Smokey

Ooft! That’s Hot!

Spicefreak1 Comment

So, folks, I talked a bit about Carrington’s Flaming Chup in last week’s harissa review and I thought that that would be a great excuse to follow up with another of their products, today. A post on their Chillichup, which I’ve had in reserve for a while.

Then Encona came along, however, with an even more ketchup-y rework of their old “Carolina Reaper Sauce”. And I just couldn’t do it.

Two ketchups in a row was too much. So, instead, here are couple of other sauces that I’ve had on the back burner for a bit. The original and chipotle versions of Ooft!, from Island Girl Ltd:

Another small company, run by a couple in scotland, using an old, trinidadian family recipe. Though not, perhaps, the mustard-based one you might expect.

No, today’s sauce gets its extra zing from a large, white radish, known as either daikon or mooli, depending on your region. And that, my friends, is utterly unique.

I’ve never seen that ingredient in any other chilli product and I’m very curious to see what it does for Ooft!

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Hippy Heat

Spicefreak1 Comment

Hola, mi amigos! It’s the fifteenth today and, apparently, that means mexican independence day.

So, while I don’t have anything truly mexican to offer you, I am going to be showing off a mexican-styled sauce, in keeping with the occasion. And that product is Angry Goat Pepper Co.’s Hippy Dippy Green:

One which you may well know as the second wing on Hot Ones’ eighth season but which interested me for entirely different reasons.

This is a verde sauce. Not just a green sauce – Despite that being the literal translation – but a tomatillo salsa in a bottle.

An american take on a classic mexican dip, with a few less than classic additions to spice things up a bit.

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Cornish Chipōtle

Spicefreak5 Comments

Hello again fiery food fans, do you remember the Cornish Chilli Company?

I know I do, because they produce a rather unusual favourite of mine. A super tart, grapefruit and vodka sauce that still stands as one of my top condiments for pizza and pub grub.

Today, though, we’re not here to talk about that product. We’re here to talk about another one:

cornchip

Their smoky Chipotle Chilli Sauce. One which suggests a bright taste with its label’s colour scheme, yet full on mexican flavour with its aztec imagery and its own dark colour.

There’s a great contrast between its warm yellow label and the dark red of the sauce itself but the most interesting part about the packaging is still very much the ingredients list. Which I’ll show you if you click through to the rest of this post.

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Proper Choc-Potle

Spicefreak2 Comments

Hi guys, it’s october again, so we’re going to be looking at a box of sweets.

Or rather, chocolates. Specifically, James’.

James

James Chocolates’ Smokey Chipotle Chocolate Chillies. A rather less prankworthy item than what I showed you last year but hopefully one that you’ll enjoy all the same.

It is, after all, a rather tried and tested flavour combination, used in my early cupcakes, my take on Dorset Chilli Shop’s lava cake and my christmas truffles. I know it works but does it work for James?

Today, I intend to find out.

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Smoky Scorpion

Spicefreak3 Comments

Happy tuesday again fiery food fans, it’s time for another smoky chipotle sauce:

raven

This one, however – The Raven from Grim Reaper Foods – is likely to be a lot hotter than most and rather more savoury to boot.

Why? Because it’s not just smoked jalapeño. Its first chilli is actually the trinidad scorpion.

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Mexican Import

Spicefreak6 Comments

Greetings everyone and welcome back to another tuesday chilli review.

Now that we’re well into my third year, I’ve covered a lot of condiments and struck a healthy balance between local and imported foodstuffs but there’s one respect in which I’ve been a little remiss: The vast majority of my imports have come from a single company. From Hot Headz.

And sure, they are the UK’s largest chilli product importer but they aren’t the only one. So today, as a small start to setting things straight, I’m going to look at a couple of sauces from Mex Grocer instead.

mexsauce.jpg

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Cowley’s Callback

Spicefreak2 Comments

Hello again everyone and welcome back to the third week in what I’ve recently decided will be a no sauce month. You know, to keep me on my toes a bit with a rather different selection of products.

