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I’ve been on a quest for a while for a really good barbecue sauce recipe. I’m partial to Kansas City-style sauces. Original Blues Hog Barbecue Sauce and Sticky Pig Barbecue Sauce are two of my favorite commercial sauces. Both feature a great sweet … Continue reading
Remember that pint o’ napalm I brewed up a couple of months ago? Well, I decided to try bottling some of it up as “gifts” this Xmas.
I ordered a case of Woozy 5-ounce round glass bottles with caps and dripper inserts from Specialty Bottle and a pack of 2×4 Post It labels from 3M.
When I finally felt brave enough (after opening the kitchen window and turning on the exhaust fan), I took the original bottle out of the fridge, cracked open, and took a whiff - big mistake. This stuff hadn’t mellowed anymore than battery acid would have. I was surprised it hadn’t eaten clean through the bottle.
I tried to pour it into a sauce pan, but it wouldn’t budge out of the bottle. I added a little hot water and cautiously gave it a little shake to loosen it up. It grudgingly poured out like orange lava.
I rinsed out the bottle with a little more hot water and thinned the sauce with cider vinegar until it got to the consistency I wanted (about a quart of vinegar and a cup of hot water total).
Time to taste. I carefully stuck a toothpick in the sauce and was pleased when it didn’t ignite. I tasted the end of the toothpick – oh, it’s hot, but just hot with no other flavors really coming through at all.
All pain and no flavor makes for a dull hot sauce, so I decided to try boosting the taste. I added 3 tablespoons of kosher salt, a table spoon of brown sugar, and a few grinds of black pepper and gave it another taste – hot, but much better. I could just taste the onion and garlic. It was tangy, but still lacked the bite that the lime and orange juice were supposed to add.
I brought the mix to a simmer and added the juice of one lime and another tablespoon of salt – okay, still really hot, but there is enough other stuff going on taste-wise now to make the pain worth it.
It’s bottling time!
The Verdict: 
We ended up with 10 bottles – just enough to share for the holidays. It’s a fun little gift to give, and initial reviews have been favorable, but when I try it side by side with Marie Sharp’s there is just no comparison – my sauce has the heat, and some decent flavor, but not nearly as much as it should.
I almost think this is a case where I’d want to make the base (veggies, spices, vinegar) and get it tasting good before I add the chiles. Certainly worth a try next time.
Another thing I noticed is that the sauce separates pretty quickly, with the clear vinegar moving to the top. This is probably why a lot of hot sauces add a little xanthan gum to the mix.
I take my hot sauces pretty seriously and have amassed a respectable collection, limited only by my dear wife’s desire to have room in the fridge for actual food and my desire to remain happily married.
In their application, I tend to take the terroir approach – sauces from a given region goes best with foods from that region. So Louisiana-style sauces (Crystal, Frank’s, Trappey’s) go with southern cooking like jambalaya or biscuits and gravy, and Mexican sauces (Cholula, Valentina, Búfalo) go with tacos, enchiladas, etc… I do a little mixy matchy (Valentina with a little mayo is killer on sushi), but have yet to find a single hot sauce that really works to compliment a wide variety of foods.
That said – I take my hat off to Suck Creek WFR Hot Sauce.
The Verdict:
This sauce complements everything I’ve tried it on. So far, I’ve had it on eggs, in my cherished biscuits and gravy, and as a way to brighten up some beef stew. I’ve used it to add some heat to my wing sauce, tacos, and ranch dressing. It has a nice, tangy base of warmth that’s wrapped with black pepper and herbs, and then finished off with a straight up habanero heat. It’s not as vinegary as Crystal, nor as hot as Marie Sharp’s. The heat is considerable, but not overwhelming. It does, however, build and linger for a while. It may be a bit much for some folks, but’s that’s their own fault. I can see it as my “go-to” heat source for barbecue sauces and marinades.
The versatility of the sauce means that a bottle of WFR now sits on our dining table right next to the salt and pepper. My only wish is that it came in a bigger bottle 
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This recipe is a pure product of the internet. It started off as an email from my dear wife asking if scallops sounded good for dinner. Sure thing. I figured I’d just grill them up on skewers, but I wanted a new recipe for a side dish.
