This is a good one. The Chilli Garden’s Jalapeno ‘n’ Mint Sauce neatly fits a gap left by the sometimes tiresome bravado of the chilli sauce world’s heatmongers, delivering an interesting product you can use outside of the traditional fried fish and sausages.
This a low-heat sauce for less robust foods. It works well with salad, for instance. The flavour’s sublime, packing a bunch of mint over a refreshing body of spring water and fresh jalapeno. It’s not trying to be anything it’s not, and what it does it does well.
Ingredients: Jalapeno Chillis (40%), Mint (5%), Distilled Vinegar, Spring Water, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum.
There’s quite a sharp vinegar hit on the nose, and the gum adds a gloopy edge to the consistency, but that shouldn’t detract from this must-try. Clean, green, summery and well executed, it’s a welcome diversion from the norms of jolly rogers and power-heat.
Good day my chilli padawanz!! I assume you are hungry for more video review goodness? Well i should bloody hope so otherwise this review is going to be a bit boring!!
The review today is of a lovely sauce that comes from the rather well known “Hot Headz“, a company run by Stu Mcallister and his crew of crazy chilli people!
I would give you all an intro to the company and tell you more about them but tbh we have featured them enough on here for everyone to know who they are and the products they sell, so without further adieu lets get on with this review!!
Soooooo in my hands I held a bottle that was so red you’d swear the stuff inside was blood, myself and Chilli talent were a little apprehensive of this one as I had tried a prototype sample..but this was WAYYYYYY more evil than that!! The bottle itself sports a very menacing cgi devil, along with the title of the sauce and the lovely hot-headz! branding as well, the sauce inside is quite thick but pours very well and has a lovely smooth consistency, no seeds that I could tell anyway.
I could go into more detail but i’m a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, so check the video out and meet me back here in a bit
WHOOOOMP THERE IT IS!!! As you just saw in the video, this has such an amazing flavour to it that for a second we were lulled into thinking it may not be hot, but then of course, the devil himself punched us both in the throat and made us realise what fools we had been, the heat as you can see was incredible.. I was actually tempted to have another tablespoon just for the flavour, but then common sense kicked in and reminded me of the agony I had gone through, so I backed off.
This is possibly only the second review where something has been hot enough to make me throw it back up during the review…in all honesty I did’nt think it would happen again…but SURPRISE! it took Hot-Headz! to show me that I should never say never!! Chilli talents opinion was similar to my own:
Chilli Talent: “you get just as much heat from it without the extract taste, it holds both flavour and heat for a good period of time and I had no cramp from this one, great looking sauce, thick and deep bloody red, ideal for both cooking because of the thick garlic taste and on its own for a good kick from the red man himself wearing his special edition back door shoes ”
So there you have it chileheadz, a sauce fit for Beelzebub himself and worthy of the name, you can pick this up for a measly £4.99 a bottle over at www.hot-headz.com and put in the comments box that I sent you..Stu will have a good laugh at that!!
Until next time my chilli padawanz, may the sauce be with you…always!!
Cayenne seems to be the chilli of choice for Cajun cooking, with it’s slight dry flavour and punch of heat. But the Cayenne is one of just a handful the chilli varieties that seems to have spread around the world becoming synonymousness with many different regional styles of cooking while retaining it identity.
This bottle has one of those plastic drippers that annoys me so much, but after ripping that from the bottle, I can actually smell the heady concoction of Allspice, Cinnamon, Cloves and the slight dry smell from the Cayenne peppers.
This sauce has that almost Christmas scent, as that is when we seem to use these spices in our cooking, but as a Cajun ingredients they are an all year around flavour. This sauce is thin almost water like consistency with a uniform red/brown colour, the taste is not watery the first thing that hits my taste buds is the Allspice then a slight bit of sweet vinegar, then the unique Cayenne flavour backed up by the Salt, Cloves and finally just a touch of Cinnamon.
This is not a HOT hot sauce, even the cayenne’s bite has been tempered, but the overall flavour is almost magical, I can feel the urge to cook some chicken tonight, how about mixng some of this bottle with some yoghurt and trying a kind of fusion Cajun/Tandoori, marinading the chicken in the mix for a few hours and then grilled on the BBQ until cooked with a nice crisp almost burned coating..
Always a little worried when I see the term ‘Aged Peppers’ in the ingredients list, when I age a pepper it is generally as I have forgotten them and find then in the bottom of the fridge, doing what only well aged veg can do.. In this case I think they mean the peppers have been ground in to a mash and stored with some salt for a year for two to let the flavour develop.
At £3.99 a bottle you are getting a very unusual sauce, not something I would expect a UK producer to make, it does not fit our normal traditions, but as a nation we have yet to discover the world of Cajun cooking, but it will be coming to a TV screen soon I am sure. I wonder which TV chef will be the first to discover this, before they do, buy a bottle of this and be ahead of the crowd.
This small family run business has a love for using African ingredients in their sauces which is where the heart of this operation stands and really makes them unique.
Bim’s Kitchen Spicy African Ketchup is suitable for vegetarians and vegans and our review bottle was kindly provided by www.bimskitchen.co.uk
Packaged in a tall, 250ml bottle with a thin white label, this sauce is dark reddish brown, thick with a really textured consistency with herbs, seeds and bits of flesh. It has a really distinctive root like vegetable sort of smell (a bit like celery) with a lot of sweet smelling herbs.
This ketchup has a really earthy taste, in a good way. The tomatoes hold a lot of the other flavours like fenugreek and onion. The flesh and herb bits floating around give it a lovely texture which really brings out different tastes every time you sample it. As this ketchup lists the chillies on the ingredients quite low down, I must say there isn’t much chilli flavour. There is also very little burn, but the addition of ginger really brings out more heat. The background warming sensation is pleasant and not at all overbearing. The molasses really makes this ketchup sweet, but not sickly. Unlike your standard ketchup, this spicy African ketchup has none of the salty acidic flavour that makes you thirsty.
I feel that this can be a whole lot more than just a spicy ketchup. This could be a dip for crisps or crudités, with fish and chips, on your summer barbecue meats. The Bim’s Kitchen suggests that you can use it as a salad dressing, adding to mayonnaise, marinades and coleslaw. You can turn it into a marinade. I feel it would be great in a cheese sandwich!
At £4.00 a 250ml bottle, its not the cheapest bottle of ketchup BUT it is worth the money for the flavour. If you’re entering the chilli world, this is a great product to wean you in slowly. Such great flavour and a delightful little burn, this should be a staple in your cupboards.
Flavour
(9/10)
Heat
(2/10)
Packaging
(5/10)
Value
(8/10)
Overall
(8/10)
Editors Note: I messed up the rating on this sauce they are now correct.. Sorry.
(9/10)
