Sometimes when you add milk, cream or sour cream to a hot sauté pan, it separates. This also can happen to coconut milk added to Indian and Thai recipes that contain acidic ingredients such as lime juice (which reacts with dairy, causing it to curdle). Have no fear! Your culinary creation can be saved. Here’s how to make your white sauce silky smooth: If the amount of sauce in your recipe is less than about a cup, add one teaspoon of cornstarch to one-quarter cup of warm water and mix together until well blended. Double the portion (two teaspoons of cornstarch to one-half cup of water) if your sauce is more than a cup. Reduce the heat to low, and add the cornstarch mixture. Then stir constantly while slowly turning the heat up to medium. This works even if you have additional food ingredients in your pan, such as stir-fry vegetables or stroganoff meat (yum!). Your sauce will thicken slightly and look silky smooth! (Note: If you want your liquid base to be more thin than thick, as with a soup, use less cornstarch.)

More for the home chef…

 

Related Articles