Thursday 7 January 2016

BBQ Sauce

Having tried making many BBQ sauces over the years, and many more recently with my sudden excitement with all things American style BBQ, I have always been unimpressed by the result. To the extent that I resorted to Heinz smoky BBQ sauce as it was completely inoffensive. In actual fact, mixed with a bit of hot chili sauce it was even verging on good...

That was until I bought the book "Hog" by Richard H Turner. I've been a fan of Richard's for a while now having bought the Hawksmoor at Home and Pit Cue Co books, both of which he is involved in. Having made the investment in a Big Green Egg, it seemed a shame to spend hours slow cooking and smoking various bits of animal to then smother it in a mass produced sauce.

So below, is the current recipe from Richard, although he states quite clearly in the book that it is likely to carry on evolving. The ingredients list is extensive and uses large quantities of things like maple syrup and French's mustard. If you buy a standard sized bottle of French's, you'll need to go and get another one!

One final word of warning. Chipotle! I used the amount suggested below, and you end up with one hell of a fiery sauce. Perfect for my taste, however if you want to serve to kids, the elderly, or the infirm perhaps halve or even quarter the amount of chipotle you put in!

For the spice mix;
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp celery seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns.

Put all the ingredients in to a large dry saucepan and toast until you can smell the lovely pungent flavours.

For the sauce;
2 white onions grated
3 garlic cloves grated
50ml veg oil
250ml apple juice
250ml cider vinegar
2 apples cored, peeled and grated
50g smoked sea salt flakes (Maldon do them, and are widely stocked in supermarkets)
125g canned chipotle peppers (I get mine, along with many other harder to source ingredients from Sous Chef. Great company with excellent customer service)
250ml maple syrup
250ml French's mustard
250ml Blackstrap Molasses (Also from Sous Chef)
250g Apricot Preserve
250g canned tomatoes

Add the onions, garlic and oil to the toasted spices and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or more until the onions are really soft. Add the apple juice and cider vinegar and simmer until reduced by a third. (I use a chopstick like a dipstick to gauge the amount of reduction). Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Blitz the sauce in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve. The recipe makes about 1.5 litres and will keep in sterilized jars in the fridge for a good while. Makes a nice present as well!

1 comment:

  1. Soon and very soon i should try out the piggyback burger. And thanks for the special BBQ sause. Keep up the good job and all the best.

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