Ancho

Oliver’s Ancho

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Happy tuesday again, everyone! It’s been a few weeks now since my birthday, so it’s about time we tried one of my more chilli-themed presents. Something that’s maybe a tad more mass market than I’m used to but still sounds rather exciting:

This is Jamie Oliver’s Ancho & Cumin Chilli Sauce and, while its celebrity nametag doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, putting the pepper front and centre definitely does. Especially when it’s such a mild and flavourful variety as the mexican ancho.

Anchos aren’t nearly as well known as jalapeños, habaneros or chipotle, either. So this doesn’t just imply a specific heat but also some real knowledge of mexico’s chilli-based cuisine. Some genuine appreciation for what the region’s peppers can bring to a product, beyond their fire.

I’m genuinely excited for this sauce, despite its more mundane origins.

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Chocolate Hell

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Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to the last tuesday of march. The perfect time for a quite unusual pair.

Today we have two very different sauces, with very different heats and flavours, but one particularly appropriate ingredient in common: Chocolate.

It is coming up to easter, after all, so why not start the celebrations early with Ignis’ CNC9 and Haskhell’s Chipotle?

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Scavenged Sweetness

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Hello again, everyone. I feel like we’ve had a lot of red chilli lately, don’t you?

We’ve seen an impressive array of heats and flavours, this year, don’t get me wrong, but I still think that it’s time for something a bit different. Something that isn’t another red chilli. Or even another sauce.

So, instead, I’d like to bring you another item from Foraged Fire. Because, while we’ve seen the company before, Tim’s products are all completely unique and this Dulce de Leche is no exception:

He could have gone ahead and used generic red chillies for this argentinian-style, caramel spread and it’d’ve still been quite the talking point. But no, this sweet treat uses mexican pasillas and a chinese five spice blend, for something truly multicultural and, honestly, quite baffling.

I have no idea what to expect from the seemingly unrelated influences at play here. Yet, knowing Foraged Fire, I have faith that it’ll all make sense as soon as I get stuck in.

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Not Really Kashmiri

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Hey folks, welcome to november! I know that national curry week was last month but I just so happened to come into a whole load of bananas and coconut, recently. Inspiring me to look into one of my mother’s favourite curries: The kashmiri.

A sweet, creamy, fruit-based curry from exactly the region that its name implies.

So it was a simple prospect: Research a real kashmiri, put my own little twist on it and, if all went smoothly, write up my results for all of you. Easy content, right? Well, not exactly

As it turns out, an authentic kashmiri curry is based around mangoes and lychees, not bananas. Still fruity, yet very different from what I had in mind.

So, while today’s dish does take a little inspiration from it, in its spices, it also draws upon the malayan and a whole host of more keralan meals, in order to form a truly delightful, caramelised fruit curry with neither an official name, nor any specific region to call its own.

A pan-indian fusion, if you will, which gets its mild heat from a blend of rich and raisin-like, mexican chillies, in order to best complement the banana without adding any extra sweetness. Because, if I’m going off-script already, I might as well go the whole hog.

There’s nothing traditional about today’s recipe but I’m eager to share it, all the same. It’s too good not to.

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Back with Beef

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Hello again everyone, I hope that you’re enjoying your extra day this leap year.

Me? I’m making good use of it with a later than usual recipe post, on the 29th of february. Because it just so happens that, this year, it’s a saturday.

And what kind of recipe do I intend to show you this month? Why, something simple, mexican and a staple to my home cooking, in order to contrast with last month’s second-hand japanese recipe.

Today, I’m making enchiladas again but, unlike the previous batch, I’m not making them bean-based, for my family, or using someone else’s salsa. This recipe is all mine!

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Gravy Train

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Okay, folks, I really wanted to talk about today’s trio before christmas, when they were at their most relevant, but december is a hectic month and most of my time was taken up by my christmas recap. As well as catching up on everything else, afterwards. I didn’t have time to talk about today’s three then, no matter how much I wanted to, so here’s to making up for lost time:

GravyBottles

What we have here are El Niño Hot Sauce, Karyo’s Satan’s Gravy and Fair Dinkum Fare’s Crumbs. And, while Fair Dinkum and Karyo’s products have booze and a band connection going for them, respectively, the main selling point of all three is still their flavour. A rich, dark taste that they all achieve in different ways.

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Chestnut Roast

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Happy sunday, folks! I hope you’re having a good weekend and recovering nicely from your festive feast but, if you are still in search of more season’s eatings, I do have one last late christmas recipe for you. A variation on a vegan nut roast – Made to share with my vegetarian family – that makes use of both pasilla peppers and winter chestnuts.

RoastDone

And, meat free as it may be, those chestnuts certainly aren’t umami free. They come through with a slight meaty richness that few vegan foods possess and, if you aren’t sworn off the animal products, pair beautifully with a blend of gravy and Chilli Scrumptious’s Java Hot.

Because yes, delicious and moist as this one might be, on the inside, all nut roasts benefit from a little extra sauce on top.

Here’s how I made it.

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Bonfire Brew

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Hey there heat seekers. Today, we’re celebrating bonfire night, and the start of november in general, with a selection of roasted coffee bean products.

One from the ever-famous Queen Majesty, of former Hot Ones fame. One sent by my buddy Jason, of Burning Desire Foods – A company that I’ve featured plenty of times. And the last, a name that’s completely new to me: Chilli Scrumptious.

CoffeeThree

All three are heavily themed around their use of coffee and spice but Burning Desire’s is a little bit different. In part, because it’s a rub but also because it was free to me. A review sample, not a purchase.

I feel a little bad about including it in a comparison post, alongside sauces that I’ve paid for, but it was that or make my thursday reviews a regular feature. Which I’m quite simply not prepared to do.

Last week’s was a one-off holiday special.

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Creamy and Green

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Happy tuesday, everyone! I don’t know if any of you follow my youtube channel but, today, we’re doing a little bit of a follow up to my 📽️ Exhorresco video 📽️.

That sauce was one of the hottest and most painful natural products that I’ve had but it wasn’t a bad taste at all, so I thought I’d try something else from its makers, Burns & McCoy. Something on completely the opposite end of the heat spectrum.

BurnsPoblano

It comes packaged in far paler tones and what colour it does have is almost entirely green. You can immediately see that it’s not being sold on its heat and for good reason. It’s probably the mildest

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Heat

product that I’ve had, just barely tickling the back of my throat when I eat a full spoonful.

So today, we’re going to be focussing far more on the flavour of this Avocado Fire Roasted Poblano vinaigrette, to find out if the company can still hold their own when they’re not melting my face off.

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Tropical Green

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Hello again everyone, I hope you’ve had a great week. Mine was comparatively quiet but it’s been a good one, if a tad too heavy on the salsa near the end.

Why? Because I recently stumbled upon a discussion of certain a mexican restaurant in the states and what exactly went into their tomatillo salsa. I had no vested interest in the outcome, having never visited Abuelo’s and living roughly 6 timezones away from it, but I was curious about some of the recipes that came up.

Green chilli, herbs and pineapple have always piqued my interest as a combination and adding tomatillos only makes it more enticingly out there. But what if that were kiwi?

Well, I set to work testing out a few variations and kind of overdid things but here’s what I found out:

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