Saucy Affair

Sometimes the recipe is just too much work and you decide to dump the hard part and keep the interesting part.  That’s what happened the other day.  I have this recipe for Broccoli Timbales with Lemon Sauce.  The hard part is the broccoli timbales.  The interesting part is the lemon sauce.  I’d never made this recipe because fussing with ramekins over a broccoli dish just didn’t seem worth it.

The reason I’d never tried to make just the lemon sauce was because the person who wrote up the recipe didn’t see fit to separate the ingredients and instructions for the lemon sauce from the rest of the recipe – bless her pea-pickin’ little heart, if she has one.  (Note to self:  When you write recipes, separate the parts!)  My copy of this recipe (printed from the Internet) has my pencil scribbles all over it, noting which parts are timbale parts and which parts are lemon sauce parts – not just in the Ingredients list, but also in the Directions.

I give you now the extracted recipe (both ingredients and directions) for Lemon Sauce.  I served it draped and drizzled over steamed broccoli (grins!) or asparagus or green beans or any other thing that needs a little ‘ZING’.  I’ve made it a Lime Sauce and an Orange Sauce on occasion, too.  Hope you try it.  It’s really yummy.  In fact, I may have been know to sit and very slowly dip one of my tiny little Espresso spoons into a small bowl of Lemon Sauce and gently lick the spoon clean repeatedly until the bowl was empty, leaving the steamed broccoli sitting on my plate growing cold and rubbery in neglect.

Lemon Sauce

INGREDIENTS

1	cup heavy whipping cream
2	T lemon juice
1	T all-purpose flour
1	T butter, softened
1	t chicken bouillon granules
¼	t salt
⅛	t white pepper
3	T snipped fresh dill

Directions

1.     In a small bowl, combine heavy whipping cream and lemon juice; let stand for one hour at room temperature.

2.     Combine flour and butter to form a paste.  In a large heavy saucepan, combine the lemon-cream mixture, chicken bouillon, salt, and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Whisk butter mixture into cream mixture until smooth and mixture is thickened.  Add snipped dill.  Remove from heat.

3.     Spoon sauce under, around, or over whatever you like and garnish with dill sprigs, if desired.

Note:  If you decide to switch it up by changing to lime or orange juice, you may want to swap herbs – like going with cilantro for the lime juice or going with thyme for the orange juice.

Um…if you really, really, REALLY want the Broccoli Timbales recipe I might be coerced into posting it here someday.