Barbecue Sauce

We ran out of barbecue sauce last month, and I haven't needed it truthfully.  Today I did see a need for barbecue sauce and felt inspired to make it myself for the first time.  I love barbecue sauce.  It adds so much flavor to meat, poultry, and food in general and reminds me of my California roots.

 Homemade barbecue sauce, what could be better?

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar (brown sugar will also work), 2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon Spicy Dijon Mustard, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper.

Pour all ingredients in a blender.

 Blend all ingredients together until smooth.

Pour sauce into sauce pan over medium-high heat and bring to boil.

After boiling, simmer for five minutes.  I love the color, the smell is incredible too.

Bottle it up.  I had enough for a pint and some left over for my baked beans (stay tuned for this recipe).

Enjoy!

Hot Sauce

I like hot sauce, I have a favorite brand (Cholula) that I ran out of.  I went to a store and looked at the Cholula bottle and figured I could do that.  Today was the day for making sauce.   I'm not interested in a hot sauce competition or trying to make the hottest sauce, or even bottling my own brand of hot sauce.  I really like making food that I can buy but better.  Do you like hot sauce, do you have a favorite?

Lime on the left, garlic on the right.  Maybe I should have used food coloring?

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 cup water, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar,
6 cloves peeled garlic, 1/2 small yellow onion, and 2 habañero peppers.

 If you have gloves wear them.   Press garlic and peppers through a garlic press.  I hadn't planned
on using my garlic press for the peppers, but decided on a whim to do it and oh my goodness,
it worked wonderfully. 

 Just so you know, no you can't press an onion through a garlic press (I tried it).  Dice the
onion instead.

 I decided my sauce needed some color.  This 1 Roma tomato should help.

 Dice the tomato.

 Add everything together and cook over medium heat for thirty minutes

 With an immersion blender (if you have one) blend until everything is pureed.  Cook for
an additional twenty minutes. 

 Pour mixture through fine mesh sieve.   Pour sauce back into pan.

 Bring sauce to a boil.   Make a cornstarch slurry of cornstarch and cold water (1 tablespoon
cornstarch, 2 tablespoons cold water).  Add  cornstarch slurry and stir.   Only add enough to
make it the thickness you want.

Pour sauce into a lidded container.  Add lime juice to sauce.   I added it to one of the bottles
and left  the other bottle without it.

Enjoy!