The ChileFoundry » garlic

Sinful Sauces Wicked

Martin 'Scooby' Arnold — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:26:30 +0000

Sinful Sauces Wicked

If I was to say the name ‘Sinful Sauces’ to you, what would be the first thing to spring into mind? Devilishly hot? Exceptionally flavoursome? Whatever it is, for me, its pride. And these guys must be incredibly proud of what they have accomplished in over such a short period of time. National chilli awards winner 2011? Best newcomer? Best label? Don’t ask me what’s so great about their products, just get your butt to www.sinfulsauces.co.uk and find out for yourself. I first met this duo down at the Mendlesham Chilli Fiesta in Suffolk last year and was taken aback by their wide range of products from mild, to bloody hot! (Envy to Bliss as they like to say) Products include sauces, spreads, pickles, clothing and giftsets.

The sauce I am reviewing today is Wicked (Hot). And as always, their packaging is stylish, attaractive, fresh and above all, DAMN SEXY! Black glossy label with their trademark Sinful sauce logo and of course, the cheeky devil giving you the teasing wink egging you on to try some sauce. Even the shrink wrap top to the bottle has been placed perfectly on the lid.

This is without a doubt a faultless style of packaging. A real trendsetter. The sauce itself looks rich, red with hint of orange and a loose pulpy texture. Sauce gently flows from one end of the bottle to the other. Once again I must say the word ‘pride’, as they boast using 100% natural ingredients in their products. So what’s in the bottle?????

Ingredients: Roasted Red Peppers (35%), Tomatoes (24%), Red onions, Red Hot Serrano (10%), Sugar, Red Wine Vinegar, Garlic, Black pepper, Rosemary, Olive oil, Salt.

Chilli and garlic together? Sounds spot on to me. I have to open the bottle now but I am struggling to. It seems wrong. Bugger it, I have to try it. Off comes the lid. Straight away a sweet onion smell greets me with a mild Chilli aroma beside it. The tomato smell that comes with it reminds me strangely of spag bol, weird hey. Maybe its mixing with the rosemary to give me that? Either way it smells awesome. Lets have a taste.

Okay now that’s crazy. The sauce actually gives me the feeling that it is warm? Not a chilli hot warm, I mean like it has been popped in the microwave for a few seconds. You get the chilli warmth with it too as well as a beautiful tomato and onion flavour and a slight herby background from the rosemary. Rich roasted flavour from the peppers which takes this sauce to an amazing level of flavour and the heat level is bang on. Texture is smooth and welcoming and encourages more and more of this sauce to be eaten. Very versatile I say, good for most dishes and meals. Heat level is hot but not blistering. If you want to ramp up the heat then have lots, if you want it milder then have a little, simple as that.

So, one question remains. Why the hell are you still reading this and not ordering it??? I’ve just said its one hell of a sauce You will definitely not be let down with any of their products. Still reading? O come on, www.sinfulsauces.co.uk.

Bottle kindly supplied by www.sinfulsauces.co.uk and costs only £4.50 for a 148ml bottle. Until next time my fellow Chilliheads remember, if it burns going in, it will burn coming out.

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Grim Reaper Foods – Jekyll or Hyde You Decide

Thelurch — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:43:51 +0000

Now this is a very clever innovation in the world of hot sauces from Russell Williams of Grim Reaper Foods, these guys have come a long way since The Evil One and have certainly not been sitting back watching the world go by. Their product range is growing, as is their imagination.

Grim Reaper Foods - Jekyll or Hyde

As you can see from the picture, this sauce comes in two parts. The main bottle contains the sauce and the small dropper called Jekylls Potion? holds 10mls of Oleoresin, this enables you to decide how hot you want it to be, you have the control, either pour all the potion? into the main bottle for maximum pain or just a few drops. Of course you can pour some of the sauce out and add some to a small batch. The Oleoresin is measured at 500,000 Scoville Heat Units.

