In Praise of Sauce

[elleng]

'Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. By now have we all read this amazing article on “snowplow parenting”? It’s about parents who go to sometimes-extreme lengths to remove obstacles from their kids’ lives. The part I can’t get over is about a girl who didn’t like sauce: “Her whole life, her parents had helped her avoid sauce, calling friends before going to their houses for dinner. At college, she didn’t know how to cope with the cafeteria options — covered in sauce.”

This is truly remarkable for many reasons. But also: Sauce is awesome. Sauce is delicious. Sauce is useful. A life without sauce is one not fully lived.

So this week we are paying tribute to sauce. If you have strong feelings about sauce (Love it? Hate it and silently mouthed “finally!” when you read that article?) then tell me about it, or just send me feedback anytime: [e-mail].

Here are five dishes for the week:

1. Caramelized-Scallion Noodles

2. Roasted Chicken Thighs With Peanut Butter Barbecue Sauce

3. Quick-Braised Cod With Herbed Yogurt

4. Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

5. Broccoli and Scallions With Thai-Style Vinaigrette

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/dining/in-praise-of-sauce.html?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Actually, the sauce I miss is Bearnaise.

It used to be common, as an add on to steak. I loved it. Not sure why it disappeared, but it did. On very rare occasions I'll see it on a menu, but it's usually at a restaurant whose menu I'm perusing, but probably won't get there. Sigh.

[Saviolo]

2. The snowplow parent thing reminds me of something.

Back when my hubby ran his restaurant, he had a dish he called "canoe potatoes." Basically they were potato wedges (1/8 wedges) and they were slightly canoe-shaped, so that was the name they got. He cut them, seasoned them, and roasted them, then at service, would give them a final crisping on the grill, and they were crispy, fluffy, and delicious, and he would usually sprinkle them with a small amount of chopped parsley.

One day there was a young boy (maybe 6-ish?) with his mom in the restaurant, and he got an order of the potatoes, and when they came out he said, on the edge of tears, "Moooooom! They put vegetables on my potatoes!" referring to the light sprinkle of parsley. Next time I went past the table to deliver water to someone else, mom was there picking all of the little pieces of parsley off of the potatoes.

Here's a picture of the potatoes:

[elleng]

3. They're BEAUTIFUL!

I'll have mine WITH vegetables, please!!!