Last week, I was going to feature a Mahi marinade but had to switch it out last minute for some tasty cheese truckles. I do need to actually show off a free sample or two at some point this month, though, so here’s some more vegan jerky from Cowley’s Fine Foods.

jerkypacks

One sweet potato and one mushroom, a good indication of the range, now that they no longer seem to list their tofu jerky online.

At a glance, these products appear to only be slight variations on the sweet potato and mushroom ones that they sent me last time but I’m excited for them all the same.

The first of these, the sweet potato sort, didn’t impress me much in my last review but this particular product sounds a lot closer to the heatless “Texan Barbecue” variety I mentioned in my introduction to the company.

And, as for the “HOT Shrooms!”, well, if they’re anything like the “Shiiiitake! Thats Hot!” then I’m going to absolutely love them. Albeit at a rather leisurely pace.

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Pineapple Twins

Spicefreak7 Comments

Surprise! It’s not an East Coast Chilli Co item for today’s review.

I thought about posting one today but, after cracking open a bottle to try, I realised I wanted to draw comparison with another upcoming item. One that I’m not able to showcase until early next month.

In the mean time, we’re going to take a look at a couple of items that’ve been waiting for a good moment to be discussed.

The leeds-made Pineapple, Scotch Bonnet & Sesame Oil Sauce from The Crafty Bustard and Sierra Nevada’s Salsa Picante De Chipotle-Piña, imported from either spain or california.

Honestly, I’m not really sure. The company mention both places and my spanish isn’t good enough to tell where they’re actually based.

Both are pineapple based sauces, though, and both are sweet ones with a bit of a savoury twist. Yet they both achieve that in quite different ways and with very different end results.

After all, one’s a tropical sauce with sesame and the other’s a smoked jalapeño sauce that seems like it’s going to be using its fruit for sweetness and be something of a barbecue item.

We’ll find out if that really is the case in a moment.

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Smoky, Sweet and Smooth

Spicefreak1 Comment

Greetings everyone. This week, I think it’s time I took another look at the products I got from Grim Reaper Foods.

I’m not talking about the last piece of their thai gift box, though. That’s going to have to wait a little longer because today’s item is something I actually bought from them. Their Wraith:

2017-04-01 12.33.03

A black and bronze version of their Vengeance oil’s stunning bottle that contains what could be a very controversial sauce.

Why? Because, like their Vengeance, this sauce contains extract instead of actual chilli. Here it is on the ingredients list:

Oak Smoked Cold-Pressed Rapeseed Oil, Apple Balsamic Vinegar (Cyder Vinegar, Concentrated Apple Juice, Colour: caramel E150d), Honey, Golden Syrup, Tamari Soy Sauce (Water, Soya Beans, Sea Salt, Koji (aspergilus oryzae)), Onion Powder, Chilli Extract, Mustard Powder, Garlic Extract.

Right near the bottom, greater in quantity than only the sauce’s garlic extract and its emulsifier.

It’s so low down that its presence isn’t going to affect the taste of the sauce and it probably won’t hit above the Vengeance’s three out of ten heat, either.

I did find the lack of pepper flavour in that oil quite disappointing but, fortunately for me, this isn’t another infused oil. It’s a barbecue sauce, which means it should have plenty going on without it.

After all, barbecue sauces are made to be sweet, sticky, smoky and molasses-heavy, not to focus on their chilli content. For the most part, chipōtle is only ever added for its smokiness and mild heat.

So, sacrilegious as it may seem from a fiery food fanatic like myself, I didn’t care about the chilli content when I opened up this item. I went in with an open mind and high hopes.

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The Dragon’s Smoke

Spicefreak4 Comments

Happy tuesday again people, it’s time for another little shot of Dragon’s Blood. But, instead of showing you my free sample jar, here’s what you’d get if you actually purchased today’s product:

DB BBQ (1)-500x500

A black and golden brown, scale patterned bottle that both strongly resembles the others in its line and uses the two main colours associated with its sauce type.

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