Dalston Double

Hello again, everyone. Today, we’re looking at a sauce that’s been gaining a lot of traction, lately, but that I still hadn’t heard hide nor hair about until it arrived on my doorstep. A gift from my aunt, in london, to whom this week’s product is quite local.

This is Common Sanity’s Dalston Sunshine – The name of the sauce telling you exactly what borough its company are based in and their own hinting at an interest in mental health. With a portion of the company’s profits going to charity for that very reason.

Yet the common “Common Sanity” name, as a whole, is apparently a play on commensality, the act of communal eating. Not anything to do with the word “Common”. Which is just as well because, as much as it may look like a common caribbean mustard sauce, their Dalston Sunshine’s main ingredient is actually the fatalii chilli. An african relative of the habanero which, despite growing popularity in recent years, is still far from “common”.

And it’s not today’s only unexpected fusion flavour, either, since my little care package also contained a second item from the company:

Not a sauce, this time, but a chinese or filipino-style crispy oil. Filled with mexican chillies, seeds and nuts for a beautifully rich sounding, yet equally unorthodox blend that they call Fuego Greeze.

I’m very eager to try them both out.

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I Can’t Believe it’s Not (Mostly) Mustard!

Hello again, everyone, this week we’re trying something borderline luminous:

DalstonBajan

But that’s not colouring. No, Dalston Chillies are quite proud of their all natural approach.

What you’re actually seeing is the reason why I bought this sauce: It may claim to be bajan but, unlike other island sauces, this one isn’t mustard-based. It contains mustard, sure, but its main spice is fresh turmeric and that, dear readers, is unique.

For good reason, mind you, as the stuff stains like little else, during cooking.

In flavour terms, though, turmeric is golden, rooty, somewhat mellow and at the height of its popularity as a drink ingredient, recently. I have high hopes for today’s sauce.

Here’s the full list of what goes into it:

Vinegar, Onion, Fresh Turmeric, Scotch Bonnet Chillies, Mustard Powder, Unrefined Sugar, Garlic, Salt.

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