A Breakthrough in My Cooking Desires – Sauces that Do Not Contain Starchy Carbs – Moisture in Foods Wins with Me – Sauces Make that Happen – But Most that I’ve Made Contain Starchy Carbs or High Calorie Cheeses – Today I Prefer a More Healthful Sauce –

Peach Sauce right after blending – Cooking it deepened the color.

I wanted to make a sauce for pork, moist and sweet, but the sweetness had to be healthful, which to me meant less sugar and more fruit.

I have a sweet tooth like most Americans. When I first went to a Chinese restaurant in my youth, my favorite dish was sweet and sour shrimp, chicken, or pork. Sweetness was the taste that satisfied me the most.

Yesterday I thought I’d find an authentic recipe for sweet and sour pork, and I did. There was even a video attached to show me how to make it correctly. I was shocked. The amount of sugar that went into the sauce was astounding! No flavor of meat broth was needed, because the sauce was as sweet as candy via the sugars it contained! I won’t provide a link to it, since I’ve presented it in less than a favorable light, even though I’m sure the result of cooking it would have brought pleasure and delight, as much as any great recipe.

Sauteed celery to add with the pork

I continued looking and hoping to find a recipe for a sauce that would be sweet but not dangerous to one’s health. (My understanding is that consuming extreme amounts of sugar may cause insulin rushes. Too many insulin rushes may lead to insulin resistance and then to diabetes. These are both conditions to be avoided.)

I found the right recipe. Ha! And I’ll give you the link further down this page. The sauce was only part of the recipe, but I extracted that part to make a sauce to moisten my marinated bite-size pieces of pork chop. I fried those pieces in oil and set the pork aside. I sauteed fancy slices of celery for color and crunch and set it aside a well.

Next came the sauce recipe, (the sauce is only part of this recipe) which called for two apples. I had apples. I went to get the apples from the fridge and noticed that I had three ripe peaches. These peaches needed to be used. (Use them or lose them!) I did one of my substitutions. (Don’t be afraid of substitutions. Learn from them and you will use them more frequently.) This is how I made my sauce:

1) Three ripe peaches peeled and pit removed (instead of 2 apples).

2) A good sprinkle of dried basil.

3) A small amount of chopped onion (instead of a shallot).

4) Put this mixture in a blender.

5) Add just enough White Zinfandel (substitution for red wine) to enable the blender to produce a thick sauce.

6) Return the pork pieces to the pan.

7) Add the celery.

8) Add the sauce. Warm them up together until the sauce is the consistency you want. (Notice that cooking the sauce deepened the color.)

(My sauce was thick enough that I only had to warm it together with the meat and celery for a short time to meld the flavors. If your sauce is too thin, you may want to cook it down slowly in a separate pan first, because the meat and celery has already been cooked.)

Serve and enjoy a meat dish with sauce made without starchy carbs or high-calorie cheeses, but rather a sauce made with fruit, onion, spice, and wine.