TASTE's Food Editor Abigail Donnelly revives a South African classic: monkeygland sauce, an all-time favourite at her table and still the perfect accompaniment to steaks and burgers.
Do you remember monkeygand sauce? If you do come across it, it's just not the same as I used to remember it. My latest favourite is a sweet and spicy monkeygland sauce, which you hardly ever see on a burger menu anymore.
Years ago I worked at The Porterhouse in Westgate where we used to dip the roast potatoes from the carvery into the monkeygland sauce. Delicious!
This tangy sauce was apparently introduced to South Africa by an Italian waiter in the 1930s, although there are many stories about its origin.
We often stuff a toasted ciabatta roll with a giant grilled or pan-fried mushroom and then make a garlicky button mushroom cream sauce to go with it, a real double-whammy veggie burger.
If you add some chopped bacon to the mushrooms when making the sauce, it turns a beef burger into something quite magical.
If you fancy something healthier, try a home-made tomato sauce packed with fresh basil, or a tzatziki sauce with a lamb patty and roast red peppers.
I can’t resist avo on a burger, mashed into a glorious chunky and fiery guacamole.
I also love aïoli in any form – it makes a perfect sauce topping for burgers, or as a dipping sauce for chips in various guises – sweet potato, wedges, thick-cut and shoestring.
Here is my perfect Monkeygland sauce recipe:
1 onion, chopped
.gif "Friday Night is Burger Night with Woolworths")
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 chilli, seeded and chopped
1 T sunflower oil
1/2 cup Worcester sauce
1 cup Mrs Balls chutney
1 x 410 g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup orange juice or water
3 T white vinegar
4 T brown sugar
Fry the onions, garlic and chilli in the oil over a medium heat until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over a medium heat for about 30 minutes until thick.
This recipe makes enough to top 8 to 10 burgers, depending on how much you like it.
If you're making burgers this Friday, as Hannah is, using Woolies' great range of burger patties, it will be a great sauce to bring back memories.
What are our favourite sauces? And I'd love to know if you have the real story behind the name 'monkeygland sauce'!
Until next week, happy cooking
.jpg)
Abigail
MORE FROM ABIGAIL:
READ MORE