The sacrilegious, nasty but quick, Good Jar Sauces thread

EunanMac

Hi all,

Apologies for this sacrigous thread, but sometimes when I come in from work and I'm tight for time, I like to fry some meat and whatever fresh veg I have, and bung in a jar sauce.

I know there is never any substitute for making your own, but what are people's jar recommendations for those times when you really have to ? Have you found any ones that are not too bad when in a hurry ?

sheesh

pataks jars of jalfrezi and balti paste are feckin brilliant fry onion ginger brown meat add paste and other veg add tin of tomatoes

The Whisperer

Avoid Uncle bens at all cost

MissFlitworth

There are some curry sauces from Aldi with a pocket of spices included that a lot of people like. I really enjoy dipping a heel of freshly buttered batch loaf into the jalfrezi sauce, lazy indulgence!

HeidiHeidi

Patak's butter chicken sauce was ok when I ate it freshly made.

Was 10 times nicer when I ate a portion I'd frozen and defrosted!

Think it's one of those that benefits from being left for a day or two to meld. (Not much use for you if you're looking for that-evening solutions!)

Toulouse

I'll second those Aldi curry sauces, particularly the Balti one. Also they do a tomato and marscapone stir in pasta sauce which is pretty good too.

The Hill Billy

MissFlitworth wrote: »

There are some curry sauces from Aldi with a pocket of spices included that a lot of people like. I really enjoy dipping a heel of freshly buttered batch loaf into the jalfrezi sauce, lazy indulgence!

The Aldi curry sauces are cracking, but I really prefer them accompanied with naan bread.

That said, I love a couple of slices of batch bread with a chilli made with Tesco Everyday Value Chilli Con Carne sauce.

Dizzyblonde

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I love a couple of slices of batch bread with a chilli made with Tesco Everyday Value Chilli Con Carne sauce.

There's something about mopping up minced beef with batch bread, isn't there. As kids we always had a slice of batch bread to mop up the last of minced beef in gravy or shepherd's/cottage pie.

Loire

The Hill Billy wrote: »

The Aldi curry sauces are cracking

+1 they really are something, especially for the money.Ingredients don't look too bad either

StripedBoxers

I have to say, I must be the only one who doesn't like those Aldi sauces, having tried several of them, each meal ended up in the bin. The sauces were horrible. No offence to those who do like them, they just aren't for me. I still have three in my press that are going unused.

I can recommend the Seeds Of Changes sauces from Tesco - they're a good price at €2-€3 per jar and they taste delicious. Their tomato and garlic sauce is my favourite, when I use it, I don't add any extra garlic into the sauce though, as it can be a bit strong (for my tastes anyway).

http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/product/search/default.aspx?notepad=seeds%20of%20change

Jamie Oliver's tomato and chilli sauce is lovely too, not sure how much it is, but don't think its much different in price from SoC.

Dunnes Stores Simply Better sauces are nice too, not as nice as SOC but they aren't bad and they're a good price too.

Billy86

The only real one I like much is Knorr spicy pepper sauce sachets (the normal one is quite bland). It says to add half water, half milk but it works better at about 70-75% milk, and left on for a goodn15 minutes instead of the 5 or so I think they recommend to get it good and thick. I could never understand why the advise people cook make it as watery and bland as possible?

One kind of nasty thing is some of the flour clumps together, so I run it quickly through a sieve into a cup or glass before pouring over the portions.

pwurple

The green saffron spice packets are awesome, and made here in ireland! Great strong flavours, really good quality, as good as restaurant. I find them pretty quick to use, chop an onion/garlic/ginger... Bung in a tin of tomatos is about it.

I think they have started doing a range of jars as well, i'd hope they are similar quality?

Link to stockists page here... Loads of dunnes stores and tescos stock them now, as well as the avoca / farmers market set. http://www.greensaffron.com/stockists/

vibe666

we tend to do an asian supermarket run every couple of months to get the real deal. it's a long way out of our way, but totally worth it compared to the usual supermarket stuff if we can come up with another reason to be in the area. it's usually the one right next to the back of the jervis centre.

may not be the biggest in the world, but they have plenty of good authentic asian and indian sauces, seasonings and frozen produce (dim sum, pork buns, crizpy duck, tiger prawns and that kind of thing).

i know its not exactly lidl and aldi, but it's totally worth the effort to get the proper stuff and it's so cheap.

the hardest part is carrying it all back to the car!

juneg

An Uncles Bens curry sauce can be seriously improved by adding a little pot of peach yogurt and a bit of coriander

anewme

Totally second the recommendation for Green Saffron spices. Nicer than any Indian takeaway. I've made the tikka masala one, lentil dahl, roast chicken tikka and all were fabulous.

