Bases for sauces?

[eveglass]

I cooked a decent breakfast-for-dinner tonight, one of the few things I know how to cook consistently well. Simple but effective: scrambled eggs with onion and garlic, accompanied by baked beans on toast. Yum!

Doing all this cooking (ha.) made me think of a question: what sort of things are generally used as bases for sauces? So far I've come up with:
- milk and cream (white sauces)
- tomato (red sauces)
- gravy (brown sauces)

Is there anything else that can be used as the base for a sauce, or is that about it?

Thanks, cooking friends! I know you'll come through on this one!

Edited to add: I suppose something like a thick vegetable puree could be used as well, to make a... green sauce? Yes? No?

Comments

[photogeek-mtl.livejournal.com]

I use coconut milk very heavily in my sauces. My curry-like dishes are usually coconut milk thickened with red lentils and quinoa. I'll also thicken it with nut butters - almond or cashew, usually.

[sfllaw.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia, as always, comes through with information about sauces.

The three you've mentioned can be mapped to three of the French mother sauces: béchamel, tomate, and velouté.

[tygrbabe.livejournal.com]

ooh, thanx for the link Simon, i've always wanted to know what Yorkshire puddings were :)

[jasmine-koran.livejournal.com]

Soy sauce and oyster sauce make for great simple marinades and sauces.

[tygrbabe.livejournal.com]

pasta can also be tossed with pesto (basil sauce) or tapenade (olive paste) and a really simple alternative to tomato sauce is roasted red or yellow peppers: cut peppers in half, de-seed, put skin up on a lined cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and bake 'till some black spots start appearing. then puree for sauce (you can peel them before if you like, after baking, the peel comes off easily, makes a smoother sauce).

[manganese.livejournal.com]

the sky's the limit with sauces as far as I'm concerned. butternut squash soup (widely available canned/in cartons) is a good quick sauce starter that's delicious.