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Sauces for Winter Dishes

Cheery Flavor

By , About.com Guide

The fresh flavor of these sauce recipes will pep up any winter dish. When the simplicity of root vegetables, baked chicken, and roast beef gets monotonous, brighten up your menu with one of these zippy sauces. These sauces are so easy to make and customize to your favorite seasonings, you can give your dinner a signature flavor every night with little effort.

Lemon Beurre Blanc Sauce Recipe

Glen MacLarty
This lemon beurre blanc sauce recipe makes a rich, tangy sauce perfect for grilled salmon or chicken. For added flavor and decoration, sprinkle capers atop the finished dish.

Shallot Vinaigrette Recipe

Kok Robin
This shallot vinaigrette recipe is the house dressing for many French restaurants. It provides a great base and neutral, yet zippy flavor for numerous types of salads and grilled vegetable dishes. Try shallot dressing with contrasting flavors like salads featuring fruit, or enhance mild flavors, like zucchini.

Basque Piperade Recipe

Leandro Ercole
Piperade, a spicy tomato-pepper sauce from the Basque region of France can be used as a stewing ingredient or a garnish to a finished dish. This recipe uses a very small amount of granulated sugar mellow out the sharp tang of the tomatoes and peppers.

Beurre Rouge Sauce Recipe

This classic beurre rouge sauce recipe makes a rich, slightly tangy sauce perfect for seafood or chicken. A traditional sauce in Brittany, sauce beurre rouge, or red butter sauce, has become known outside of the region only in recent decades.

Bordelaise Sauce Recipe

Rich and flavorful, it takes just a small drizzle of this bordelaise sauce recipe to perk up a simple, grilled steak or slow-roasted beef. The tangy, savory red wine sauce is also a great accompaniment to roasted potatoes. It can be made right before serving time, or up to a day in advance, using a special insiders' trick to keep a skin from forming over the surface of the bordelaise.

Garden Herb Butter Recipe

This herbed butter recipe, sometimes called hotel butter although it technically is not, is a deliciously rich accompaniment to steak or seafood dishes. You can play around with the herb, adding what is fresh in your garden, for a signature recipe.

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe

Velvety rich and smooth, this hollandaise sauce recipe is the perfect complement for poached eggs and asparagus. For the best results, serve classic hollandaise sauce fresh, while it's still hot. With a little practice, this elegant recipe becomes very simple so it's easy to make a new batch for every meal.

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