the world’s best hot sauce

Alright, so that title may be a bit far reaching, as I haven’t had the opportunity in my life to sample even a small smattering of the many varieties of hot sauce available around the world. But this here is a story of what I can honestly say is hands down the best hot sauce I have tried so far in my life.
Firstly, I should say that I didn’t even really like hot sauce until the summer of 2009 when I worked at a summer camp where the food was less than delicious and required copious amounts of additional flavoring to remain palatable week after week. That is where the story of the world’s best hot sauce begins, in fact. Or at least, where I developed an unflinching dedication to it.
Shortly before the first week of summer camp, I spent a day working out at our family friends’ farm in Carnation, Washington. I weeded and picked and planted until my nails were dirty and my back was sore. Not only did I get lunch out of the deal, but a great deal of vegetables and a 12 pack of hot sauce from the previous season that they could no longer sell. At the time, I was not a hot sauce person, but I took it all and headed down south to the camp on the Puget Sound. I passed a couple bottles out upon arrival, since I had no idea what on earth to do with a dozen bottles of chunky green chile sauce. Sometime in the first week, I brought a bottle up to the staff table and there it sat, unwanted in favor of the Tabasco sauce provided by the kitchen. I’ve been known to use Tabasco in moderation, though I much prefer the smoked chipotle variation. I’m averse to heat for heat’s sake and loved the smokey depth the chipotle sauce offered. At camp however, there was only normal Tabasco and it went fast. Halfway through the second week of camp the bottle was empty.
I came up to breakfast one morning and, needing something more than pepper for my eggs, reached for the unlabeled green bottle I’d brought up a week before. It slid out, chunky and a shade of green normally reserved for pea-soup and retro carpeting. It was not the most appetizing, to say the least.
One bite, however, and it was clear I had discovered hot sauce nirvana. I immediately proclaimed to the entire table, all of whom had been reluctant to try it first, that this was indeed the best hot sauce ever and that I would take it over Tabasco any day of the week. Well, that caused something of a stir and everyone had to try it. We reached a unanimous conclusion: This was, in fact, the World’s Best Hot Sauce.
Now it was going on everything, and we went through one 5 oz bottle every week and a half. Pizza night meant mixing the sauce with ranch dressing for dipping in. It went in eggs and on sandwiches. Hashbrowns got jazzed up with ketchup and green sauce, and pasta and red sauce got a kick from a dash mixed in. Before the summer was over, I had to make a trip up to Carnation to float the river with some friends (their farm is on the West Fork of the Snoqualmie river) and pick up another box of hot sauce (and potatoes, Walla Walla sweet onions, beets and leeks). We kept two bottles on the table and I carried a bottle in my bag in case I found myself immediately in need of sauce.
This particular green chile sauce is made from a variety of chili peppers, picked while they are still green and thus, at their hottest. The only other ingredients are garlic and vinegar. It must be something about the freshness of the peppers or just the balance of ingredients, but this sauce adds depth to any dish in ways the vast majority of sauces just can’t. Like chipotle Tabasco, there is a sweetness mingled with the heat, but the green sauce is more adaptable than the smokiness of the Tabasco. The light flavor lends itself particularly well to fish dishes, where the smokey chipotle or regular red Tabasco would overwhelm a delicate fish flavor. It’s a great complement to guacamole and preserves its color, unlike a red sauce. And, like I mentioned, it can be used in a large variety of cuisines, it’s not restricted to Mexican fare. The ranch and sauce mix went on pizza, as well as sandwiches, and as a dipping sauce for fresh veggies. Lacking red pepper flakes, it provided a nice warmth when added to pasta sauce that was otherwise lacking in depth. By the end of the summer, it had been used on probably every dish camp served other than dessert. That’s how delicious it is.
Now, I bet at this point you might be thinking “where can I get me some of this sauce, I just have to try it!” Well, you’re in luck, because they sell it online! The farm is called Changing Seasons Farm and the website is here. They also make their own red chili sauce and Worcestershire sauce available for purchase. I recommend both of these as well, if only to support small farms trying to make a difference. And, if you happen to be in the area, during season, they can be found at farmers’ markets in the area, though I don’t remember which at the moment. However, there is a contact form on their page if you want to find out.

cold nights and warm kitchens

We’ve had some less than ideal weather here in the Bay Area the past few days, nearly torrential downpours and I swear I’ve heard thunder throughout the day. The unfortunate result of rain in these volumes is, inevitably, flooding. Thankfully, our house was spared, but a close friend of ours had the bad luck of living on a street with an overwhelmed water main, which burst and sent water gushing down the street into their house. I don’t know the specifics at this point, but I do know, from prior experience, that when your house turns into a pile of oozy muck, making dinner is not something you generally want to think about.