For those not familiar with Oleoresin, it is what is also know in the trade as extract?, enabling a sauce to be made much hotter without the need to add extra volume i.e more Chillies. It is basically a very concentrated residue from the capsaicin in a Chilli, which can be made on a small scale at home. Russell in fact made his own Oleoresin for his initial product, The Evil One which won an Award at Fiery foods Brighton in 2010.

Russell has written a guide on how to make your own and it is available on this site, I have made my own using this guide and I would recommend any Chillihead do it at least once, especially as you don’t need any fancy equipment. But it is far too labour intensive and expensive to make on a large scale at home.

Back to the sauce, I love the shape of the bottle, which gives the desired look of an old medicine bottle which would be guzzled by Dr Hyde. I do however think that the label design needs some more work as it doesn’t seem to have the same polish as their other products, especially the fabulous packaging on their Chocolate range. It’s very wordy and a little mixed up, the wording on the front isn’t very clear. I don’t know whether this has already been addressed since this review bottle was issued but maybe worth thinking about.

So onto the look of the sauce, without pouring it I cannot tell as the bottle is brown glass, this just adds to the mystery, but I can see that it’s fairly runny.

Once open I can smell the Chipotle Chillies and the sweetness of the Golden Syrup. ?Pouring the sauce on to a spoon, the sauce is a great orange colour and reminds me instantly in appearance to the base sauce of a takeaway curry. I dip my finger in and soon realise it has the same staining properties as a good curry! licking my fingers leaves my finger looking like badly applied fake tan!

The bottle says it’s an insanely hot sauce, and it is pretty hot in its pure form before the addition of the Oleoresin. There are a lot of different flavours going on at once and it’s hard to identify individual components. That said, it isn’t an unpleasant combination.

So now I need to mix some of the Jekyll Potion? to the sauce. The label on the dropper says Do not ingest in pure form? so obviously that’s the first thing I try! .The Oleoresin is clear with a yellow tinge and smells quite sweet, one drop on the tongue and it’s clear why it has the warning, it’s a different type of burn to eating a fresh chilli pod, although this is only 500,000 SHU’s, the way it affects the pain receptors is different and feels at least 1m SHU’s!

Ingredients: Red Capsicum, White Wine Vinegar, Water, Chipotle Peppers, Golden Syrup, Red Onion, Garlic, Sea Salt, Olive Oil, Citric Acid, and 10mls of Oleoresin extract.

Obviously how much you add to the sauce is up to you, that is the beauty of this product, you control the burn. Once added to the sauce I think it actually improves the taste along with the heat, but that may just be the burn taking over!

I do think it is one of those sauces that needs to be added to cooking, like the bottle says, on ribs or on meat, or indeed in a chilli, I don’t think it would suit eating with cheese like other sauces.

So overall, it’s a really good sauce and a very clever idea, the 150ml sauce is available from thedevilsgarden.co.uk, chillipepperpete.co.uk and hot-headz.com for around the £8 mark.

Flavour	*******~~~
Heat	Heat-As hot as you want to make it!
Packaging	*****~~~~~
Value	*******~~~
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The Wiltshire Chilli Farm – Hellish Habanero

Martin 'Scooby' Arnold — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:44:14 +0000

It’s not everyday you come across a sauce that states on the label, ‘Add to everything’. Very bold statement, but then again it is from The Wiltshire Chilli Farm so I have no doubt they can back this up with its ‘Hellish Habanero’.

The Wiltshire Chilli Farm - Hellish Habanero

The bottle is stumpy and probably around the 200ml kind of size with nothing less than there professionally marketed glossy labelling which offers class, character and charm to its appearance. This bottle has a cheeky yet evil feel to it with its frightful and comical pumpkin grinning away.

‘This limited edition HOT sauce is packed with Habanero’s, Nagas and just a few Chipotles. Add to everything’ Followed with a humorous warning, ‘Pretty darn hot’. All I can say is bring it on Wiltshire Chilli farm, trying to intimidate me with your scary pictures and lingo on the bottle. You don’t scare me.

Ingredients: Habanero (35%), Cider vinegar, Naga Chilli, Onions, Chipotle, Garlic.

