Recipe CX - Sauce Andalouse

I went to a café today here in Germany where there was a TV on in the corner. I don't have German TV at home so it was quite an experience to see what their cookery programmes looked like - I don't think I remember someone looking quite as orange or having such white teeth as the flirty presenter, who did a lot of pointing at the camera, which moved round the set making me queasy.

The camera settled on the presenter eating the food but there was not much camerawork directed at the food itself or its preparation. It was on silent, so I was saved from having my ears as well as my eyes violated by this daytime TV show for the colourblind. I think it was called Topfgeldjäger. What shocked me the most though was the food they were cooking. I couldn't believe the size of the portions and the monotone colour of the dishes they were proffering to the German public. One of the dishes was steak but it was a pallid grey colour, not a bit of red in it.

Considering the blandness of the dishes and the gaudy luridness of the studio, the presenter and the contestants, they could have filmed the whole thing in black and white, it would have saved the ZDF a lot of money in spraytan and studio décor. So that really got my back up and I wanted to rebel in my own little way in my kitchen.

I got the butcher to cut me off some mini steaks and I cut up and fried some chips, but I decided to make my own Andalouse sauce to go with it for a change, instead of mustard or mayonnaise.

Ingredients (makes 2 jars of it):

1 red pepper

1 green pepper 

1 onion

1 lemon (squeezed)

About half a pot of mayonnaise

Half a tube of tomato purée

A teaspoonful of chili powder (optional)

A pinch of salt

Instructions:

Put the onion, red pepper and green pepper into a mixer and blitz until it is virtually a paste. Add the lemon juice and the tomato purée and pulse a couple of times to integrate it. Then put in the mayonnaise and pulse gently until the whole mix is a bright pink colour. Add the chili powder and stir it in.

Put the whole thing in the fridge for a while (minimum an hour) for the flavours to run. Just before your chips and steak are done, heat the sauce up gently and serve either on the plate or in a small bowl for decoration.