In this spirit, and considering I have nothing else to do all day in my current state of funemployment, I decided to make them a stew. Yesterday’s post was a long rambling one, so I will keep this one to the recipe, interspersed with pictures. The original recipe can be found here, and while it is delicious, it was not well edited, and as I lacked some of the ingredients anyways, I have noted my adjustments where necessary.

Classic Beef Stew

adapted from RadioGastronomy.com

For the stew:

Neutral flavored oil, such as vegetable or canola

All-purpose flour for dredging the meat

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

3.5 lbs of beef chuck (we had shank, with bones) cut into approximately 1.5″ cubes

1 medium yellow onion, thick dice

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into .5″ slices, halve thicker parts

2 celery stalks, cut into .5″ slices

1/2 cup good red wine (we had an open bottle of Malbec)

1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

8 cups chicken or beef stock

4 cloves of garlic, smashed under a knife blade

Cheesecloth for making a bouquet garni (or you can leave it loose in the pot) which will include:

2 bay leaves

15-20 black peppercorns

10-15 juniper berries

For the garniture:

8 oz. white button mushrooms, briefly rinsed, peeled and quartered, peels and stems reserved

10-15 golden creamer potatoes, cut into roughly 3/4″ cubes

OR

a pound of itty bitty potatoes. I honestly don’t even know what these were called, but they probably could have been cooked whole, but I sliced them in half, to show off the fabulous colors.

4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped as before

More neutral flavored oil

Butter for sauteing

1.5 tsp. sugar

More salt and pepper, for flavor

Instructions:

1. Mix about half a cup of flour and a tablespoon each of fresh ground pepper and sea salt and pour onto a plate to dredge the beef. Thoroughly coat each piece and pat off the extra, place to the side on a clean plate.
2. Over high, heat enough oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot to just coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, brown the outside of the meat, working in batches to prevent overcrowding. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towel.
3. Pour any excess oil from the pan and add fresh oil, again, enough to just coat the bottom of the pan. Over a medium-high flame, heat the oil, then add the onion, carrots and celery. Stir thoroughly and allow the vegetables to sweat until the onions become translucent and the mixture becomes fragrant. This will take about 8 minutes, and be sure to stir it occasionally to ensure it all cooks evenly.
4. When the onions are translucent and the other vegetables soft, add the wine. Give this a good stir, making sure to scrape up all the bits on the bottom. Cook until the wine is reduced by about half.
5. Add the meat, crushed tomatoes, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, stock, mushroom peels and stems, and bouquet garni. Bring the whole lot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Leave it mostly covered at a gentle simmer for 4 hours, or until the meat is fall-apart tender.

The garniture will take about an hour or so to prepare, so plan accordingly.

1. Place the potatoes with enough water to cover them by at least an inch in a saucepan and bring to a boil. When the water comes to a rapid boil, add salt, and boil for about 8 minutes. When a fork goes through easily, they are done. Drain, in a colander and set aside.
2. In a medium cast iron skillet, heat a mixture of butter and olive oil (a tablespoon of each for a 10” pan, you want a good pool in the pan). Add the mushrooms, mixing well to coat it all thoroughly. The mushrooms will absorb the butter-oil quickly and look to dry, but after about 5 more minutes, they will release A LOT of liquid, so wait it out. When they soften and take on a deep brown color, they are done. Set them aside in a bowl lined with paper towel.
3. Add fresh oil and butter to the pan, and as it melts, add the sugar and a teaspoon of salt. Add the carrots and pour in just enough water to reach a quarter inch up the side of the pan (or halfway up the carrot slices). Turn the heat to medium and cover the pan. When the water begins to bubble rapidly, lower the flame and offset the lid to allow steam to escape. Stir occasionally until nearly all the liquid is done and the carrots are fork tender. Turn off the heat and place on a cool burner until step 10.

Last two steps, you’re almost done!

1. Set up a colander over another stockpot and slowly pour the stew through, stopping occasionally to remove the pieces of meat and set aside in a bowl. Press the solids lightly with the back of a spoon to ensure all the liquid is drained into the new pot. Discard the remaining solids.
2. Place the new pot of broth back on the stove over high heat and bring it to a boil. Keep at a low boil until reduced by approximately one third. The broth will take on a gorgeous color and fragrance, but do not allow it to thicken too much: you want a broth, not a sauce. Turn off the heat, then taste and season with salt as desired.
3. Return the meat, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms to the broth. Stir gently and serve hot with big hunks of crusty bread and a nice glass of red wine.

a teachable moment, made with real sugar!