Bottle kindly provided by The Wiltshire Chilli Farm

Short list of ingredients here which makes it a nice and simple sauce. The smell is fairly typical of a Naga sauce but you get a mild Habanero aroma coming through too. To be fair Nagas do have a powerful smell so even a small amount would stick out. No other smells to report of, no overpowering vinegar or onion ect, just Chilli galore.

Nothing to fear in this sauce I reckon so come on Hellish Habanero, lets dance!!!

Ok so that’s the spoon done, and may I take this opportunity to take The Wiltshire Chilli farm to court for false advertising. ‘Pretty darn hot’???? Don’t you mean ‘Blow your head while kicking you in the stones with steel toe caps hot??? Jeez guys, for a non extract sauce that’s evil in a bottle. Last time I judge a sauce like that. The flavour is very much a Habanero taste but it strangely acts like a Naga where it takes a good 10-15 seconds before any heat comes off it. Before hand its just a lovely Hab flavour with a touch of fruitiness and naga. I was very tempted to have a second helping as it was soooo mild to start with, I just started chuckling to myself, it has no heat. More fool me. The heat started building at a stupid rate and before I knew it I was world hiccup champion with tears of joy for the flavour, but at the same time a pleasant pain. This sauce has immense heat and gorgeous flavour. Tastes are complimentary of each other and I am struggling to think of what this will not go with. I take my hat off to you Hellish Habanero, you caught me by surprise but was happy you did. Great bottle, great sauce. Simple as that.

I cannot tell you the price as it’s a limited edition bottle so pop www.justchillies.co.uk and drop them a mail. These guys wont rob you so don’t stress, good products at good value for money.

So until next time Chilliheads remember, if it burns going in, it will burn coming out.

Flavour	********½~
Heat	********½~
Packaging	********½~
Value	N/A
Overall	********½~

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The Smokey Upton Dragon

Hot Juan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:07:44 +0000

The Smokey Upton Dragon

The residents of Bristol I hear tell stories of a not so far off land to the east, where there be Dragons in the hills, the smoke from these Dragons can be seen billowing gently from behind farms, in the little hamlet of Upton Cheyney.

I guess the traditional Chilli that we smoke is the Jalapeño which becomes the Chipotle, well over the past couple of years I have tasted all sorts of Chillies that have been smoked with all sorts of woods. You may think that we would have a tendency to smoke here in the UK as our weather is not up to drying under the sun.. but this is much more a gourmet thing.

Today’s sauce is from one of the UK best sauce makers, they have made the one sauce I have awarded an 11/10 for it wonderful savoury flavour, this is a sweet sauce, which are not always my favourite, and people who know me well know I would pick Pineapple off a pizza.. So fingers crossed this is not going to be a one I wish I had not tried.

Ingredients: Pineapple, Sugar, Honey, Onion, Oak Smoked Habanero, Lime, Garlic.

Bottle kindly provided by the dragon keepers of Upton Cheyney

On popping the lid, it does not have the expected sweet smell, but I can detect the Oak smoke and the Lime and Garlic, not what I was expecting, but then Louise (Who I am told is defiantly not the Upton Dragon) is a master in the kitchen. First taste is mildly of sweet Pineapple that followed by the smoked Habaneros, it is sweet but not as sweet as the ingredients make it sound.

While this would make a superb dipping sauce, it works so well as the basis of a salsa adding both heat and flavour, also dripping a little on the last of the sausages rolls is just divine.

The 140ml bottle costs just £4.00, and knowing the smokey flavour comes from Chilli grown and smoked on the farm makes it seem all the better, I must get myself up to the Farm to visit Alex and Louise and see the new smoker in action.

Don’t forget that The Upton Cheyney Chilli Co put one a great Chilli Festival each year, we would not miss it, visit their site for more details and to order on-line.