Googled grilled scallops – 291,000 results. On about the third page of search results I hit a scallops with roasted red pepper sauce recipe. Looks good, but not quite it. Wait a minute, didn’t one of the food bloggers I read do a red pepper sauce that had cheese in it?
Google Reader to the rescue – Nibble Me This: Roasted Red Pepper & Feta Sauce for Pasta. Now that’s the ticket. Do I have all the ingredients it calls for? No, but I’m sure Chris won’t mind if I improvise a little .
Red Pepper Pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 medium red bell peppers, cut in half, cored and seeded
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh goat cheese
8 ounces spaghetti noodles (gluten-free in this case)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
Set your grill up for a direct cook over high (500°F) heat.
Put the peppers on the grill skin side down and roast until most of the skin has blackened (about 5 minutes). Flip and roast the other side until the flesh start to soften (about 3 minutes). Remove the peppers to a large zip-top bag and seal. Let them steam in the bag and cool while you get the rest of the ingredients cooking. Leave the grill up and running because you’ll do the scallops on it after the sauce is ready.
Start the water boiling for the pasta. Heat the oil in a 3 or 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook until they start to soften (about 3 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.
Remove the peppers from the bag and peel off the charred skin. Give the peppers a rough chop and add to the onions and garlic. Add the stock, salt, pepper, and paprika and bring the stock to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender or food processor, blend everything until it’s pureed. Return puree to the stove and bring to a simmer. Add the cheese and stir to combine. It should form a thick sauce, but feel free to add more stock to thin it or let it simmer for a bit to thicken.
When the sauce is to the right consistency, put a lid on it and turn the heat to low just to keep it warm.
Your pasta water should be boiling by now. Add the spaghetti and prepare according to the directions on the package.
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the scallops.
Scallop Skewers
1 1/2 pounds sea scallops
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
6-8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
Rinse off the scallops and pat dry. In a medium bowl, combine the scallops, oil, salt, and paprika. Mix well to coat.
Thread the scallops on the skewers, making sure to leave some space between them.
When the pasta is ready, put the scallops on grill. Cook on high heat for about 2 minutes. flip and cook for another 2 minutes, or just until they turn opaque. Scallops get tough if you over cook them, so pull them off a little early and let them finish cooking on the plate.
I served the scallops with the pasta covered in the red pepper sauce and a side of brussels sprouts.
The Verdict:
The scallops were pretty much perfect – just a little browned on the outside and still very tender. The minimal seasoning really enhanced the flavor.
The red sauce was another story. It was good – sweet and smoky and robust, but it lacked zing. The goat cheese gave it a nice rich taste, but Chris’s recipe called for feta and I think that would have been a better pick.
BTW – brussels sprouts covered in red pepper sauce are almost edible!
The bounty of peppers continues at my office. This time it’s a mixed bunch of habaneros. Good thing, because my last precious bottle of Marie Sharp’s is almost empty and I don’t have another trip to Belize to pick up more scheduled for anytime soon.
For this recipe, I’m looking for a good amount of heat. The orange habaneros run about 350,000 Scoville units, and the red savina will go to a whopping 580,000. But it’s not all about the heat – the veggies and fruit juice are there to tone down the burn and help round out the flavor.
NOTE: Before you even think about making this sauce, turn on your stove’s exhaust vent, open your windows, and don a pair of latex gloves. These peppers will give you a burn that keeps on giving, and you don’t want that near your eyes or any other sensitive parts, if you get where I’ve drifted.
18-20 Habanero chiles, roughly chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 c cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
Juice of 1 orange (about 4 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
In a small stock pot, saute the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add the carrots with a 1/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until carrots are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the vinegar, lime juice, orange juice, and peppers. Cover pot pot with a lid and cook until peppers are soft, about 10 minutes.
Let mixture cool. Place mixture in blender and puree until smooth. Add more vinegar if the mixture is too thick. Pour into a bottle and store in the fridge.
