Recipes: Lime and avocado, romesco and chargrilled shallot & lemon sauces

A good sauce is not only a taste enhancement, it can also be a most convenient way to dress up a simply grilled or baked piece of fish, meat or chicken.

In order to be convenient, of course the sauce must be able to be made in advance – nothing requiring last-minute attention could ever be thought of as convenient. And it is perfectly good to serve a cold sauce with a hot main course. For instance, the Romesco sauce, made from toasted flaked almonds and roasted red peppers, can be prepared up to five days ahead, and it is delicious with any fish or chicken main course, although it benefits from being stirred well before serving.

Each of these three sauces contains distinct and intense flavours, one enhanced by lime, another by smoked paprika and garlic, the third by chargrilled lemons and shallots. Because of the distinctive flavours, I reckon that a spoonful per person is about the right amount. Each sauce can be made several days in advance and each works well with a range of foods, both meat or fish, as well as vegetarian main courses such as couscous with roast vegetables.

Romesco sauce

Serves 6, allowing a spoonful per person

2 red peppers

1 fat garlic clove, skinned and finely sliced

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3oz/75g flaked almonds, dry fried to toast them, then cooled

1 tablespoon tomato puree

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, either curly or flat leaved

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon smoked paprika – you can find this in most delicatessens or good health food shops

½ teaspoon dried chilli

½ pint/300ml extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt, about 10 grinds of black pepper

Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Cover a grill pan with foil, put the pepper halves on to the foil, skin uppermost, and grill the peppers under a red-hot grill until great black blisters form on the pepper skins. Turn off the grill and put the pepper halves into a polythene bag for 10 minutes. The skin will be easily removed from the pepper halves.

Put the skinless peppers into a food processor with the sliced garlic, the cooled toasted almonds, tomato purée, parsley, red wine vinegar, smoked paprika and dried chilli and whizz till smooth.

Still whizzing, add the oil, very slowly. When all the oil is incorporated, add the salt and black pepper. Scrape the sauce from the processor into a bowl, cover, and keep in the fridge till half an hour before serving. Stir the sauce well before handing it round your guests.

Lime and avocado sauce

Serves 6

The amount of lime in this sauce helps preserve the colour of the avocado, as does pressing the clingfilm directly on to the sauce before storing the bowl in the fridge, once it is made.

3 limes, cut in half

2 ripe avocado pears, each halved, their stones flicked out, and the flesh from each half scooped into a food processor.

1 fat garlic clove, skinned and sliced

1 banana shallot, skinned and chopped

1 teaspoon salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper

½ pint/300ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons coriander, chopped

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

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1 tablespoon basil leaves, torn into bits – using metal, ie cutting them with a knife, turns the leaves black

Squeeze each lime half into the processor with the scooped out avocado flesh, then scrape the lime pulp from each squeezed out half, adding the flesh to the processor too. Put the sliced garlic and chopped shallot into the processor, and the salt and black pepper. Whizz, adding the olive oil in a steady trickle. Scrape the sauce from the processor into a bowl. Stir in the chopped coriander, parsley and torn up basil, cover the bowl and store in the fridge.

Chargrilled shallot and lemon sauce

Serves 6

2 lemons, washed, dried and sliced into rounds about ½ cm thick

4 banana shallots, skinned and sliced into rounds

¼ pint/150ml olive oil

1 rounded tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper

2 tablespoons top-quality Balsamic vinegar

½ pint/300ml extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons chopped parsley, either curly or flat leaved

Line a grill pan with foil. In a bowl put the sliced lemons and shallots, the ¼ pint/150ml olive oil, sugar, salt and black pepper. With your hands, mix all thoroughly, then spread over the foil on the grill pan.

Under a hot but not full-on grill, cook the lemon and shallot slices, mixing them about so that they grill evenly, and grill till brownish marks appear on the lemon skins. Don’t be 
tempted to rush this grilling, it should take about 20 minutes, and do watch so as not to burn the lemons and shallots. Cool.

Tip the cooled contents of the grillpan into a bowl and chop – you may find this easier done by lifting the lemons and shallots on to a board and using a large, sharp knife. The mixture should be fairly finely chopped. Put the chopped lemons and shallots into a bowl and mix in the Balsamic vinegar, the Dijon mustard, and chopped parsley. Mix all very thoroughly, then cover the bowl and leave in the fridge until half an hour 
before serving.