Flavour	********½~
Heat	******~~~~
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A Simple Recipe for Franks RedHot Hummus

Hot Juan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:24:58 +0000

Frank's RedHot Original

I have always loved Hummus, but during a recent detox diet I think it was the one thing then kept me sane.. Well this recipe for Hummus is so simple and only takes a few minutes to make and the addition of some Frank’s RedHot Original which as a Louisana style hot sauce adds a bit of bite from the peppery Cayenne pepper and a touch of saltiness.

Ingredients

400g (14oz) Can of Chickpeas
3 tbps Lemon Juice
2 Garlic Cloves (Crushed)
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
4 tbsp Frank’s Redhot Sauce (Original)
4 tbsp Water (Approx, you can add more if needed)
4 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt to Taste

Method

Drain the chickpeas and rinse in fresh water.
Add the chickpeas, Franks RedHot, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and water in a food processor, and blend to a creamy purée.
Add more lemon juice, garlic, cumin or salt to taste.

As with most recipes feel free to adapt this to your tastes, add some roasted red peppers, a little more or a little less of the sauce, it is completely up to you.

Note: Most Hummas recipe include some Tahini (Sesame Seed Paste), if you have some add it before blending, it does improve the texture and flavour, but I always forget to buy any.

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Chinthe Burmese Curry Review

Martin 'Scooby' Arnold — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:33:11 +0000

Chinthe Burmese Curry

Winter warming Burmese curry paste goes down a treat.

Hands up who wants to try some Burmese curry paste? I DO!!!! Luckily for me I have a jar from the guys at Chinthe based in London. Saying that, I swiftly changed my mind when I saw what was inside the jar. It looked like my son had tipped in a load of red glitter into the jar. It glistened intensely and I could not believe that this is actually for consumption. Bright fiery red that would shimmer and shine all day long. It was only when I took the lid of to have a smell that I realised that this is actually the proper curry paste, if this tastes as good as it looks then rock on! The look was just so deceptive you have to see it to believe.

The label on the jar has a very oriental style and feel to it. Large yellow label with bold black lettering on. Not the most of eye catching labels but when you have a sauce that shines brighter than floodlights at the world cup, who cares.

Smelling the paste I don’t get a great deal, mainly Paprika and onion. The smell is extremely mild. On closer inspection its clear to see that a lot of fresh spices have gone into this and not just a load of powdered ingredients like you can find down the supermarket. Very oily in texture on the surface, but when you dig in with a spoon it’s fairly solid and takes a bit of digging to get it out.

Ingredients: Vegetable Oil, Paprika, Chilli, Onion, Ginger, Fish Sauce (Fish Extract, Water), Garlic, Spices.

Jar kindly provided by chinthe.com

Nothing over the top in this list of ingredients, so on with the cooking. 2 Table spoons per 500g of meat or vegetables, cover with water, and cook. Simple.

Just finished in the kitchen at the smell of this sauce amplifies greatly when cooking. The onion and garlic and thrown into the air and sent soaring around the house making a glorious aroma. Time for the taste test.

Mass infusion straight away of the Chilli, onion and ginger swamping every part of my mouth. The spices are powerful and yet mild, all of which make an amazing taste. The heat is nice, not blistering but enjoyable. The real beauty is the longer you cook this the thicker it gets and the flavours amplify so you can play around and get the right taste and texture for you. The heat lingers for quite a long time and brings home a lovely warm feeling with a slight kick in its tail. The blend of spices compliments this heat in a beautiful way and as for the colour????? Well, I swear there is some glitter in it, it still glistens on the plate. Amazing.

This can be snapped up from chinthe.com and for a 270g jar (Good for about 3 curries, is a crazy £2.79. Go to the site and take a look, couldn’t believe it myself. So if you get snowed in this winter, be sure you have a jar of this ‘glitter’ with you.

Remember, if it burns going in, It will burn coming out!

Flavour	********~~
Heat	*****~~~~~
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Value	*********½
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Christmas Gifts Ideas for Chilli-Headz – Day 11 (a little late)

Hot Juan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:18:48 +0000

What do you give the Chilli Head who has everything for Christmas…

The Chilli Pepper Company - The Wizard

Now this stuff can warm up the whole of Christmas, it may be only 35g, but it is packed with lots of Naga Viper, a little Vinegar, Garlic, Ginger and Sugar.

