Ahhhh – Hot Sauce. Where would a Chillihead be without it?
Well. Strange as it may be to me, it seems quite comfortable in their ignorance. I’ve come to realise that not all people share the same kind of love for Hot Sauce as I do. In fact, I’ve come to discover that some people think it’s OK for them to have just one bottle in their cupboard at any given time.
To those people I say, take a seat, talk with me a while…
… You see, you’re missing out on so much good stuff. I, like many other people, grew up with just two bottles of sauce on the table. Tomato and Brown Sauce. That was it, that was my choices.
I didn’t particularly like Brown Sauce so it was Tomato or nothing. I’d get excited at Summer time because that meant that the Salad Cream was coming back to the shops. Yeah. Good times eh?
BUT – These days, it’s an entirely different story. My cupboards are rammed pack with sauces of all kinds, different flavours for different things. And they all contain Chilli of some kind, although with varying degrees of heat.
We’ll start with the more obvious ones first. Chipotle, for example, makes for an excellent sauce. But the Chipotle flavour can enhance the taste of so many other things out there – You put Chipotle into a sauce and you’re not going to go far wrong.
One of my favourite things to do with a Chipotle sauce is to add it to a Full English Breakfast, I’ve had both Tomato and Brown Hot Sauces married with Chipotle and they both work well and add something that you didn’t know was missing to an already excellent meal.
The Chipotle flavour works so well with all the ingredients on a plate like that, you can break each one down.
Bacon, Sausage, Egg, Beans and hell even Toast – Check, Check, Check, Check and Check.
And that’s just putting it *on* things. You can put it *in* things as well you know.
Again, starting with the basics, soup. Classic Oxtail Soup can be transformed into a Chilli Heads dream with a few drops of sauce.
A way to endlessly improve Beans in any form? – Check – I mean, seriously, your Beans on Toast game may never be the same again. Pick a sauce, or a pickle and have at it.
My better half makes an excellent Corned Beef Hash during the winter months, it’s delicious. But in it’s natural form it lacks the spice to a meal that my palette has become accustomed to. The solution? A Hot Sauce, of course.
So simple. So genius.
You can add Hot Sauce into anything, Chilli-Con-Carne, Curry, Soups, Stews, and well the choice is yours. Any meal with some kind of a sauce, just match it to what is already there and wahlah!
I myself make a rather excellent family favourite Chilli-Con-Carne which uses a Chipotle Sauce to power the flavour and heat.
Even something like Scrambled Eggs or an Omelette. Just mix it right in with the eggs while you’re prepping them like you would anything else.
Or, if you’re not sure and not ready to commit just yet then just top off your eggs with it when done, Mango based sauces are a particular favourite of mine to do this with.
Something else Hot Sauce is good for is straying away from the obvious and giving you the chance to experiment a little.
For a next step, we’ll stick with Chipotle. But then we’ll introduce some Raspberry. Yes, Raspberry. That delicious looking Full English Breakfast above with the Chipotle Tomato Sauce?
That’s it again, with a Raspberry Chipotle Sauce.
What you’ve got there is your classic sweet and savory taste play off. The sweetness of the raspberry sauce, the savory goodness of the meat – Works SO well! And plus, you know, the Chipotle playing it’s part.
It’s not just Raspberry.
That right there? That’s a Strawberry based hot sauce working it’s magic on a Bacon, Sausage and Cheese baton. The sauce this time powered with Lucky 7 and Gibbering Idiot chillies, a tad warmer (OK, a LOT) than Chipotle.
Same meal, but Peaches (with Jays Peach and Scorpion power) this time.
Mango (and Fatalii)
I know, i know – it’s almost “wrong” to think about putting this kind of thing on your beloved foods, but trust me, you just need a little push and you’re in a whole new world of flavour.
The choices out there are almost endless. A few years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed about mixing half the things I do now. But once I’d gone for it a couple of times then I was game for almost anything.
And that’s when my sauce collection began to grow. The pairing of different sauces with different meals became almost like a hobby.
It’s true that almost any meal you can think of can be enhanced with hot sauce. It doesn’t have to blow your tongue off with heat, many of the milder sauces out there are just as good, if not better, to use than the wilder ones.
It’s not just main meals, it’s quick snacks as well – Don’t be afraid of going with a hot sauce whenever you can.
Pork Pie? – There’s a Beetroot Hot Sauce for that, a perfect pairing.
Salad for lunch? – Give it a kick, you won’t regret it.
Ice Cream desert? Remember that Strawberry Hot Sauce? – There you go.
Pot Noodles are another good example of being vastly improved with a splash of hot sauce instead of the sauce you get in the packet.
The only problem you’ll soon be facing is which hot sauce you’re going to use. Sure, some firm favourites will make their way to the front but it’s always fun to try new things with old things.
It can on occasion even save a meal. My better half likes Chinese food, but as a rule, I don’t. I’ll eat *some* stuff but on the whole it’s down at the bottom of my list for the most part. I normally just stick to Chow Mein dishes when we order a takeaway as it’s “just noodles”.
But then, one day…
… I threw some Sambal into it and mixed it in.
I’ve never looked back – It’s now one of my favourite things to do. Totally takes the meal to the next level and actually has me looking forward to it.
And, sometimes, if you’re lucky some of the work is done for you already. Take these sausages for example.
Now, the “Ghost Chilli” flavour part of the sausages is there, but, the heat not so much. And, so, a quick fix with Ghost Chilli (Naga, Bhut Jolokia – Whats in a name?) is to add one of the many Ghost Chilli based hot sauces out there.
And, done with no thinking required. Delicious sausages as they where meant to be.
To answer my question, “Hot Sauce, What is it good for?” perhaps I need to answer that with another question; “Hot Sauce, What ISN’T it good for?”
What about you? Have you found any good / secret / to good not to share combinations of food and hot sauce? – Drop a note in the comments section below if so!
Happy hot saucing folks!