Saturday, November 28, 2009

How to Make Homemade Tartar Sauce

Once you make this, you'll never, ever buy premade in jars or bottles again.

Bonus: the ingredients are common ones.  No weirdness here.

Here's what you'll need: good mayo, pimentos, parsley, onion, pickles and a little pickle juice.  If you're feeling lively, add a sprinkle or two of Creole Seasoning.




I don't like tartar sauce to be chunky, chunky--so I grate the onion (actually I use a microplane) and I finely chop the pickles and parsley.  I buy the pimentos already diced.  It's hard to screw this up and easy to adjust to what you like.

If you're thinking about skipping the pimentos because you'll have extra and won't know what to do with it, don't.  In addition to adding flavor, they also add nice color.  Buy a small jar and use what's left to purty up green beans or corn.

Add all of the above to the mayo.  Add 1-2 tablespoons of pickle juice.  Season with Creole seasoning if you feel like it.  Mix it all up.



Make this well before you need it...the day before if you can. The flavors really come together over night in the fridge.  Use to dress Fish Po'Boys or as a condiment for fried seafood.

As Mr. Burns would say..."Let the fools have their tar-tar sauce."  Bottled that is.


On to the recipe...
* This makes about 1 cup of tartar sauce.
* Ingredient amounts can easily be adjusted to personal tastes (for example, I usually add 3 Tbsp of chopped pickles)

Homemade Tartar Sauce
from Ms. enPlace

1 cup (good quality) mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)

2-3 Tbsp finely chopped dill pickles
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp diced pimento
1-2 tsp grated onion (or finely chopped)
1-2 Tbsp pickle juice

(Chopped green onion can be used instead of yellow onion.  Creole seasoning can be added to taste for kicks.)

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour before using.  Overnight is best.

1 comment:

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Pretty much my recipe, but I like to add in sweet pickle relish in addition to the dills.