Every time I go home to PEI for a visit, there is one restaurant I must go to - Pizza Delight. Admittedly, I'm not actually that fond of their pizza. The reason I have to go there is to have garlic fingers and donair sauce. Those of you not from the Maritimes likely have no idea what I'm talking about but this is what I was craving and needed to try to recreate.
I'm not really sure where this combination came from but it is super popular where I'm from. Donair sauce is a sweet and tangy, very garlicy sauce that (I'm guessing) originated as a topping for donairs (a sandwich of compressed meat roasted on a spit). Garlic fingers are simply garlic butter and cheese on pizza dough that's baked and cut into fingers. Sadly, this combination doesn't seem to exist west of New Brunswick. Since I wasn't heading home over Christmas this year I decided I was going to have to try to recreate the delicacy myself.
From my internet searching I discovered there are two bases for homemade donair sauce - evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk. After reading a bunch of recipes I opted for the seemingly foolproof condensed milk option.
Homemade Donair Sauce
adapted from this recipe
- One 300 mL can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup of white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
Simple enough, right? The sauce turned out great. Exactly like what I was expecting from a good donair sauce. Unfortunately, the caliber of garlic fingers I had access to didn't live up to expectations. I got some frozen fingers from the grocery store. They were alright but not the greasy delicious treat I crave. Next time I make this I think I'll go to the effort to try and make some fingers that are more like I can get at home.
All in all, I'd say this was a very good first effort. Certainly fits the bill in a pinch.
Have you ever tried to recreate a recipe from one of your favorite restaurants?
I was out east for awhile in 1999 and STILL crave those darn garlic fingers and donair sauce! I will be trying this for sure!
ReplyDeletedonair sauce needs sugar as well!
ReplyDeleteSince you start off with sweetened condensed milk, there's no need to add more sugar. Plenty of it in the milk already. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean : )
DeleteI make donair sauce with sweetened condensed milk and the lest time we were in PEI we went to Pizza Delight and ordered these---both my husband and I like my donair sauce better... I still haven't perfected garlic fingers but I generally take a premade pizza crust, brush on melted garlic butter, sprinkle with shredded Italian cheese, bake tip golden, and when it comes out of the oven again brush with more melted garlic butter. Its no health food but its so yummy!!!
ReplyDeletethe donair sauce with the sweetened condensed milk is awesome!!!!!
ReplyDeletethe donair sauce made with the sweetened condensed milk is great...thanks :)
ReplyDeleteOMG!! AMAZING!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe trick to garlic fingers is to mix shredded mozzarella and shredded Parmesan cheese. Equal measures of both.
ReplyDeleteGood take on the sauce fromt he original. When i was working at a pizza joint in Halifax back in the 90's we added white pepper to the sauce for a little extra bite, give it a try.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at a pizza joint in Halifax back in 90's we made the sauce like this - but the secret weapon - add some white pepper for a little extra bite.
ReplyDeleteWe were making large batches with 2 14 oz cans of the milk - so we used about a teaspoon of the white pepper so as not to over power it. Also don't over stir when adding the vinegar - you are trying to make a suspension of the milk solids and it will "break" if you go much more than 5 or 6 time around with the whisk - you want a bit of chunkiness to it. And it really needs a good few hours in the fridge for the flavors to come together.
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~gpetitpas/Links/Donair.html - here is the definitive recipe for meat, sauce and garlic cheese fingers. Although I find the sauce too sweet and usually reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup for 12 oz's of evaporated milk. Also put a dash of white pepper into the sauce for a little extra bite - that's how we did it at several pizza shops in Halifax that I worked at.
ReplyDeleteyummy
ReplyDelete