Adult Tartar Sauce

   
     I made this recipe while playing around one day trying to come up with something better than regular old tartar sauce.  I consulted a couple of my old recipe books for ideas and revisited some of the better ingredients in my remoulade  recipe I wrote oh so long ago.  I like remoulade, it's just a pain to make and involves tarragon which goes brown quicker than an avocado in a heat wave.  Dried tarragon has no flavor because it doesn't dry well so it was off to come up with something that has the flavor of remoulade but not the headache.
   

Served with Baltimore Lake Trout

     I called my final concoction adult tartar sauce because let's face it, normal tartar sauce made from sweet relish and mayonnaise is for kids.  This has an incredible layers and nuances of flavor to it and you won't feel bad putting it on a poached flounder.  The ingredients are not difficult and every cook should have them in their pantry/refrigerator with maybe 2 exceptions.  Capers are the dried flowers of the caper berry bush and have a salty piquant flavor that works well to balance the sweetness of the relish.  You can buy a jar and it nigh on lasts forever in your refrigerator.  The other ingredient is the mustard.  I used Lowensenf extra which is a hot German mustard from Bavaria.  Now when I say hot it's warming on the tongue but it's not going to make you cry.  You can substitute a dijon mustard and the end result will be fine.

     Most relish recipes will include some lemon juice, after all lemon juice and fish have been a great pairing for a long time.  I feel however that lemon juice in a tartar sauce comes to dominate the overall flavor and keeps you from experience the full spectrum of taste.  This is why I use lime juice, specifically Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice.  Their Lemon and Lime juices are out of this world and miles ahead of any of that real lemon industrial waste.  The lime juice in the recipe gives it a different spectrum of flavor that you're not expecting but pleasantly surprised.

Adult Tartar Sauce 

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2tsp Lowensenf mustard (or dijon)
2tsp finely minced red onion
3/4 tsp key lime juice
2T Sweet Pickle Relish
1T chopped capers
2tsp dried Parsley
1/4tsp salt
1/4tsp pepper

     Mix all ingredients together and store in a tightly fitting container.  Allow to sit 1 hours before using so flavors can meld and parsley can re-hydrate.  Makes 4 servings.

Tweet