Building A British Hot Sauce

Boring. That could sum up the last two weeks in England. The wife has been out and about all over the world and I have been holding down the fort. The weather here has finally started to come around and its already time to start mowing the lawn.

Left to my own devices, I was craving spicy food. No sense trying to go out and find spicy food here, I had to make my own.

Here is my recipe for British-inspired hot sauce/marinade:

• About 100 chile de arbol peppers, stems removed.
  
• 3 Scotch Bonnet peppers (or more, I should have had more!)
• 4 cloves garlic
  
• Lots of Marmite. Seriously, lots. A whole jar might be about right.
  
• 1/4 c. dry Coleman English mustard
  
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1/2 c. vinegar
• Mix and match chile pepper from the Turkish bazaar.
• Allspice, whole, maybe a tablespoon.
  
• A good splash of good, smoky grappa from Rome. Trust me, this was perfect.

Steep chile de arbol peppers in hot water for about an hour. Remove stems from Scotch bonnets. Mix Coleman's with cold water to make a paste and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Put the allspice in a dry pan and toast over medium-low heat until fragrant, then crush in a mortar and pestle. Throw everything in a good blender and blend for a while. Season to taste with salt and Marmite. Pack in old bottle. Slather on Pig-in-a-Box pork shoulder chunks, broil until brown and your eyes burn. Serve with dairy products and more grappa!

The end results were excellent and the hot sauce has proved to be good on most everything with meat in it. Good just as salsa for chips, too.

Cheers!

It's My Pig In A Box

To recap, last weekend we stopped in to Frasers of Turnastone on our way into the Welsh hills. That set in motion the delivery of a Pig in the Box: a delivered box of fresh pork. After an email and a phone call with Chrissy - the most enthusiastic meat-representative I have ever met - we switched up our pig in the box for the Turnastone Taster. The Taster was a bit cheaper and allowed us to mix in some other cuts. We also could select from a list of other meats and charcuterie.

Saturday morning while we were out running errands, the box was delivered. Keep in mind, Frasers had no payment information from us, no credit card, no check. They didn't leave an invoice. We'll just settle up later.

We picked the pork belly for dinner. The meat slideshow tells the rest.

Cheers!








"1: Cut a hole in a box
2: Put your junk in that box
3: Make her open the box
And that's the way you do it"
-Saturday Night Live, 2006