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American Sauce

We'll be doing some grilling with friends on July 4th, and in preparation for it I started some meat marinading tonight and made a compound butter.

The butter is intended for corn; it'as based on a recipe from Bon Appétit presented on Epicurious, with a few modifications. You might enjoy it... here it is:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
• juice of 1 lime

Mix the ingredients together, pour into a ramekin and refrigerate until it hardens. Let soften to room temperature before using. Apply generously to freshly cooked corn.

It's fine to substitute regular chili powder for ancho chile powder. You can use honey or even just sugar in place of the agave. If you don't have time to let the butter harden after melting, just start with softened butter. You can even try olive oil in place of the butter if you want (don't bother waiting for it to harden in this case).

When I was thinking about writing something for July 4th and decided to mention this butter I thought it might want to have a name. I think that for the purposes of this article, I'll call it American Sauce?

It may feel not very American (it's certainly not ketchup!), maybe more Mexican or possibly Spanish but then again Mexican and Spanish food are American food.

In fact, I would say that not only is this butter an American sauce, but so are pesto, curry, fish sauce, tahini, bulgoki, mole, among many others. Because many Italians, Indians, Vietnamese, people from the Middle East, Koreans and Mexicans are also Americans. Very few of us in America originally come from America; the vast majority of us have roots in Europe, Africa, Asia. We bring with us our foods and odds are that we enjoy eating not only our own foods but everyone else's.

Let's try to remember as we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the United States of America that it's not about us versus them. We may think we're 'us' but we have been 'them' as well. Even if we don't always carry it in our minds, we carry it in our hearts. And perhaps when we fail to remember, our foods can carry the memory for us. You may have to go to Los Angeles to find food trucks serving Korean dishes in tacos but even in our small New England valley we can find sushi, stir fries, burritos, beers, pasta, pizza, samosas, chorizo and feta - all now American foods.

What's your favorite American sauce?

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