Zigeuner sauce

This sauce made with red and green peppers, onion, tomato, gherkins and silverskin onions has a distinctly sweet-and-sour flavour. Serve the sauce warm with schnitzel, for example, or leave it to cool for a barbecue.

Yield: approximately 750 ml
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 200 ml beef stock
• 250 g sweet-and-sour gherkins
• 4 tbsp silverskin onions
• 2 onions
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 70 g tomato purée
• 2 tbsp gherkin liquid
• cayenne pepper to taste
• olive oil
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Cut the vegetables
   Halve the peppers and remove the cores and seeds. Cut the flesh into small cubes. Peel and finely chop the onions.
2. Prepare the pickled vegetables
   Drain the gherkins and reserve some of the liquid. Cut the gherkins into small cubes. Drain the silverskin onions as well.

Method

1. Sauté the vegetables
   Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes, without allowing them to brown too much.
2. Cook the tomato purée
   Add the tomato purée and brown sugar and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
3. Simmer the sauce
   Add the beef stock and 2 tablespoons of gherkin liquid and stir well. Add the gherkins and silverskin onions. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the peppers are cooked but still retain their shape.
4. Thicken the sauce
   Mix the cornflour with a small amount of cold water until smooth. Gradually add it to the boiling sauce while stirring. Simmer the sauce gently for another 1–2 minutes until it has thickened slightly.
5. Season the sauce
   Add cayenne pepper to taste. Taste the sauce and only then add salt and freshly ground black pepper if needed.

Serving and storage

Serve the sauce immediately while warm or leave it to cool first if using it as a cold sauce. Do not leave the sauce at room temperature unnecessarily and, once cooled, store it covered in the refrigerator.