Havent tried the jars yet.

ibarelycare

+1 for the Aldi curry sauces, they've become my favourite dinner and will often have them on a weekend night instead of a takeaway. I don't like the tikka masala, korma or dopioza ones, but the madras, balti, rogan josh and jalfrezi are all yum. I mix the chicken with the spices (I usually add some extra chilli and curry powder for more heat) and a little oil and then just sear it in the wok, and then let it properly cook in the sauce for about 35 minutes.

Toulouse wrote: »

I'll second those Aldi curry sauces, particularly the Balti one. Also they do a tomato and marscapone stir in pasta sauce which is pretty good too.

Funny, last night's dinner was one of the Aldi curries, and today's lunch was pasta with the tomato and mascarpone sauce

trashcan

sheesh wrote: »

pataks jars of jalfrezi and balti paste are feckin brilliant fry onion ginger brown meat add paste and other veg add tin of tomatoes

Absolutely. Love all the Pataks jars of paste. I use them as a base for all my curries. Made one yesterday with the Rogan Josh - Chicken, Onion, Ginger, Butter Beans, Sweet potato, chickpeas, Fresh Coriander and some Masala spices my sister brought me back from India. Yum yum. (Have 2 dinners worth of leftovers too:))

brick tamland

I must be the odd man out here. Had the ALDI Balti a while back and hated it. Was way too sweet and mild for me. Maybe others are better

indigo twist

I stockpile jars of passata! An easy dinner is steak mince or sliced chicken fillets fried up, then add passata and a few shakes of various dried spices. Would usually chuck in some frozen veg too.

I know it's not exactly a "jar sauce" as such, but it's no more effort than one, and you feel a lot more virtuous afterwards! Also I'd say it probably works out much cheaper.

HeidiHeidi

Patak's pastes/sauces on special in Aldi this Thursday

Will definitely be stocking up on a jar or two of the Butter Chicken sauce.

(Disclaimer - haven't a notion how much they normally cost, so not sure how much of a bargain they'll be - but €1.49 seems like a good deal to me!)

nompere

I always think that the simplest jar sauce is the quick spoonful of Hellman's mayonnaise stirred into a pot of cooked frozen peas - or broad beans when I can get them. It's certainly cheap, but I don't think it's nasty.

dibkins

The green saffron dal powder is one of the tastiest things. Nom.

vicwatson

Op those aldi sauces are from their specially selected range at 1.79 for the sauce and it comes with a tub of spices on the top of the jar.

The ingredients are pretty good all told. not much if any artificial thingys.

Try a few.

ibarelycare

I tried the Patak Rogan josh sauce last night. I like the Patak pastes but the shop didn't have any so decided to give this a go. It was horrible. So overpoweringly sweet and also watery. I thickened it up with a bit of flour and added some spices to give it more flavour but it was really disappointing.

Halloween Jack

I'll second a previous poster and recommend some of the stuff from asian supermarkets.

The Mae ploy brand thai curry pastes are excellent and are actually used as curry bases in a lot of takeaways.

One tub of paste for c. €2.50 should do you for 4 fairly decent sized curries. Just add coconut milk, vegetables (the pea aubergines in the asian supermarkets are great) and meat, ready in 20 mins.

Gloomtastic!

ibarelycare wrote: »

I tried the Patak Rogan josh sauce last night. I like the Patak pastes but the shop didn't have any so decided to give this a go. It was horrible. So overpoweringly sweet and also watery. I thickened it up with a bit of flour and added some spices to give it more flavour but it was really disappointing.

If you want to thicken up a curry, add onions.

Bateman

Agreed about Pataks, pastes great, sauces not so much

Nekarsulm

Local shop has got in jars of Mrs H.S. Ball's Original Recipe Chutney. Imported from South Africa, made by Unilever, dunno how it ended up in a small village in Cavan.
But very tasty.

stmol32

nompere wrote: »

I always think that the simplest jar sauce is the quick spoonful of Hellman's mayonnaise stirred into a pot of cooked frozen peas - or broad beans when I can get them. It's certainly cheap, but I don't think it's nasty.

I always stir in a spoonful of mint sauce into peas (Aldi less than a €).

trashcan

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

If you want to thicken up a curry, add onions.

I always start my curries with grated onion.