You can order this winter warmer on www.chileseeds.co.uk for only £3.00

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Roberts Sauces – Chilli & Garlic Vinaigrette

Hot Juan — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:36:22 +0000

Roberts Chilli Garlic Vinaigrette

Roberts Sauces is a local manufacturer of sauces, dressings, Mayonnaises and Vinaigrettes here in Somerset, strangely for such a business they have no web site!! We have purchased and used a number of their other products at home, the quality was excellent.

In the bottle the dressing has a tenancy to separate, so needs a good shake before use, it looks not unlike what I have made at home, and on opening it has a mild smell of the Sunflower Oil and Vinegar. The taste is delightful, using cider vinegar makes the dressing less harsh than when using a white vinegar, combine this with the honey and garlic the initial taste is sweet, then the mustard and a slight warmth from the chillies.

Ingredients: Sunflower Oil, Cider Vinegar, Mustard (Water, Mustard seeds, Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Preservative: Sodiumbissulphite), Honey, Garlic (2%), Black Pepper, Chilli.

This is a nice quality product, from a regional manufacturer, and at only £2.69 a bottle it offers excellent value, I have used it on some freshly cooked pasta as a pasta salad, but probably my favourite was mixing it in with some mashed potatoes.

Its is not hard to make salad dressing like this at home, and normally that is what I would do, but I have to say this one is as good if not better that most of my attempts, I especially like the touch of honey, must add that to my next home made version.

Using a clear overprinted label is a brave move, but this time it has worked out very well, unlike a resent product I photographed from Sainsburys, who colour selection for the print completely lost the plot.

Roberts Sauces
Unit 9, Barrowshill Farm, East Chinnock. BA22 9EY
Phone 01935 863663

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Grim Reaper Foods – Rookie Goblin

David Kelly — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:35:37 +0000

Grim Reaper Foods - Rookie Goblin

I had read lots of positive feedback regarding ‘The Evil One’, a great sauce made by Russell Williams who is the owner of “Grim Reaper Foods”. Russell has had great success in the Fiery Foods festival competitions over the past few years in both the Amateur & Professional award categories, so when I received a bottle of ‘Rookie Goblin’ in the post I was very much looking forward to tasting it.

The labelling is very catching with an image of the Grim Reaper along the bottom and an outline of a Goblin at the top. The contents are quite fluid and I can see flecks of seeds amongst the strikingly goblin green coloured sauce. Looking at the list of ingredients I note the use of coriander and baby spinach which explains how it gets its striking colour. I also note the use of orange, which I have to admit has to be one of the more unusual ingredients I’ve come across in a chilli sauce; lemons or limes seem to be the preferred choice when imparting citrus flavours in sauces. However knowing that coriander works well with orange and that Russell is a trained chef, I was expecting to find a great tasting product.

Ingredients: Cyder Vinegar, Jalapenos, Oranges, Sugar, Limes, Spring Onion, Ginger, Garlic, Coriander, Baby Spinach, Salt & Vegetable Oil.

Bottle kindly supplied by Grim Reaper Foods.

Opening the bottle and inhaling, I’m greeted with a rich smell of greens: I can smell the coriander and spinach working together and there’s a hint of the jalapeños. There’s also an aroma of garlic in the base notes but the citrus fruits stop this from being overpowering. Overall it’s a very fresh aroma and a unique one that I’ve never encountered before in a chilli sauce.

The sauce pours very easily from the bottle onto a spoon and I can clearly see jalapeño seeds and flecks of garlic. The coriander & spinach are still somewhat ‘fleshy’ giving some texture to the sauce. Tasting the sauce is just as a stimulating an experience as smelling it. I can clearly taste the coriander & spinach at first, then there’s a wave of citrus orange & sweetness which ultimately gives way to the flavours of the garlic and spring onion. I can begin to feel some burn from the Jalapeno chillies on my lips but it’s a pleasant, mild warmth and nothing alarming.

