Have you gone to a restaurant and ordered fish and chips only to get the watered down nasty tasting tartare sauce on the side..you know the ones I mean. If you're lucky the tartare looks white with little flakes of indiscriminate ingredients through it, but generally the sauce has a brownish tinge and either one tastes nothing like the capers, gherkins and other things that are supposed to go into tartare.
Ill ask for an aioli or anything else at that point and as always hubby will reach for the tomato sauce.
Call me a purist but a good tartare is thick and creamy with well chopped small chunks of all things good. On that basis alone I make my own tartare. Its not actually hard and can be made with your good store bought mayo as the base. For me though when I make it with mayo I use the lemon mayo in my earlier blog. Ive also made it with creme fraiche and for a low fat option with non fat yogurt.At the end of the day it all comes down to seasoning in my view any tartare can be fantastic with the right amount of salt and pepper added. At some point Ill probably do a whole blog on seasoning. I fear too many nutritionists and doctors of old have made us fear salt. Moderation not elimination is the key if you ask me!
Right so off my soapbox..Whats in tartare?
A recipe I have used for a mayo based tartare is:
1/2 cup of mayo
2 tablespoons gherkins diced up
2 tablespoons minced onions (I prefer red onions for color but white are fine)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of capers (rinse them first before putting them in)
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
pinch of sea salt and pepper to taste
Im fussy so I chop the gherkins and capers up myself..you can just put it all in a food processor and pulse it till its chopped but not pureed i.e. don't blend the crap out of it. I always rinse the capers because they are stored in brine which is salty and can make the sauce taste terrible. If you don't like capers, leave them out they are not to everyones taste. I sometimes put some dill in too. I have also heard of people replacing the mustard with horseradish. So its all down to preference.
For a low fat option Ive made this tartare with yogurt:
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons minced onion (again I prefer red onions for a contrasting color)
2 tablespoons gherkins chopped
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tablespoon capers (rinsed)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
I don't process the yogurt tartare preferring to chop up and then mix together in a bowl. Its really yummy and great on a hot day with a lovely fillet of panfried fish..yummm bring on summer!
Talk again soon
Me xx
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