Recession Recipes .Net

One of my favorite Italian sauces for spaghetti or rice is panna sauce.  It is already pretty inexpensive to make, but there’s a way to make it even more inexpensive using powdered milk instead of sour cream.  This is a great way to use leftover meat or salami ends.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup powdered milk
• 1 and 1/2 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, or animal fat, or palm kernel oil, or butter, or a combination
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup chopped cooked meat
• 1 level tablespoon vegetable condiment (preferably Mivina vegetable and chicken), chicken soup powder, or crushed gray salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dry parsley
• 1-2 more cups of hot water, depending how thin you want your sauce

Instructions:

1. The night before, put the flour, powdered milk, and 1.5 cups of water into a bowl, and whisk it together well.
2. Cover the bowl, and let it set in the refrigerator overnight or at least 7 hours.  This makes it a “milk roux”.
3. Take it out of the fridge, and let it get closer to room temperature while you chop your onions and meat.
4. In a large but deep frying pan or wok, heat the oil, and then add the onions.  Stir fry them until the onions are almost clear, and then add the chopped meat.
5. Toss the meat around until it’s sizzling a bit, and then add the milk roux.
6. Brown the milk roux very slightly, by using a folding motion with the spatula.  Keep it moving until it looks like it’s turning into a gooey dough.
7. Then start adding the rest of the hot water, a little at a time, combining it with the roux.  You may need to turn down the heat a bit.
8. When it reaches the point that it’s just a bit thinner than you’d like it to be at the end, stop adding water.
9. Stir in the soup mix or salt, and the garlic and parsley.
10. Let it cook a bit longer, about 2 minutes, while stirring occasionally so it doesn’t burn at the bottom.

Now your sauce is ready to put over pasta or rice, or to dip bread into.