One of my all-time favorite breakfast foods to make is what we in my family call Hawaiian pancakes. There is nothing inherently Hawaiian about these particular pancakes. In fact, they are so UN-Hawaiian that the other, more common name for them is Dutch babies. No offense to the Dutch, but I struggle to see any resemblance between the two places, and so we call them Hawaiian pancakes because on a dreary Bay Area morning, nothing is more welcome than a temporary escape to the Islands. An escape to Amsterdam just pales in comparison…

I have been making these since I was old enough to turn on the stove. There are 4 ingredients and 3 steps to making these, and I had memorized the recipe by the time I was 12. In all my years of making it, I have experienced great success and only mild disappointment when the finished product failed to achieve the essential puffy crown peeking over the edge of the cast iron skillet. But it had always been delicious, light and fluffy on the inside, crispy on the bottom from the pool of butter, with a slight crunch to the top. In all my years of making it, the final product had never deviated so far from the intended result as to render it unrecognizable.

But that has all changed. And the culprit (because there must be someone to blame beside myself) is whole wheat flour.
Now, I was raised on whole wheat bread, multigrain pancakes are much more appetizing to me than Bisquik based ones, and I love the nutty flavor and rich texture of whole wheat pasta. I subscribe to the belief that whole wheat is better in nearly every situation, but today I found an example of when it is not suitable. It must be said that I am not a baker, and were I baker I might have seen this coming, might have known better than to even think about using whole wheat. But we were out of white flour, visions of Butch babies danced in my head (wow, that’s not appropriate) and the oven was already preheating. So I found a mostly empty, but just full enough, bag of whole wheat flour in the drawer and set to work. I even diligently documented to the process, a step I am often wont to forgo. The oven was ready, it was all mixed, the butter (or in this case, Earth Balance) was melted into a delicious pool in the cast iron skillet. In the batter went to the pan, and the pan into the oven. Timer set, I cleaned up and made some coffee.

17 minutes later, everything I thought I knew about this particular pancake was destroyed by the introduction of whole wheat flour into the equation. Instead of fluffy, golden goodness, I was left with what amounted to a dense, flavorless whole wheat pancake swimming in a pool of butter. My belief in myself, in my abilities as a breakfast maker, was shattered! How could I have overlooked such an elementary truth about baking? What possessed me to continue on in my breakfast quest, ignoring the realities of white vs whole wheat flours. Why couldn’t I have just had cereal?!

I will recover from this. I will go to the store and make them correctly. I will document the true Hawaiian pancake later, so that you may see what it is supposed to look like. Breakfast will be safe once more. But from now on I will avoid whole wheat flour unless the recipe says so, I’ll make sure I have all the ingredients before I commit to a preheated oven, and I will weigh more thoroughly the pros and cons of substitution before diving headlong into a recipe without a thought to the consequences. There’s enough blind leaping going on in my real life at the moment, I don’t need it in my kitchen too.

So, even though I failed miserably, I was able to get some good photos out of the whole ordeal, so it wasn’t all for naught. And the recipe is below. I wish you better luck than I had this time around.

So, now for the recipe, because an excuse is necessary for that pool of butter in the picture below (or, in this case, Earth Balance). 

• 1/2 cup of all-purpose WHITE flour (unbleached)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup of milk. Soy milk works fabulously as well.
• 1/2 stick of butter
• Some nutmeg, if desired and available.
• A 10″ cast iron skillet.
• Whatsoever toppings you desire, but in our family we generally use lemon/lime and powdered sugar. Jam is delicious, any sort of berry syrup, or just heaps of butter.

Preheat the over to 425° F and mix the eggs, flour, milk and nutmeg if using it in a bowl. Mix until mostly combined, but leave some lumps. In a cast iron skillet, melt the butter over med-low heat. Then pour in the batter, and transfer the pan into the over. Cook 15-20 minutes until light, fluffy and golden. Remove from oven (be sure to use an oven mitt as the pan will be VERY hot, duh), cut into slices (we do quarters, when we’re being generous), squeeze some citrus on, sprinkle or douse with powdered sugar, eat immediately.

 

 

Music: Wilco – California Stars