The Verdict:
Oh, sweet baby Jebus, please make the burning stop!!! This stuff is HOT! What the hell was I thinking? A bushel of freaking carrots and a tree full of limes wouldn’t knock the heat outta this stuff. Okay, whew, relax, it’s not face melting/mind-numbing hot, but it’s a WHOLE LOT HOTTER than I thought it would turn out.
I’m going to stick this pint o’ napalm way in the back of the fridge for a bit and see if it mellows any. Failing that, I might just bottle this up into little jars and give it away to “special” people on my Xmas list .
I’m a huge fan of Huy Fong’s Sriracha Chili Sauce (a.k.a Rooster Sauce). I use it to make a spicy mayo spread for sandwiches, to warm up store-bought ketchup, or to add the spice to my Spicy Orange Wings.
I’ve been fortunate lately that folks in my office have been giving away a lot of peppers. So I snagged enough of these lovely red and yellow Thai chilies to make a batch of sauce.
25-30 assorted Thai chilies
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon fish sauce (I like Squid Brand)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Snip the stems off the chiles, but leave the green crown attached. Roughly chop the chilies and the garlic. Put them in the pan and cook until the garlic begins to soften (about 5 minutes).
Add the water and vinegar, put the lid on the pan, and cook until the peppers have softened (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and let mixture cool.
When cool, place mixture in blender with the salt, sugar, and fish sauce and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add more vinegar if the mixture is too thick. Pour into a bottle and store in the fridge.
The Verdict:
The yellow chilies gave this a bright/green taste and light color. I like it, just not as much as my beloved sriracha. It has moderate heat that is nicely offset by the sugar and fish sauce. I’m letting the it mellow in the fridge for a bit and am looking forward to using it to bump up my next batch of satay or coconut stew.
I make a version of this chicken and veggie recipe about once a week while we’re getting nice, fresh veggies out of the garden. Once you get it set up on the grill, the components of this dish all work together really well – the chicken juices flavor the veggies while the veggie pan protects the chicken from direct heat.
To make this dish even more conevenient for the summer, I like to do 2 birds at a time. It’s not really much more work, and you end up with plenty of leftovers for no-cook lunches. This time I also bumped up the spice by saucing the birds with Suck Creek’s Original Hot Wing Sauce at the end of the cook.
The Veggies
6 small Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 small yellow squash, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground back pepper to taste
Lightly oil a 9×13 baking pan. Add the veggies, drizzle with olive oil, season with the salt and a couple of grinds of pepper.
The Birds
2 3-5 pound roasting chickens
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 4 tablespoons of your favorite barbecue rub (I used John Henry’s Pecan Rub)
1/2 cup Suck Creek’s Original Hot Wing Sauce
Spatchcocking is easier than it sounds – place the bird in front of you, breast side down. Butterfly the bird by cutting up through the backbone with either a pair of kitchen shears or a sharp chef’s knife. You can repeat this to remove the entire backbone, but I generally don’t.
Spread the bird open like a book and locate the keel bone that sits between the breasts. Nick it with a knife to get it to open up, but don’t cut all the way through. Flip the bird over and press down on the center of the bird until it lies flat.
Clean and rinse the chicken, then pat it dry. Rub both sides of the bird with olive oil and season with the rub, making sure to work some under the skin.
The Cook
Set your grill up for an indirect cook over medium heat (350°F). On the Big Green Egg I use the plate setter to diffuse the heat and set the pan of veggies on top of that. Then put the grill grate on top of the pan and put the chickens, skin side up, on the grate.
Close the lid and cook the chicken and veggies for 30 minutes. Give the veggies a stir and flip the birds over. Cook for another 30 minutes, then start checking to see if everything is done. The veggies are done when they are tender. The chicken is done when the juices run clear and the the temperature has reached 160°F in the breast and 180°F in the thigh.
The veggies will most likely be done before the birds. Pull them if they finish first and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. When the chicken is just about done, baste both sides with the sauce. Cook 15 more minutes, and baste again. Cook until the birds are done (about 1 1/2 hours total cooking time) and baste one last time before removing from the grill.
Remove the birds to a cutting board and let them rest for about 10 minutes. Quarter the birds for serving.