis is so simple to make. Use a coulis over ice cream, with cake or as a flash of flavor to go with a perky panna cotta. Freeze coulis to make fruit pops or ice cubes for drinks and punch.
Fruit Coulis
Hands on: 10 minutes Total time: 10 minutes Serves: 4
Use this fresh fruit sauce over ice cream and sorbets, with
your favorite angel food cake, or to make fruity ice pops.
2 pounds fresh, ripe fruit, pitted or peeled as necessary
2 cups simple syrup (Bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a boil. Cook just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool.)
Puree fruit in a food processor until smooth. Add a small amount of simple syrup (about 1/4 cup) and combine. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or china cap. Add just enough simple syrup to give the sauce a smooth consistency. The sauce should hold a line when you draw a finger through it, but not so thick that it stands on its own.
Per serving: 229 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), 1 gram protein, 59 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, trace fat (no saturated), no cholesterol, 3 milligrams sodium.