The ingredients used here make for a really interesting combination. Being a curry fan I’ve encountered plenty of pickles accompanying the customary poppadoms that use coriander as a base ingredient, so in some ways this sauce reminds me of them. However it’s the combination of savoury & sweet elements that give this sauce much more depth and I find its taste very appealing & rather addictive.

I think this sauce is ideally suited to being used with fish (I used some inside the cavity of a Sea Bream I cooked and the taste was superb) but I could also see it working really well if added to a salsa verde or green pesto to give them a little warmth. At £4 for a 100ml bottle this is sauce I definitely recommend trying, not for the heat but for it’s unusual but great taste. It’s available from many chilli stockists such as ChillipepperPete, The Devils Garden, Scorchio and Hotheadz.

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Mr Vikki’s Hot Tamarind Chutney

David Kelly — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:44:35 +0000

Being a long time curry fan over the years I’ve become a lover of tamarind, a tart fruit used in Indian cuisine and other equatorial regions such as Latin American & Thailand. So it comes as no surprise then that I was very much looking forward to tasting this chutney from Mr Vikki’s.

Mr Vikki's Tamarind Chipotle

For those not in the know, the tamarind tree produces (Arabic for ‘Indian date’) is long bean shaped fruit inside which is a sour pulp than can be processed to make a paste. Tamarind taste somewhat like a date (tamarind is actually Arabic for ‘Indian date’) but is much less sweet and more sour. The chances are that many Brits, be they a lover of Indian cuisine or not, have probably unbeknownst to them tried tamarind as it is a key ingredient in two great British sauces, namely HP & Worcestershire.

The labelling as with other Mr Vikki’s product is a minimalistic bright yellow label with the company name, product details & a 3 chilli rating. Mr Vikki’s use a heat rating system based on graphics of chillies on the front label to denote the heat level. Their current hottest product has a 8 chilli rating, so I wasn’t expecting this product to be about the heat.

With such a minimalist approach to labelling the contents of the jar can clearly been seen and the chutney has a deep brown treacle coloured interspersed with flecks of mustard seeds. Although not indicated in the labelling this chutney was a “2 star Great Taste Award Winner” back in 2010 so I was anticipating something special when I opened this jar and I wasn’t disappointed. Opening the jar releases a wonderful aroma – the combination of the smokiness of the chipotles with the underlying fruit tones of the tamarind & dates and traces of ginger, is a delight to smell.

Ingredients: Tamarind Pulp (40%), Dates, Sugar, Chipotle 15%, Fresh Ginger, Garlic, Vinegar, Mustard, Celery, Salt and Pepper.

The chutney’s rich brown colour comes from the tamarind pulp, and the natural stickiness of the pulp gives the chutney a thick jam like consistency. Tasting a generous spoonful of the chutney you get hit with the tartness of the tamarind, enhanced with the sweetness of the dates. Mustard seeds within the chutney add to the texture of the tamarind pulp. Underneath this initial hit, the flavour of the chipotles comes through leaving a pleasant lingering aftertaste. For me the heat wasn’t massive and more of a mild warmth but nonetheless it balances well with the other flavours present.

One of the serving suggestions on the jar is to serve it in a bacon sandwich, so I duly obliged and cooked some dry cured bacon, and placed between two slices of bread with a generous covering of the chutney therein. Biting into the sandwich did not disappoint and the taste was bliss! The natural saltiness of the bacon contrasts so well with the sweet/sourness of the chutney.

Although it’s a chutney and so easily works as a sandwich pickle I’d definitely use this to make a marinade or for basting on meats. The natural acidity of the tamarind pulp will help to tenderise any meat marinated in it. Whilst chicken goes good with tamarind, I think stronger flavoured meats such as pork or beef would work really well with this chutney. At only £3 from www.mrvikkis.co.uk I think the chutney is excellent value for money. Given that we’re entering the Christmas period I’d thoroughly recommend getting some of this chutney in time to accompany your Christmas cold meat cuts this year.

Flavour	*******~~~
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